The women’s basketball team started offseason training on March 24 with senior Anthony Manno at the wheel.
Manno has been working as an intern for head men’s track coach Jeff Forino since the beginning of the semester, programing, coordinating, and running workouts for the men’s and women’s basketball and women’s swim teams. He also works with middle distance and steeplechase track athletes.
“I don’t even consider it work because I have so much fun doing it,” senior Anthony Manno said. “It’s very rewarding to watch athletes train extremely hard and enjoy it.”
The basketball teams train four days per week for an hour and a half, beginning with a full body warm-up, and expanding into agility, acceleration, change of direction, and plyometrics drills.
“Our whole workout is focused on muscle building and strengthening,” freshman basketball player Becca Scherting said. “We’re doing a lot of game-like explosive lifts and conditioning exercises.”
Last, Manno moves the basketball team into Olympic weightlifting, general strength training, and metabolic conditioning. The workout is now half an hour longer than before.
“Although the workouts are longer and more challenging, we are really able to push ourselves to the next level with his coaching and encouragement,” sophomore point guard Ashlyn Landherr said. “His workouts are going to be very good for us, and with his help we will all be a lot stronger by next season.”
Swimming lifting workouts take place three days a week. Manno begins with warm-ups, followed by Olympic weightlifting and general strength training. He has also constructed their dry-land training, which occurs twice a week.
“Manno has a personal fan club in the swim team, and I wasn’t sure how seriously we’d take him,” sophomore Naofa Noll said. “He started us off with 30 squats – which he called a warmup and I called torture – to teach us the proper technique. I could barely walk for two days after that, but I’m confident the new program he developed will challenge us and benefit us more than what we’ve done in the past.”
From the internship, Manno has gained practical experience that he sees as invaluable for future career development. He meets regularly with coaches to determine the best training methods to use for each team.
“This summer, I plan on becoming a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist with the NSCA and a Level 1 Certified CrossFit Coach,” Manno said. “Combining these things together will build a good foundation for coaching in the future.”
His involvement has been both beneficial and encouraging to team members he’s helped.
“Manno brings an uplifting energy to the workouts and he is so helpful when it comes to learning new things,” Scherting said. “He knows his stuff!”
