COLUMBIA – Do you think it looks easy? Try you.
“I think it was Laeticia Amihere, she got me really bad,” said veteran Andrew Bryson, touching the scar on his wrist. “Her nails cut me really well. But without stitches: it was not wide enough. “
Tommy Webb attended his first training session and was instructed to protect A’ja Wilson, already on his way to exalted status as one of the best at playing women’s basketball. The future National Player of the Year 6-5 and WNBA MVP spotted him behind her.
“She said, ‘Do you want this job, little boy?'”, Recalled Webb. “Of course she got the ball, I went to fly and she made a tray.”
There are 10 of them, all students and all having to live according to the NCAA rules that govern student athletes, except that they do not receive any of the benefits. There are no scholarships, tuition and travel to exotic locations like Storrs, Starkville or San Antonio; just a few T-shirts, gym shorts and maybe a pair of sneakers.
This is the training team for the South Carolina women’s basketball team, seeded number 1 in the NCAA Tournament and champion of the SEC Tournament for the sixth time in seven years. The 10 men, all students at USC who volunteered for this task, did not get their hands on that trophy, although trainer Dawn Staley cut wires from the championship net and collected some of the loose confetti that fell to the ground during the delivery of the trophy. could give them something.
“If we get this far, I think we can get a national championship ring,” said Wyatt Ross, melancholy. “Sometimes, we get an extra championship hat.”
Bryson, Webb and Ross are veterans and have been helping since the first year. It’s quite a simple task: show up, play hard, but not dirty, and give the team a physical presence to compete against.
Of course, most outsiders scoff and think, “How difficult can it be? They are playing against girls. ”These cavemen are welcome to examine the scars, cuts, scrapes and bruises that dot the 10 bodies like a leopard’s spots.
“(Mikiah Herbert Harrigan) … she would have such an attitude,” said Bryson, referring to last year’s striker nicknamed “Mad Kiki”, who displayed his All-SEC temperament only in the days ending in “Y “. “You did something that is not right, she would hold a grudge for the rest of the practice.”
“I already had a lot of elbows in my nose,” said Webb. “There is always a random scratch on a different part of my body or a huge bruise. I always have one on my arm, and my roommates are always like, ‘Dude, what happened to you?’ “
Ross and Webb are majoring in sports and entertainment management and, through a group email, discovered the training team. USC’s Director of Player Development, Freddy Ready, announced that the women’s team was looking for potential players with high basketball IQ, competitive spirit and a favorable agenda.
Each potential player had to go through an NCAA student-athlete selection process and make sure it would work with their class schedules (the team usually has 10 to 12 men to accommodate academics). Some played basketball in high school, others just played pickup with friends.
“In the first year, I played basketball in clubs. One of the other guys said, ‘You are very good, you should talk to Freddy and be part of the practice team,’ ”said Bryson, a Greenville Exercise Science student with a business background. “I was recruited by some schools, I received some offers, but I never reached that level. I thought my basketball IQ was high, so I started practicing and realized that I didn’t know much about anything. “
Ross, from the Outer Banks of North Carolina, and Webb, from Radnor, Pennsylvania, on the outskirts of Staley’s native Philadelphia, caught up with Bryson.
Training team member Tommy Webb was honored at Gamecocks Senior Night by coach Dawn Staley, USC President Bob Caslen (left) and athletics director Ray Tanner (right). Envoy / USC Athletics
“We watched the movie with the team before training and, in the middle of the season, we are really a team of scouts,” said Ross. “’She does this, she does that’, they give us a basis for what they want for us. They talk more about what this team will do, rather than what our team is doing. “
Bryson was asked to emulate Rhyne Howard of Kentucky, twice the SEC’s best player of the year, along with Arkansas scoring star Chelsea Dungee. And it is not just about trying to present a difficult confrontation in practice, it is also about following all the rules of the team outside the court.
“’We are following one of the guys on the practice on social media and he is partying. So we don’t want him to come and practice, ‘”said Staley, relaying one of his team’s recent phone calls to her. “So we told him to sit down that week. He apologized so much, said he was wearing a mask, but that’s where our players are. He’s been with us all season, but he made the mistake of being around a lot of people on social media, so we got him out of there. “
It can come as a shock to Gamecocks, too, when they first arrive, seeing that they will be found with men every day of practice for their careers. “A little while in high school, I practiced with boys, but they were boys who didn’t know anything about basketball. Nothing at all, ”said Brea Beal last year. “Some of them were football players. It was all bad. This was more organized. They are much bigger, faster, it prepares us much better and I am grateful for them to come in every training session ”.
Ross draws the designation of American candidate Aliyah Boston and the Amihere support center almost every day. Bryson usually receives Zia Cooke, the SEC’s first national team, or the owner (and twice a member of the SEC tournament team) Destanni Henderson.
It’s been a weird season due to COVID, so the training squad actually held its last session on March 15, just before the women’s team was quarantined, tested and then flew to San Antonio for the tournament. Because of this year’s restrictions, once the Gamecocks arrive in Texas, they have to stay there, so they can’t go home between rounds to get some workouts at home.
Bryson, Webb and Ross were honored at Senior Night with signed basketballs, but are like most other USC fans for the NCAA Tournament. They will be watching on TV as the Gamecocks try to win six consecutive games and return home with a twin to the national championship trophy residing in a glass box at the Colonial Life Arena.
Normally, they would see some NCAA Tournament games at the CLA. Ross and Webb were lucky enough to get nominations as ball / mop personnel for the SEC tournament, so they were able to watch the USC win there.
But for the big dance, their partners are making Texas two-step as they transform into wallflowers. They will be watching, pointing out how the Gamecocks’ moves were worked against them every day, and if the USC wins, they will know they were part of it.
“It was very sad to know that it was my last training session, but it was a great four years,” said Webb. “I am very proud to be able to do this and help make the team better. I know that our hard work pays off when they are winning games. “