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Photos from Terps softball

Edited via PicMonkey

The Terps warm up prior to the games

Delaware State players huddle prior to the games

Kaitlyn Schmeiser throws against Delaware State 

Kaitlyn Schmeiser registers a strike against Delaware State 

Juli Strange is safe in a play at the plate

Juli Strange watches the rest of the play unfold

Night descended on Taylor Stadium in game two

Mike Zawitoski profile

Chances are if you’ve watched Maryland basketball in the last three seasons, you’ve seen him.  He’s a big guy who can be seen down low, collecting rebounds, or can be seen near the bench.  He’s at every practice, every home game, and is the first one in the gym and the last one to leave.

And no, the answer is not James Padgett.   

Meet Michael Zawitoski (pronounced Zow-aht-ow-ski), one of the 10 student-managers of the University of Maryland men’s basketball team. 

Zawitoski was born on Oct. 18, 1991 and hails from Severn, Maryland.  Zawitoski got his managing career started at the now defunct Cardinal Gibbons School.

Zawitoski started managing part-time for Maryland during the 2010-2011 season, his sophomore year and the 22^nd and final season for legendary coach Gary Williams.

“I got the job through my brother who was a manager on the team,” said Zawitoski, “But I wasn’t just given the job, I had to prove myself.” 

Aside from working a number of basketball camps, Mike completed the many tasks assigned to the student managers. 

“Managers are really unbelievably important,” said director of basketball operations Dustin Clark, who oversees the student-managers.  Clark came to Maryland prior to the 2011-2012 season, Zawitoski’s first as a full-time manager, as part of Mark Turgeon’s staff, and met Zawitoski at a meeting one of his first days on campus. 

“There are so many things that need to be done on a daily basis that the coaching staff and the support staff don’t have time for,” Clark said.

Perhaps the biggest of these responsibilities that Zawitoski and the other managers see to is practice.  The student-managers are in charge of setting up and then cleaning up the sometimes five or six practices that are held throughout the week.

“I get there an hour beforehand and leave about a half hour after,” said Zawitoski, “It’s a big time commitment.” 

Once there, Zawitoski and the fellow managers help with a myriad of things, be it running the clock, keeping stats, mopping up sweat from the floor, helping with video or helping get rebounds.  As Clark said, “They have a towel over their shoulder and a ball in their hand at all times.”

Zawitoski said that how these tasks get distributed depends on hierarchy.  “Some of the younger guys mop floors,” Zawitoski said, “I usually make sure that bottles and cups are taken care of and help with rebounds during practice.” 

In addition to practices there are the games.  Responsibilities remain about the same as the practices with one exception; three managers travel to every game played away from the Comcast Center. 

Zawitoski traveled to work three such games this season but found himself a fan at away games even more.  “I get tickets to go watch games, either through the basketball team or the players if you ask them.”  These good connections allowed Zawitoski access to the ACC tournament, where he got to see his Terrapins take down the Duke Blue Devils for the second time of the season.

Between practices and games, student managers are faced with essentially the same schedule that the players have.  For Zawitoski, that means careful planning.  “You have to arrange your schedule so that you don’t miss anything.”

Luckily for Zawitoski, a history major, being a senior has its perks.  “I only have class two days a week,” Zawitoski joked.

Jokes aside, Zawitoski said that, “You just have to find a way to balance it. It (the time commitment) doesn’t really affect my grades, I know when stuff is due.”

This balancing act extremely impresses Zack Bolno, the senior associate athletic director in charge of strategic communications and media relations. 

“Mike and our other student managers are doing what our student-athletes are doing,” Bolno said. 

“It’s impressive that they are able to balance academics while working and contributing to the success of the Maryland men’s basketball team,” Bolno added. 

Zawitoski’s dedication to his job has not gone lost on his superiors.  “Mike has done an excellent job,” Bolno said, “He and the other managers have been real vital to the success of the men’s basketball team.”

By all measures, this was the best season that Zawitoski helped manage for.  The Terrapins posted a 25-13 record, making it to the NIT semifinals after not appearing in any postseason play for two straight seasons.  The season and its eight-win improvement provided Zawitoski with some of his favorite memories as a manager.

“Beating Duke twice was awesome, as was the end of the N.C.State game,” Zawitoski said. 

The N.C. State game Zawitoski is referring to was the Jan. 16 game where Alex Len tipped home an errant Pe’Shon Howard shot to give Maryland a 51-50 win which was the biggest win of the Turgeon era at the time. 

