For Sacred Heart women’s basketball head coach, Jessica Mannetti, it’s typically go, go, go in her never-ending schedule. Over the past six months, she has been able to dial things back as COVID-19 knocked out college basketball along with everything else in its way.
“This summer has been tremendous for me as a coach,” said Mannetti. “I haven’t had to run around like a crazy person recruiting all July, and I haven’t had to feel the stress of having my team on campus in the summer.”
Mannetti adds that this summer was the first summer in 15 years that she has had time to spend with her friends and family along with finding ways to take care of herself both mentally and physically.
While she hasn’t had to travel across the country recruiting prospective Pioneers, she has had to find ways to get creative virtually when pitching the school to recruits.
“It’s been a much different approach to take,” said Mannetti. “It has to have a lot of prep work for videos, creative content, and graphics. You have to become an expert of iMovie.”
One of the biggest differences in this year’s recruiting is the lack of in-person contact that Mannetti has been able to have with recruits.
“I like to have contact, I like to be in someone’s home, I like to be able to invite them to our home [Sacred Heart]. I like to see their body language along with their dynamic with their family,” said Mannetti.
Mannetti also adds that the in-person contact allows for her to see recruits make the effort to take an official visit to campus. She typically does not offer scholarships to recruits until they have taken a visit on campus.
Throughout the recruiting process during the summer months, Mannetti has noticed that the “new norm” for recruiting has turned into a more comfortable approach for prospective players.
“They are actually more comfortable on camera than they would be in person,” said Mannetti.
As for her current team, the mood was described as “revived” following the NCAA’s decision to begin the college basketball season as early as Nov. 25.
As Mannetti’s team has begun to start strength and conditioning programs, it was obvious that her team had a new sense of hunger in their workouts.
“The stay at home was beneficial because it made them miss basketball,” said Mannetti. “It made this team miss being together. They missed school. I think a lot of kids missed the college environment.”
Although the NCAA’s decision to begin the season Nov. 25 is only a few days old, the wheels have begun to turn, both internally, and conferencewide to come up with a scheduling plan for the season.
Most of the early talks have been focused on a start date for conference play. So far, different times in December have been thrown around as possible start dates for conference play, leaving a few weeks in November for non-conference scheduling.
Sacred Heart’s approach for non-conference scheduling, along with most mid-major programs, is to keep games regionalized with a short travel time. Mannetti mentioned possible matchups with schools within the MAAC, Patriot League, and America East.
Amid all the chaos that has come within the past four days following the NCAA’s announcement, Mannetti, with her newfound calmness, is taking things day by day.
“With everything going on I think to myself ‘Do we get to be here on Monday? Perfect. Then we’ll make the most out of Monday. I take things day by day.’”
