As the men’s basketball team wraps up its season and the baseball team gets a running start, the coaches and players aren’t the only ones behind the success. Team managers like men’s basketball’s Josh Rodenbiker and baseball’s Kate Osterman are the behind-the-scenes forces who keep the teams organized and on track.
Both do basic things like practice prep and game day organization, but Rodenbiker also helps coach and Osterman is involved in recruiting.
“I like to call it sort of a hybrid student manager. So I do the basic things that you would expect a student manager to do,” Rodenbiker said. “And then also the coaching staff has been great at allowing me to do other things such as sit in on coaching meetings … doing analytical work for coach Tauer, helping coach during games – all those kinds of things that really help me develop and get ready to get into the coaching profession.”
Men’s basketball coach John Tauer said Rodenbiker is “respected and loved” by the players.
“He’s thrived and I think exceeded our expectations. I mean, he’s really going above and beyond,” Tauer said. “He does what’s asked, and he’s also very proactive, always trying to take initiative with things that maybe we haven’t even thought of yet.”
Osterman said the position is time-consuming because she basically has the same schedule as a student-athlete, she just isn’t on the field.
“There are long days at the ballpark. We play doubleheaders, so it gets to be long days when it’s 40 degrees out in a Minnesota spring, but I get paid to watch baseball, so I guess it’s the best time-consuming job you can have,” Osterman said.
But Osterman doesn’t think getting paid to watch baseball is the best part of the job.
“It’s the laughs. Just all the moments that I’ve collected from being a manager over four years is the best part of the job,” she said.
Rodenbiker agreed that the long days pay off in the end.
“This has kind of opened my eyes to what coaching is actually like, not just the game nights but all the prep that goes into those and all the prep that goes into practice and how you’re constantly evaluating and just trying to grow as a person and help your team grow,” Rodenbiker said.
Rodenbiker’s future coaching career looks bright, according to Tauer.
“I think Josh knows that the coaching profession is one that some of it’s networking, a lot of it’s hard work, some of it’s being in the right place at the right time. So right now he’s doing all of those things,” Tauer said. “So we’re excited to watch his career over the next hopefully several decades as a coach.”
Baihly Warfield can be reached at warf3860@stthomas.edu.