Behind the scenes of almost every Ole Miss athletics team is a dedicated group of managers — many of whom are graduate students. 

Riane Griffin serves as a graduate manager for the Rebels women’s basketball team and is a first-year graduate student studying sport and recreation administration. Prior to her start in Oxford, Griffin served as an undergraduate assistant for the University of Tennessee at Knoxville’s Women’s Basketball program working in operations.

Growing up in a football family in Las Vegas, Griffin became interested in working in the sports world at a young age.

“I didn’t think I’d be a manager of the team at all,” Griffin said. “I was so glad I was able to have that experience to see if that’s what I wanted to do, work in women’s basketball.” 

Griffin and the rest of the managers work closely with the players as well as the coaching staff. Griffin appreciates the kindness that head coach Yolett McPhee-McCuin has shown since her arrival to the program. 

“Coach Yo has been very welcoming … and is very much so herself,” Griffin said. “And I think being a Black woman, especially in those kinds of spaces, you show up as yourself. Watching her navigate being at an SEC school, leading a program, you learn things that you can carry with you in the future.”

Griffin detailed her positive experiences working with undergraduate students.

“Even though they’re younger than me, we’re all working in sports,” Griffin said. “They welcomed me with open arms. They’ve been amazing. We have a really good manager group.” 

Balancing work and school is challenging, Griffin said.

“Being in grad school is tough. Last semester, the classes were a little bit easier. The season’s not as busy either,” Griffin said. “It’s still kind of busy, but once you get into conference play, it amps up. The school part’s definitely been a bit harder than undergrad, for sure, trying to balance it with more papers and just more work in general.”

Cylie Halvorson and Haylei Archer played softball as undergraduates at the universities of Arkansas and California, respectively, and are now graduate managers at Ole Miss.

Halvorson, who received her undergraduate degree in business, is working toward her master’s in sport and recreation administration. Archer was a psychology major as an undergraduate and came to UM to get her graduate degree in public health. 

Both students came to Ole Miss expecting to improve their knowledge in softball under the direction of good coaches. Halvorson and Archer spoke to softball head coach Jamie Trachse before coming to Ole Miss. 

“Jamie actually recruited me while I was in high school, going through my recruiting process when she was at Minnesota,” Archer said. “This past summer, I was trying to find somewhere to (be a graduate manager) and just knew that I wanted to learn under somebody who’s had great success and is a great person.”

Archer talked about the benefits of graduate school. 

“The class sizes are much smaller than undergrad,” Archer said. “It’s just more specialized and more individualized. And my classes are all online as well, so it’s not as time dependent as undergrad was.”

All of Halvorson’s classes are online, as well. In order to spend more time with the team, Halvorson and Archer finish their coursework in the mornings and study while traveling. 

In their time as graduate managers, they have grown to appreciate all the behind-the-scenes activities that go into running a softball program. 

“As a player, you kind of just show up and everything’s done for you, and everything’s prepared for you,” Halvorson said. “But now it’s our job to be there early, prepare everything for them, be there late and help them with anything they need.”

Archer expressed similar sentiments. 

“It’s been really eye-opening and has made me feel a lot of gratitude for the four years that I played because I had no clue how much went into everything that we had. … Our job is to make sure everything runs smoothly behind the scenes,” Archer said.