ABOUT US

OUR STORY

Student managers are the backbone of college basketball programs across the country, doing everything from laundry, to driving players to class, to working out players, to helping prepare scouting reports.

However, many do this for little to no pay.

In the early stages of the pandemic, when the world and opportunities were shutting down, Clemson Men’s Basketball Manager Jake Cerota and Kansas Men’s Basketball Manager Ashton Pilz saw a chance to make a positive impact amongst their peers. They collaborated to connect current and former student managers with a vision to give hardworking student managers free professional development and networking opportunities.

In true 2020 fashion, this started with Zoom meetings every Wednesday night. Sessions began with a presentation from a former student basketball manager that was designed to teach current managers more about the game of basketball and the all-encompassing business. Following the presentation, attendees joined breakout rooms to connect 1-on-1 with other attendees. The backgrounds of our guests ranged from coaches, to scouts, to athletic administration, to media personnel. Grow the Game’s webinar series became a fast success, impacting hundreds of student managers and receiving countless positive reviews for the quality of guests, such as notable ESPN personality, Jay Bilas. See the full list of guests here.

In October 2020, Grow the Game launched The Manager Connection to replace the summer Zoom webinars. The Manager Connection paired a current student manager with a former manager who now works in basketball, putting the ball in the student manager’s court to create their own network and build genuine relationships. Today, the Manager Connection has over 300 (and growing) mentees and mentors hailing from the NBA, all three NCAA divisions, and more.

In August 2021, Grow the Game hosted its first annual Coaches Clinic. Over three days, 16 guest speakers, including five NCAA Division 1 Head Coaches, met with over 100 attendees. The complete list of presenters is here. 

In 2022, Grow the Game officially partnered with the NABC and produced the highlight event of the year: An in-person panel and networking event at the NCAA Final Four headlined by 2022 ACC Coach of the Year Steve Forbes. In the summer of 2022, Grow the Game launched the Professional Development Cohorts. Over an intensive, multi-week program, current professionals led groups of student managers in exercises mimicking real-world scenarios, ranging from a Director of Basketball Operations Bootcamp to drafting NBA scouting reports. Later in 2022, Grow the Game was established as an official 501(c)(3) organization.

Since becoming a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, Grow the Game has continued to impact the lives of student managers and graduate assistants. Through our generous donors, Grow the Game was able to pay for the lodging of 16 student managers at the 2023 Men’s Final Four in Houston.

Grow the Game hosted over 550 attendees at our Men’s and Women’s convention events at the Final Four. Auburn’s Bruce Pearl spoke to a packed house in Houston, while Ole Miss’ Yolett McPhee-McCuin was Grow the Game’s inaugural speaker at our first Women’s event in Dallas.

2023 was the rise of the Graduate Assistant (GA) Pathway program where members were aided with resume help and mock interviews ultimately culminating in a first-of-its-kind virtual job fair. The program was a resounding success seeing over 50 participants accepting a GA or entry-level role.

What started as an idea over text message between two student basketball managers has grown into an established non-profit making a positive impact on hundreds of student managers’ lives. As we continue our mission into 2024, we invite you to Grow the Game with us.