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.
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.
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.
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.
