When fans arrive for a Kent State University basketball game, they see the players, the coaches and the action on the court. They may notice a big performance, a key play or a close finish. What they do not see is the work that has already happened to make the game possible.
Uniforms have been prepared. Practice and game-day details have been handled. Information about the team and its players has been collected and shared. The coaches have been able to concentrate on preparing the team instead of tracking down every detail that surrounds a college basketball program.
That work belongs to people like Joe Michalowicz, assistant equipment manager; Kellan Godfrey, assistant director of athletic communications; and Zac Titas, a practice player and manager for the women’s basketball team. Their roles are different, but all three contribute to an environment in which players can prepare and compete and coaches can focus on the game.
Michalowicz’s work is built around anticipating what the teams need. Players should be able to arrive for a game knowing their uniforms and equipment are ready. Coaches should not have to worry about whether the right gear is available or whether the locker room has been prepared.
“My job is to really help someone else,” Michalowicz said. “A lot of what I do is caring for other people, working in a servitude sort of mindset where what I’m doing is to help others.”
Michalowicz loves sports, but the ultimate goal is not personal recognition. It is making sure the players and coaches have what they need.
“They know they’re going to show up on a game day and their jersey is going to be hanging, the shorts are going to be hanging, the warmup is going to be there, and all they have to do is worry about playing the game,” he said.
That reliability matters on the road as well as at home. The equipment staff has to plan ahead and make sure details are covered wherever the team plays. A missing item or a last-minute problem can distract players and coaches from their responsibilities. Consistent preparation helps keep those distractions to a minimum.
Godfrey’s work is less physical but just as important to the program’s day-to-day operation. As assistant director of athletic communications, he helps manage the information and storytelling surrounding Kent State basketball. That includes documenting players’ performances, maintaining statistics and communicating with fans and media.
“People don’t really know all that goes into sports information at work,” Godfrey said. “But it is all of those unseen things that if we suddenly stop doing them, you would notice very quickly.”
The work supports more than game-day coverage. It helps establish a record of the players’ time at Kent State and makes their accomplishments visible to people who follow the program. In an era when social media and digital content also shape how prospective players and fans learn about a team, that storytelling can help people understand who the athletes are beyond the box score.
“I cover the career of these young men,” Godfrey said. “I want them to be able to look back on their digital footprints they had in their time here and know that their career was covered.”
For players, that record can become a lasting reminder of their college experience. For coaches, it helps communicate the story of the program to fans, alumni and recruits. The job requires accuracy, organization and an understanding that every game is part of a much larger story.
Titas helps the women’s basketball team from a different position: on the practice floor and in the day-to-day operation of the program. As a practice player, he helps create the competitive situations the team needs to prepare for games. As a manager, he also helps with the tasks that keep practices and game days moving.
His work allows coaches to devote more time to scouting, recruiting, planning and teaching rather than take care of every operational detail themselves.
“Our whole job is to make the lives of our players, lives of our coaches, easier, so they can focus more on the basketball side of everything,” Titas said.
That work can start hours before tipoff. Titas arrives early for games and helps the team get ready well before the players take the court. The hours and tasks may be largely invisible to fans, but they are part of the preparation that makes a game-day operation work.
Titas also sees the value of being part of a team even without occupying a traditional roster spot. His role gives him a chance to contribute to the program, develop relationships and help create a better experience for the players.
The coaching staff benefits from that contribution, too. The more routine tasks that people like Titas handle, the more time coaches have to prepare the team. It is another example of how the work behind the scenes directly supports what happens on the court.
Suzette McQueen, Kent State’s deputy athletics director, senior woman administrator and sport administrator for both basketball programs, sees the same principle at work across the department. In addition to her sport-administrator responsibilities, she oversees external operations, including communications, marketing, tickets, brand licensing and the department’s multimedia rights partnership.
Her perspective comes from seeing how many different jobs must come together for each game. The operation includes both visible work and the tasks that fans rarely think about.
“No one notices what you’re doing unless something goes wrong,” McQueen said, describing the nature of behind-the-scenes support.
She explained that the goal is to keep the work consistent so coaches and players can focus on their responsibilities. The court should be ready, the equipment should be in place and the people responsible for each task should understand their roles. When the system works, the game can proceed without the coaches having to manage every detail themselves.
That does not mean the work is unimportant. It means the staff has done its job well.
Head women's basketball coach Fran Recchia said the contribution of support staff extends beyond logistics. The relationships players build with the people around the program help create an environment where athletes feel cared for and can focus on developing.
“We literally can’t do what we do without our support staff,” Recchia said. “It’s impossible.”
Recchia said that the people around her program help players feel comfortable being themselves, and that trust matters in a demanding college environment. Their work also helps ensure that the many details surrounding practices, travel and games are handled, allowing coaches to focus on basketball.
Head men's basketball coach Rob Senderoff sees the same importance in the work that helps tell the team’s story. Athletic communications is one example of a responsibility that might seem separate from coaching but contributes to how a program connects with the public.
In discussing Godfrey’s role, Senderoff described how the information shared publicly about the team — from statistics to social media — helps people understand the players and the program. That visibility can matter to fans and alumni, and it can also help prospective players learn about the people they might join.
For Senderoff and Recchia, the value of this work is not that it replaces what coaches and players do. Rather, it gives them the support to do those jobs better. Coaches remain responsible for preparing and leading their teams, and players must perform when the game begins. The staff members around them help make that possible.
McQueen’s role is to support the coaches and help keep the larger operation aligned with their needs. But the success of that operation depends on the expertise and commitment of people such as Michalowicz, Godfrey and Titas, each of whom has a specific job to do.
