When in attendance at any of the CESJDS varsity baseball team’s games this year, next to the players on the bench, the baseball team managers. Jordan Levy (‘24) and junior Josh Berl, are often found supporting their team.
Berl and Levy have been the managers of the team for the past two years, beginning in the same year as Assistant Athletic Director and head baseball coach Matthew Landy.
“When I originally had gotten the job to be the head coach, they had come to me expressing interest in being the managers,” Landy said. “It ended up being a great situation for all of us.”
The team managers are responsible for taking pictures of the team during games, running the team Instagram account and keeping the stats for the team in the statistics book and through Gamechanger, a scorekeeping app. According to Berl, one of the greatest contributions of the managers is the viewpoint they have as observers who are not official coaches or players, but are well versed in the workings of baseball.
“We offer a different perspective from a non-player, [a] non-objective point of view of the team,” Berl said.
Their outer perspective is helpful both on and off of the field. According to Landy, the managers have a keen ability to boost the morale of the team.
“They do a great job of being involved in practices and games,” Landy said. “All the guys are big fans of [the managers] and just posting on social media to boost the community wide spirit for the team has been a huge help as well.”
The whole team feels the impact of the baseball managers’. According to sophomore and pitcher and shortstop Ari Einhorn, they’re responsible for the walk-up songs, which, among other things, contribute to a lot of the energy at games and practices.
“They make it a stable environment and they make sure everything’s right,” Einhorn said. “They provide for a stable and successful team. They’re like the glue in between all the big players.”
Einhorn also appreciates that the managers keep the score of games, allowing his parents to follow along with the games even if they are not in attendance.
For Berl, joining the baseball team as the manager was initially enticing for an extracurricular activity, but since his first year as manager last year, he has found it a great social opportunity.
“[My favorite part about managing the team] is being able to go to the games and spend time with my friends, since I now have a lot of friends on the team,” Berl said. “I’ve gotten to know a lot of people that I wouldn’t have without this.”
The baseball team’s managers contribute in many ways, making the logistical parts of the team’s games and practices run smoothly and efficiently, but their addition to the team is most appreciated in the element of spirit and energy that they spread throughout the team and community.
“I think the biggest thing has just been their commitment to improving our program, whether that be posting on social media to get fans to games, [or] whether that be planning and organizing the junior night ceremonies,” Landy said. “All in all, they’ve been really great leaders for our group, and I think everyone appreciates all their great work.”
