From Halas to Norville: How Loyola Students are Helping Grow the Loyola Women’s Basketball Program

For the Loyola women’s basketball team, an integral part to its success isn’t mentioned anywhere on the roster. Loyola’s Practice Players — a group of six male students at Loyola — are involved in virtually every aspect of the team, chosen with the goal of assisting the team through the entire athletic calendar.

Led by assistant coach Jordan McCann, who serves as the strength and conditioning liaison, these students are found working with the team during practices in the Alfie Norville Practice Facility, along with supporting the team during game day in Gentile Arena.

McCann said the practice players handle several responsibilities like participating in live scrimmages and drills, scouting opponents and replicating their statistical and physical tendencies during team practices.

 The practice players provide a beneficial element to the team and its success, according to Loyola Head Coach Alison Guth,

“We’ve got guys on our practice squad that are amazing,” Guth said. “They’re huge into what our success is, because they’re physical with us, and they demand more of us at practice.”

McCann, who once served as a practice player for the University of Illinois women’s basketball team, is responsible for the oversight of practice players and recruiting process of new members. The process begins at Halas Recreation Center, where, in addition to putting up numerous flyers, McCann talks to students playing pickup on the Halas courts. 

During the communication process, McCann said he looks for students who have previous basketball experience and embody Guth’s philosophy of being great humans. He noted the presence of experience allows them to emulate opponents more effectively, while also ensuring the team’s players don’t risk injuries due to unnecessarily aggressive play.

First-year Alex Bowen is one of the half dozen practice players and got the job almost immediately after he was spotted by McCann during a late-night pickup game in Halas. Bowen said he previously played for three years at Turpin High School in Cincinnati, two of which were at the varsity level. 

Bowen said the support he and the practice players provided during workout sessions was dependent on how far the team is during the season.

“In-season workouts are definitely more group-oriented,” Bowen said. “It’s just a lot of drills as a team or sometimes they’ll separate the bigs and the guards. Post-season workouts are individual — it’s definitely more focused on the postseason.” 

According to McCann, in order to ensure consistent availability, practice players are given access to priority class registration. Bowen, who is studying international business, said this allows himself and his colleagues to adhere to “class always coming first,” but also remain flexible with two-hour practice sessions during the day.

Except for priority registration and Loyola gear, practice players are not given any other form of compensation. An appreciative McCann discussed how that helped build a better relationship between the practice players and team players, as well as the team culture as a whole.

“They’re giving up their bodies, their time to come help us get better,” McCann said. “I think that gave our girls some form of perspective on, ‘Man, these guys are here helping us when they don’t really need to. They’re not doing it for any motive. We wanna give our all too.’ So they treat them with respect. Our guys treat our women with respect, and it’s really like a family.”

McCann stressed how important practice players are to women’s basketball. In addition to being utilized in women’s collegiate basketball, McCann mentioned they also make an impact in the professional leagues, most notably with the WNBA.

McCann said the willingness of the practice players to work with the team helps in ways that go beyond the sport of basketball.

“They’re guys that love the sport,” McCann said. “They’re guys that want to help grow women’s basketball and just understand that women could get down on the court, too. When you have guys that are willing to come in and put their pride to the side and help women, I think that that’s a big piece to what our society needs to see.”

Featured image courtesy of Steve Woltmann for Loyola Athletics