Every athlete has a success story to draw upon for daily motivation. Scrub-team football players try to be Rudy, entry-level boxers repeatedly watch “Rocky” — and the men who help NCAA women’s basketball teams idolize Jay Heaps.
Heaps was an All-American soccer player at Duke University who began practicing with the women’s basketball team following the 1995 soccer season. At only 5-foot-9 — sound familiar, “Rudy” fans? — the Longmeadow, Mass., native could dunk with ease and dazzle onlookers at practice, including men’s basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski.
Soon Heaps was practicing with the men’s team and earned a basketball scholarship in 1996. Opting to leave school early for a professional soccer career, Heaps played in 26 games and scored eight points in his three-year basketball career. He now plays for Major League Soccer’s Miami Fusion.
“I heard that story and was like, ‘Hey, if he could do it, anyone can,” said Weinberg freshman Evan Fieldman, one of the men who regularly lock horns with the Northwestern women’s basketball team in practices.
Nearly all Division I women’s basketball teams recruit men for practice scrimmages, according to NU coach June Olkowski. Olkowski adopted the practice during her six-year coaching stint at Butler and brought it with her to NU last year.
Although the NCAA allows the men to practice, it prohibits them from receiving benefits such as post-practice meals and school books. The men do, however, receive shoes, shorts, jerseys and T-shirts for their help in practice.
At first, the biggest challenge for the men was figuring out whether to play tough or ease up.
“I get worried sometimes — like if I’m driving to the hole, and a girl is standing there,” Weinberg senior Charles Okoye said. “I don’t want to run into them because you feel bad running over a girl. And if you trip a girl, you feel like some kind of monster.”
Said McCormick sophomore Garth Robertson: “A lot of times I could block shots, but you don’t go after them because you don’t want to miss and hit them. But at the same time, most of them are bigger than me.”
The men quickly got over their shyness. And to Robertson, it’s the women who may need to let up.
“They play way dirtier than we do,” he said with a laugh.
The task of finding Robertson and his practice-squad mates fell to Wildcats assistant coach Liz Turner. Turner tapped NU’s club basketball team and also discovered a few guys playing pickup games at SPAC.
“I was just playing ball at SPAC one day and Coach Turner and Coach (Tricie) Johnson came over and watched us,” Robertson said. “After a couple games they asked me if I wanted to come out.”
Each member of the six-man squad usually stops in for two or three practices a week. They do not participate in stretching or drills, and are most often used to mimic the offenses and defenses of NU’s future opponents in scrimmages.
Playing alongside Division I athletes was not a major leap for the squad, many of whom played varsity high school basketball. Still, adjusting to the women’s game took time.
“It seems like the girls stick to their plays much more,” said Fieldman, who played two years of varsity basketball at Noble & Greenough School in Dedham, Mass. “I’m coming from a motion offense where there was a lot of freedom, but watching them play, they really do what the coach tells them to.”
The primary purpose of NU’s practice squad is to provide an athletic practice opponent for the women. Olkowski singled out the heightened court speed of the practice squad as an element the women rarely compete with.
“Obviously they’re faster, they’re stronger, and they jump higher,” Olkowski said. “And defensively, to go against that, it helps you prepare against very athletic perimeter and post players.”
NU players and practice-squad members both said the system is a good trade-off. It provides the women with necessary competition and the men with a few hours of organized basketball (and a free wardrobe).
Over the season, the two groups have fostered a strong working relationship on and off the court.
“They are really great guys and they’re really trying to help us improve,” center Tami Sears said. “They know that they’re not going to come here and do around-the-back (passes) — they can go to SPAC and do that. They’ve chosen to come here and help us.”
Although the NU players value the practice team’s assistance, the men have a hard time garnering respect from their friends. Fieldman, for one, admitted he still gets “a lot of junk” about practicing with the women’s team, but said he has every intention of remaining on the squad.
“The people who give me crap are not nearly as good as me in basketball, so I don’t even worry about it,” Okoye said. “I’m confident in my abilities, so I could care less.”
The practice players’ devotion to the team was best shown Thursday night, when NU hosted Michigan at Welsh-Ryan Arena. Seated several rows behind the Cats bench, Okoye and Robertson stayed to the bitter end of the Wolverines’ 83-41 slaughter.
“We take it personally when they’re losing like this,” Okoye said at halftime, when Michigan led 44-23. “We want them to do well — that’s why we come out to practice.”
And who knows? Maybe one day Bill Carmody will swing by.
