Lee Pellegrini摄影
六个穿着健身装备的年轻人——膝盖上的护膝, 高帮鞋, baggy shorts—climb the stairs out of Conte Forum’s Power Gym one November afternoon and make their way down narrow interior hallways until they reach the basketball court in Conte Forum. “我很紧张!传媒专业21岁的杰克·贝克(Jack 贝克)说. He’s half-joking, because they are here only to practice. 然而游戏氛围是不可否认的, with championship banners hanging from the rafters and the sharp blast of the shot-clock buzzer periodically splitting the air.
的男人, 所有本科生, are here to block shots and sink threes against the varsity women’s basketball team. 他们看了老鹰队下一个对手的录像, 圣十字, and each has been coached to emulate a particular Crusader. 现在, 女队总教练, 乔安娜Bernabei-McNamee, will conduct an intensive three hours of drills and scrimmaging. "麦克教练"是在山庄的第一年, having guided the University of Albany women to a record of 45–20 over two years. 她和三个助理教练(AJ Cohen), 尤兰达格里菲斯, 和乔治·波尔查)带领球员, 谁穿过网眼球衣, into their respective corners of the court; the men wear white, 女人穿栗色和金色的衣服.
泰勒·索尔(前景), (左)在对阵瓦伊迪·艾哈迈德(Wajdi ahmed, 21)的比赛中试图得到一个射门机会, watched by (from left) assistant coaches Andrew Cohen and George Porcha, 乔治亚·皮诺20年(部分模糊), 玛内尔·加罗22岁, 以及20岁的泰勒·奥特普.
“来了25个人。,科恩说。, taking hold of 贝克 by his jersey and pulling him into place like a live chess piece to demonstrate a 圣十字 offensive play in slow motion. 麦克教练的哨声一响, the court erupts in shouts and sneaker squeaks as the men try to put over the play for real.
他们成功了, passing the ball again and again to a shooting guard 谁 sinks three-pointer after three-pointer, 女人的呻吟声. (When the guard bobbles the ball and boots it out of bounds, the women cheer.)不时地, Coach Mac whistles a stoppage and breaks down what went wrong in the women’s play, 在必要时给予表扬, 而男人们站在原地等待. 然后再次开始演习. 主要是, 比赛在半场进行, with the women executing plays for a score or working through their defensive plans. In a game known for trash talk, the exchanges at this practice are nearly all business.
Cohen, 谁 followed Coach Mac from Albany, has the assignment of coaching the men. “干得好，”他在停顿中对其中一人说. “你打得就像22岁，兄弟.” Cohen was a practice player himself as an undergraduate, running the court with the women’s team at the University of Louisville. Other NCAA assistant coaches have gotten their start similarly. 事实上, male practice teams have been common across Division I women’s basketball for a couple of decades. Quarterback Matt Hasselbeck ’97 practiced with the women hoopsters of 电子游戏软件 before he went to the National Football League.
The practice squad is recruited from the club and intramural basketball programs on campus—”which are highly competitive at 电子游戏软件,” 说s assistant athletic director Stephanie Tunnera in an email. There are generally 15 men on the roster, with a core of five or six players 谁 show up regularly. 他们都是志愿者. 大多数人在高中时都很有竞争力. 贝克, 控球后卫, was captain of the varsity boys’ team at Saratoga Springs High School in New York. Michael Fredericks ’22 is the son of Kathleen Sweet ’87, 谁, 作为波士顿大学队的中锋, won the Women’s Big East Scholar Athlete award her senior year (and now practices law). Some of the men could have played for a Division II or III men’s basketball program, Cohen说, but they chose 电子游戏软件 for its academics and reputation. “我想过走D-III路线,21岁的Garrett Ganley说, 在利斯堡当校队队长的人, 维吉尼亚州. “But I really wanted to go to a bigger school, a well-known school.”
正如伯纳贝-麦克纳米教练所看到的, Crowley passes over freshman Kate Klimkiewicz (#24) to Mak at left. 甘利站在右边.
The women improve their game by going up against the “speed and quickness” of the men, 麦克教练说. 而男人们“可以打高水平的篮球,科恩说。, and enjoy some measure of the discipline and the coaching that entails.
“It’s cool being within a big-time Division I program,” 说s 贝克. He and Ganley are sitting at a table upstairs in Corcoran Commons a month into the season. 贝克引用了练习中的能量水平并说, “我仍然很有竞争力, 我仍然希望有这样的竞争.”
The women “expect us to go as hard as we can and try to beat them,” responds Ganley, 谁 is 6’4″. “我已经习惯了做一个大块头,他说, 但他经常被6英尺3英寸″艾玛盖伊撞到，肌肉发达, 老鹰队的首发前锋. “她总是围着我，然后投篮.”
贝克补充道:“我们总是互相碰撞。.
Guy ’20 laughs over the phone when she’s told of this exchange. “Garrett and I go at it a lot in practice,” she concedes. “有练习队员真好. They bring a 谁le new level of intensity than when we’re just playing against each other. 他们更大更强壮, so it’s just really useful to play against them in preparation for upcoming games.”
Coach Mac has been known to tell a practice player: When a varsity member is barreling by you, 让她走吧. 不要冒着伤害她的危险踩着障碍物. 有时，男人们确实需要放慢步伐. At practice Cohen shouts a reminder to one player, “Speedy, slow yourself down!”
“如果你比看守你的女人跑得快, and you can go by her every time—that’s not making her better,贝克说. “Making them better is helping them work on what they need to get better at.”
According to Cohen that awareness—”the understanding that there are no practice-player All-Americans”—is key. “无私是很重要的，我们的团队有这一点.”
训练队不随队旅行, 但是在第二学期的第一场主场比赛, 1月17日, 一个星期四, 贝克和甘利在看台上. 女子队将迎战佛罗里达州立大学(FSU), 一个永远麻烦的对手, 贝克指出了几个塞米诺尔人. In practice, he 说s, “I was number 12, Garrett was number 32.” (These are a 5’9″ guard and a 6’3″ forward, respectively.)这些人执行了FSU的“循环”进攻, and throughout tonight’s first quarter the preparation seems to be working; the Eagles’ defense keeps FSU to within a few points. 最终, 虽然, FSU开始抽离, eliciting groans from the two men and handing 电子游戏软件 its fifth loss of the season amid 13 wins. 在上大学之前，贝克没有关注过女子篮球. But being part of the women’s hoops program has “added another sense of community here,他之前对我说过. “We know all the players, we cheer for them and follow their season.”
“是的，”甘利补充道. “There have been times on the weekends when our friends are watching, 说, 电视上播放的男子杜克大学对肯塔基大学的比赛, and we’re over in the corner watching the BC women’s game on our laptop. 超级有趣.”
帕特里克·L. 1999年的肯尼迪是波士顿的一名作家.