For the love of the game
Basketball graduate assistants go mostly unnoticed but make a big impact
Thankless jobs are never easy to do.
Washing uniforms, carrying bags, breaking down film — doing all the tasks players and coaches would rather not do is not a glamorous life. But it involves basketball, and that is enough for Liberty men’s basketball graduate assistants Griffin Williams, Reggie Chambers and women’s team graduate assistant Joyous Tharrington.
TEACHER — Women’s basketball graduate assistant Joyous Tharrington has made an impact this year by leading the team in Bible studies and assisting in games and practices. Photo credit: Courtney Russo
“I love being around the game, so it doesn’t really bother me to be (at the gym) all day,” Chambers said. “I’m around the game of basketball, I can’t have too much to complain about.”
Most college basketball fans will always know their favorite team’s players and head coach, and maybe even their assistant coaches. But graduate assistants go by under the radar. More like off the radar, really.
So what exactly does a graduate assistant do? At a smaller basketball school like Liberty, they are a jack-of-all-trades, members of the coaching staff who sometimes have to do jobs that would be designated for managers at a bigger school.
Williams earned his undergraduate degree from the University of Cincinnati while working on the basketball staff as a student manager. At Cincinnati, a big-time basketball school, Williams said graduate assistants did not have as wide of an array of responsibilities as at Liberty. No washing jerseys after practice like Williams, Chambers and Tharrington have to do.
“Stuff like carrying bags or handing out jerseys on road trips falls on (graduate assistants’) shoulders at a place like Liberty,” Williams said. “But it’s no big deal. It’s not brain surgery.”
Liberty’s graduate assistants are still key cogs within the coaching staff, spending plenty of time in the film room and working with players on their games. Since the men’s team has Williams and Chambers, they split up the tasks — Williams spends more time working on film and Chambers spends more time on the court.
Chambers played four years of college basketball — two at Florida Gulf Coast University and two at West Virginia Wesleyan College — while Griffin’s athletic career ended at Loveland High School in Loveland, Ohio, where he starred for his basketball and baseball teams. Chambers, who played in college as recently as 2012, noted how tough it can be to watch from the sidelines after being a part of the action for so long.
“The toughest part (of being a graduate assistant) is not actually being on the court,” Chambers said. “I was a point guard, so I’m so used to talking and getting guys in the right position and motivating them.”
Additionally, graduate assistants have one responsibility outside of basketball that other members of the coaching staff do not have — school.
“(There) can be long days when you have assignments due,” Tharrington said. “I bring my own food. I bring breakfast, I bring lunch, so I don’t really leave.”
Each graduate assistant is taking classes that count toward a master’s degree, even while planning to go into coaching. Tharrington and Chambers hope to continue coaching on the college level, but Williams, who is studying to get his master’s in secondary education, wants to coach and teach high schoolers.
The impact of a graduate assistant on players can go far beyond rebounding for them during a spontaneous late-night shooting session (graduate assistants are always on-call if a player wants to work out or get shots up). Tharrington, who helped initiate an Athletes in Action chapter at George Mason during her playing days, acts as a spiritual mentor for the Lady Flames.
“One neat thing that Coach (Carey) Green allows me to do here is mentor and disciple the girls,” Tharrington said. “That’s my favorite part of the job that people don’t see, just being able to do Bible studies with them and impact their lives.”
Senior guard Karly Buer, who transferred to Liberty from Missouri State, has seen how big of a impact the spiritual togetherness has made on the team.
“With me being a transfer student, I know what it’s like being at a secular school,” Buer said. “I do feel like Liberty’s basketball team is more of a unit and tight on certain levels (because of the spiritual bond).”
Graduate assistants will never get credit from the media for helping a team succeed. They will probably never be recognized while roaming around campus. But they will still always be in the gym, doing whatever is needed for the team to get better.
“The biggest thing is just being a helpful hand,” Chambers said. “Just being around and doing whatever is asked of you. That’s the biggest part of my job — being as helpful as I can.”
Tichenor is the sports editor.