Staff photo / John Vargo Ursuline graduate Bo Gray corrals two basketballs during a shoot-around Monday at the UIC Pavilion in Chicago.

CHICAGO — Bo Gray was standing, waiting on a rebound. He had a couple of basketballs come his way.

The former Ursuline High School goalkeeper used his skills to corral two basketballs at one time, and still was able to distribute the balls back to the Youngstown State University men’s basketball players in a timely fashion during a warm-up session on Sunday at the UIC Pavilion.

He is one of a couple of student-assistants the YSU men’s team has on staff. They rebound, but that’s not all these young men do for the Penguins’ program.

Packing jerseys, water, Gatorade, doing laundry, they do many things to help the team succeed.

Gray, who played club hockey in Pennsylvania, played high school basketball for the first time during his senior year at Ursuline. He learned from one of the best high school coaches in the area, Keith Gunther.

“He taught me a ton about the game,” said Gray, a first-year student-assistant and a YSU freshman. “It helped me going into this job. It gave me a little bit further knowledge with the job I have right now.”

Mason Rozycki, a Mathews High School graduate, had a watchful eye on his late grandfather, Bob, who was the Mathews Athletic Director and coach in the system.

Mason is one of the unsung heroes of the basketball team, carrying luggage to the bus or through the airport.

Mason learned from his grandfather about basketball and that spurred a passion for the YSU freshman, seeing coach Jerrod Calhoun and his staff work on a daily basis.

“Seeing him coach and teaching me the game, helped me learn a lot about the game,” Mason said of his grandfather. “That’s why I wanted to get into basketball and coaching. I eventually want to coach men’s college basketball.”

Kenny Ganley is a YSU freshman guard. His childhood friend, Mike Sokolowski, also attends YSU. The two graduated from Brecksville-Broadview Heights High School in 2019.

Sokolowski became a student-assistant because of Ganley.

Sokolowski worked the scoreboard at the UIC Pavilion, helping the team keep track of practice. Setting up and tearing down equipment for practices and shoot-arounds is part of his job. There’s even getting the laundry done at the team’s hotel or a nearby laundromat.

He’s hoping the experiences he has over the next couple of years helps when he’s looking for a job after graduating YSU.

“It’s something not many people get to do,” Sokolowski said. “I love what I’m doing because I love being around the players and coaches. We’re having a pretty good season so far. Hopefully we can continue to keep winning and have a great season.”

YSU Director of Basketball Operations Paul Molinari used to be a one of these team assistants himself for Villanova University, passing up an opportunity on a Division II football scholarship.

He understands the countless hours these people spend taking care of the team’s needs, all to be part of a Division I basketball program.

“I don’t even use the term managers,” Molinari said. “I call them student-assistants. They’re guys that may have played basketball or guys that have been around basketball their whole life. They just love sports. In our program, we treat them like any other player. The respect for those guys is as important as the respect for anybody else. They’re treated just like the players.

“They spend a lot of volunteer hours rebounding for players. They’ll call the student-assistants and work with them.”

West Branch High School graduate Matt Manley started with YSU before Calhoun came to Youngstown in March of 2017. He was part of Jerry Slocum’s staff and worked his way up through the years, being delegated more responsibilities.

He’s in charge of the other student-assistants, and said he’s appreciative of their efforts.

Manley was in charge of grocery shopping prior to last weekend’s trip to Indianapolis and Chicago. Before the team left, purchases were made of 10 cases of water, 10 cases of Gatorade and about $300 worth of snacks.

“I always overestimate because you never know what somebody is going to drink or eat,” Manley said. “You don’t know if they’re hungry or not. Just make sure they’re ready to go to play.”

The snacks left over when the men’s team arrived home Tuesday morning were given to the women’s team before they left for Northern Kentucky on Wednesday.

Manley confers with Molinari and Danny Reese, the director of player personnel, before ordering food. The food is for a group of around 30 people — players, coaches and other team personnel — to feed at breakfast, lunch, dinner and after games.

Manley sends out a text to all on the trip and wants them to fill out a Google form with their orders. That’s given to the restaurant and Manley calls to confirm the reservation, which is at least two weeks away from the final reservation.

“You can call the restaurant every single day to make sure everything is trying to run smooth,” Manley said. “Once we get to the restaurant, we want to have the food on the table and everything.”

Sometimes that works. Sometimes it doesn’t.

Manley had to arrive early at the Cheesecake Factory on Michigan Avenue until the rest of the team arrived. No reservations were taken. Thirty people arrived and waited. Getting a table of 30 was not going to happen. Eventually, the group was seated at four different tables and were served.

Patience is required for this job.

“You have to keep talking with each person,” Manley said. “You have to have very good patience and have communication skills to be able to make sure everything is right with this program, for the players to be able to eat food and have great nutrition.”

These meals have to remain within a budget. Molinari said the team has a set spending limit they are allowed to follow through governmental guidelines.

YSU stays in gorgeous locations in downtown Indianapolis at the Hilton and the Hyatt Centric in downtown Chicago.

All these pieces wouldn’t come together if it weren’t for the student-assistants putting forth their efforts to make this YSU team have a seamless road trip.

“There’s a lot of planning,” Molinari said. “There’s a lot of things that go into it. Our student-assistant numbers have grown every year, which is great. We seem to find guys that are interested in being involved in the program and that helps. We have a great manpower. Certainly, we’d like to keep adding. We try to get one in every freshman class so that we have four really, really good guys each year.”