There are some things in life that never seem to lose their magic.
Certain experiences lose their luster over time, especially if one comes across said experience multiple times. However, a person can consider themselves blessed if he or she uncovers something that provides the same euphoric feeling time after time.
Surry Central graduate Mallory Wilmoth (‘16) is one of lucky few that had the opportunity to live out a lifelong dream dozens of times.
The moment goes a little like this: Wilmoth emerges from the home locker room in the Dean E. Smith Center only to be greeted by the roar of nearly 22,000 fans. This, partnered with the rally songs performed by The Marching Tar Heels band, covers her arms with goosebumps as she emerges from the tunnel to a sea of Carolina Blue.
It’s a moment that many would pay handsomely to experience. While this was just another day at the office for Wilmoth as a varsity manager for the UNC-Chapel Hill men’s basketball team, it never failed to take her breath away.
Wilmoth is a lifelong UNC fan that grew up idolizing the basketball team. Her parents and grandparents were all Carolina fans and spent decades watching from the sidelines or the other side of the TV.
Mallory became the first member of her family to attend UNC-Chapel Hill following her graduation from Surry Central in 2016. The year she spent as a manager was life-changing; however, it’s not something she expected to happen as an underclassman or even as a junior.
During her first two years at UNC, Wilmoth’s only connection to the men’s basketball program was attending home games “religiously.” She first got involved with the program in the summer of 2018 when she worked at the Roy Williams Carolina Basketball Camp.
Wilmoth then served as a manager for the men’s JV team her junior year. Things quickly accelerated the next summer when she took on a more responsibilities at Williams’ camp.
“They completely caught me off guard,” Wilmoth said. “They wanted me to be super energetic and take on bigger role during camp between my junior and senior years. It never crossed my mind that I would be moved up. It’s not common to just do something junior year and then be pulled up the next year.”
Even after the 2019 camp, Wilmoth planned to return to the JV team for her final year of school. This remained the plan up until the head of the manager’s program asked to meet with her the day before classes started in the fall of 2019.
Some of Mallory’s friends proposed the idea that maybe she was being called up to the varsity squad.
“There’s no way,” was her response.
She had never been so happy to be wrong.
“It was wild because the it happened so fast; I didn’t really have time to process it. I just called my parents immediately,” Wilmoth said. “Then it was first day of class senior year. I didn’t have as much time to really go crazy about it because we started working that day.”
Wilmoth met the other varsity managers then. There were six of them in total, and many of the managers had been part of the team for years.
After meeting the managers, in walked the cornerstone of the UNC basketball team: coach Roy Williams.
“I really thought I would be someone he wouldn’t really know,” Wilmoth said. “I remember thinking he had a lot of other important stuff to take care of. But he quickly remembered my name and always greeted me in the hallway. I really felt like I was part of the family.”
Wilmoth also formed a bond with the players that day.
“We were connected and knew we were all in that together. From then on, they were all my friends.”
What followed was months of hard work and late nights. The managers were in charge of practice setup, game day prep, practice statistics, assisting with practice, food orders and traveling, just to list a few.
She got her first taste of the hectic travel schedule associated with college sports when the season rolled around in November. The Tar Heels stayed local for the first few weeks before taking off for the Bad Boy Mowers Battle 4 Atlantis on Paradise Island, Bahamas.
“I got to spend Thanksgiving with my ‘family away from my family’” Wilmoth said. “It was a really good bonding experience because it was the first big trip with the managers. This kind of kickstarted the whole season.”
“Beating Oregon on the last day was super fun. We went out after and got to enjoy the day. The whole experience was a little overwhelming, going 0-to-100 like that.”
Wilmoth has been involved in sports her entire life. She played four years of varsity tennis and basketball at Surry Central and made all-conference in both as a senior. She knew what it took to succeed there, but said it was an entirely different world at the college level.
“It gave me a lot of respect for our guys, seeing that change from high school to college,” Wilmoth said. “It takes a whole ’nother level of dedication to do what they do.”
Being a manager was certainly no picnic. Wilmoth and her fellow managers followed the same strict travel routines as the players. Even after big road wins, the team had to get everything packed on a bus, get on the plane and get back to Chapel Hill. This was all piled on top of school work.
Becoming a manager as a senior was a blessing of sorts according to Wilmoth. Academically, she had three years to adjust to a college workload and schedule.
“My first three years I didn’t quite know how to manage my time,” she said. “We had to organize study schedules and set time to do homework on the road. I honestly don’t know if I could have done that as a freshman or sophomore.”
Wilmoth worried her professors might not be as flexible with her because she wasn’t an athlete, but she was happy to report her professors were very understanding and everything worked out. Mallory graduated this past spring with a degree from the UNC Hussman School of Journalism and Media.
COVID-19 complicated Wilmoth’s last semester of school as well as the job market. She was enrolled in career prep classes and had networking events either cancelled or moved online.
The pandemic has given her time to think, and during that time Wilmoth decided it would be best for her to continue her education with hopes of one day working for a college or NBA team.
“Something I love that I’m very passionate about is the players themselves and that they are taken care of and given the best possibilities to succeed,” Wilmoth said. “As of now, and this could 100% change, I think I’d like to work in player relations or maybe basketball operations. Who knows where I’ll end up? I do want to have player-first mentality. Hopefully grad school will help narrow that down.”
As she takes a break from planning for the future, Wilmoth reflects on the past year of her life and how things changed.
“Obviously, it was a rough season with a lot of injuries that were so hard to watch our guys go through,” Wilmoth said. “But I learned so much from Coach Williams, the other coaches, players and managers. It really was just special to be behind the scenes helping my favorite program.”
“I could pick the smallest thing and it could be my favorite memory. Anything from working after practice or eating in the meal room, joking with players. It was just such a great experience.”
Source: https://www.mtairynews.com
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