The position of a high school sports manager, someone who stands off to the side while the team performs and helps out with basics, is often overlooked. But ask most student athletes, and they’ll tell you that the manager is one of the most important members of the team. Their participation and contributions are vital to a team’s success and morale, but regardless of if you understand their role, most people don’t truly understand the in’s and out’s of being a team manager. However no one can describe the role better than the girls soccer team manager, Lillian Gallant.
Gallant’s first experience with the Jackson-Reed girls soccer team was playing on the JV soccer team as a freshman and sophomore. “I used to be on the JV soccer team, and I decided I didn’t want to play, so I thought it would be fun to be involved in the team this way.” With her established connection to the girls soccer team and some of its members, Gallant was the perfect fit to take the managerial position.
Though Gallant’s decision to begin managing was influenced by her prior connections and friendships with current players, the devotion that she and any other manager has to show to their team goes much deeper than that. As a manager, Gallanthas to be at every game, home and away, keep track of equipment and organize the team, help keep track of player stats with the coach, and even control the scoreboard at home games. Those may all seem like simple tasks, but when each of those skills need to be learned in a short period of time, and with little room for error, then it becomes a lot more difficult.
Outside of managing, Gallant is still very active within the community, participating in multiple clubs, running the “World Eaters Club” with her friends, a club that meets weekly to eat and celebrate international cuisine.
Gallant understands her importance to the team, but doesn’t overstate it. “I help when I can and I enjoy being around the team, but the captains for the team are great leaders and they do a lot of hard work to make sure this team is awesome.”
What separates Gallant from many other managers is that she didn’t wait until her senior year to participate. Gallant is one of the few junior managers at Jackson-Reed which gives her the opportunity to continue the job next year, which she is enthusiastic about doing.
