Their names cannot be found in any programs, and they do not get introduced at any games. However, women’s basketball coach Curt Miller considers them “the single biggest difference between last year and this year.”
Their names are Seth Roberts, Seth Wilson, Noah Dinger and Jim Meder. Together, these four guys make up the Bowling Green State University women’s basketball practice team.
Day in and day out they can be found on the court of Anderson Arena, putting the women’s team to the test. They do not receive money, scholarships or internship credit for their services. All they are given is a pair of tennis shoes and a few t-shirts. However, monetary compensation is not what drove these guys to form the first practice team in BG history.
“We do it because we love to play basketball and it gave us something to do,” Roberts said.
Roberts, along with Wilson, were the first people to approach Miller with their interest in helping the team last season. However, there was not enough time left in the season to get all the necessary paperwork in order to put a practice squad together. (A member of the practice squad is required to be a full-time student and has to be cleared by the NCAA before taking to the court) This did not frustrate Roberts and Wilson and they returned this year along with Dinger and Meder, who are friends of theirs, and got the practice team going. Miller has been very happy with the contribution they have made to the team.
“They just bring so much to your team, they add the level of competitiveness and they bring it every day, but they are not teammates so there are no hurt feelings so the four guys can really, really challenge our team to play,” Miller said. “It has raised our program’s level so much and I look for them to be a staple of our program for years to come.”
While officially on the women’s team roster, they enjoy one benefit that the women players do not have. They can go out and play without worrying about incurring the coach’s wrath.
“The great thing about it is you can practice and you can screw up and the coach is not really going to yell at you, so it’s fun that way,” Roberts said.
Each member of the squad puts in about 12 hours each week, practicing with the team four times a week for three hours each time. In addition to his love for playing basketball, Wilson saw this as an opportunity to take up some of his extra time.
“I would go home and I wouldn’t have anything to do after all my classes and everything so I was like ‘yeah, let’s do it,'” Wilson said.
Wilson has an extra commitment to the team. He holds a volunteer student management position that requires him to be on the sidelines during the games, even road games. He has to provide his own transportation to these games because NCAA regulations prohibit him from traveling with the team. He also has to be with the team at 8 a.m. on Saturdays before games. “It’s fun to go to their away games and actually get to know their operations on game day,” Wilson said.
In addition to coach Miller, the players have also enjoyed the added challenge of facing these guys in practice.
“Everyday those guys come into practice and work hard with us and beat us up a little bit and we beat them up a little bit,” Falcon forward Francine Miller said. “They help us so much everyday when they come into practice and it’s a challenge for us to play against them everyday and it helps us get ready for our next game.”
Wilson, Roberts, Dinger and Meder may not get mentioned in any highlight reels, but their impact on the women’s team is comparable to the signing of any blue chip athlete.