Zawitoski doesn’t like to refer to Howard’s shot as a miss.  He prefers to call the play, “The Pe’Shon pass.”

This positive outlook has made Zawitoski one of the more popular and well-known managers on the team.  “Mike’s been great.  Everybody likes him.  The players like him and the other managers like him.  He’s good to be around and he works hard,” said Clark.

About mid-way through the 2012-2013 season, something bizarre began happening in the stands.  As was the case throughout Zawitoski’s managing time, the fans received giant head cutouts of the players or other similar cutouts to hold up and serve as a distraction to the opposing team’s free throw shooters.  What made this past season unique however, was that Zawitoski’s head was one of the one’s given out.

“Some of the other managers thought it would be funny and thought that it would make me mad,” Zawitoski said.      

“I have a sense of humor sometimes.  I enjoyed it too much for them to get the satisfaction,” Zawitoski added. 

The giant head cutout eventually was put onto paper, and hundreds of copies were in the arena for the Duke game.  “One girl said that she used hers as a bookmark,” Zawitoski said. 

“I was actually noticed down in North Carolina during the ACC tournament. It’s kind of funny, mine (cutout) is actually like twice the size of the players’ ones” Zawitoski continued. 

Zawitoski isn’t sure what his next move will be when it comes to basketball management, but Bolno believes that Zawitoski and the other managers will be prepared for the next level based on their student-managing opportunity.

“It’s a great experience for them.  It’s a real good opportunity to see what goes into coaching and management,” Bolno said.

Zawitoski said that he might pursue some graduate assistant stuff, but in the more immediate future, he will help out with things such as Big Shots basketball tournaments.  Big Shots gives players an opportunity to showcase their skills in tournaments and events. 

Zawitoski said that he once took money from John Wall at a Big Shots’ event.  “I didn’t know what he looked like at the time, he handed me a 20 (dollar bill) and I let him in.”

Zawitoski’s fellow managers have taken to calling him, “The Enforcer” because no one gets by him.  “I’m strict on entry,” Zawitoski said.  “I follow the rules wherever I am.  I’m not going to risk my job to let someone else off,” he added. 

This attention to detail and structure has made Zawitoski a key cog for the Maryland basketball team.  Without him, it’s not a stretch to say that the Terrapins wouldn’t be the same.  At the very least, the basketball team would be without one awesome cutout.

Movin on Over, to Pittsburgh

This was an old school Baltimore beatdown. No other way to put it. The Ravens simply beat an over-matched Chiefs team in all aspects of the game.

This has been what Ravens fans, and the media, have been expecting this team to do all year. Flacco played his best playoff game to date, setting multiple playoff quarterback records along the way. Todd Heap came up huge, as the Chiefs just seemed to ignore him, as well as the entire middle of the field, the whole game.

The play of the day, at least to me, came when Terrence Cody stripped Jamaal Charles of the ball. At the time, the score was very much in doubt. Charles had undress the Ravens defense earlier and the Chiefs were moving the ball. After that, there seemed to be a momentum shift, with the more experienced team winning out.

However, the Chiefs shouldn't get too upset over this defeat. They had no expectations after coming off a 4-12 campaign. This year they were surprise division champions, after going 10-6. The good news for this team, is that they are among the youngest in the NFL. With or without a lockout, they shouldn't be too effected, and could be a competitor for years to come.

I think Joe Flacco silenced some critics today. I've always been in his camp, but many criticize him unfairly. He's been nothing but a winner, being only one of three quarterbacks to get his team to three postseasons in a row their first three seasons. Today he added yet another road playoff victory to his resume. Not only that, this was by far his best game. I mentioned he set some records today, but that doesn't tell the whole story. Until the end, he was the offense. The line didn't really play well today, allowing multiple sacks and quarterback hits as well as struggling to get the running game off the ground (Or on the ground?) Flacco was clutch. He did fumble twice losing one, but he didn't throw an interception, and got better and better as the game went along.

When the offense got the ball back with the score 23-7 near the beginning of the fourth quarter, all I was hoping for was the offense to take a little bit of time off the clock. What I didn't expect was the Ravens to construct a near perfect drive. The Ravens ate ten minutes of clock, scoring a touchdown when Willis McGahee busted a 4th and 1 for a touchdown. It was just something nice to see after failing to close out games multiple times during the season.

That's all for me. I'll have more on the Steelers game later in the week. For now I'm just gonna sit back and enjoy another playoff victory, just being happy that my favorite football team isn't the Washington Redskins.