In the fall, Florida Atlantic University Women’s Basketball made multiple social media posts asking for male practice players to help elevate their game for the upcoming season again. The team picked up a few players to help them practice and prepare for their season in September. 

Each practice player on the women’s team is a full time student at the university and attends as many practices as they can that work around their classes each day, head coach Jennifer Sullivan explained. 

Last season, the Owls record was 11-19 and 6-12 AAC. Entering the 2024-25 season, the team has eight new players, including three transfers and five freshmen. On Oct. 16, the women’s and men’s teams made their debut at Paradise Madness, a successful night for both teams.

Sullivan and Assistant Director of Communications, Jonathan Caudle, shared that many teams across the country bring in practice players to make their team better, stronger and prepared for the competition they may face.

Sullivan explained the reasoning behind choosing male practice players over women.

“You’re trying to get players that are higher than, so if there’s a female that we think could really push us, we’re going to try to sign her to put her on our team. So on the men’s side, it’s going to be difficult to find a men’s basketball player that’s better than their team, but if they do, they want to sign that person,” Sullivan said. “So, that’s our situation. We can’t sign these guys. So, we’re going to try to get players that can challenge our current team.”

The women’s team typically practices daily from 3 to 6 p.m. with available practice players. Each practice player is involved in drills that the team runs, either playing offense or defense against the women’s players.

“I think it is a really big component of their development. A lot of things that we do are based on things that we’ll see. So it really helps them be prepared and not seeing things for the first time on game days… I think it really helps them get better,” said Michael Spiliopoulos, video and scouting operations coordinator. 

The practice players are always involved, whether they are running drills or just rebounding balls during free throws and three-point shooting drills. The practice players bring intensity into the drills to truly challenge the women’s players offensively.

“They put us in any way they can, either, whether it be playing against them, playing token defense, passing, rebounding, doing whatever. Just like, get us on the court, help the girls out, help the managers out and just help everybody,” said Brian Day, a junior practice player.

Considering that FAU is a Division I school, it can be difficult to find players who really challenge the team. They also have to abide by the same regulations student-athletes are under.

“They have to go through the physical process, sickle cell testing and all those things… If you see players out here, it means they checked a lot of boxes to make it to this point. So, it can be difficult to get a lot of them. We’re really fortunate to have, I think somewhere between seven to nine guys that come in now to work,” Sullivan said.

The team and practice players have a good relationship with each other. But once they step onto the court and go into a drill, they lose the friendliness for competition. Instantly, they begin to place pressure on each other, encouraging better gameplay.

“It benefits us because, you know, it’s just somebody different to play against, compared to like each other; and the boys bring, like, a whole different level of competitiveness to practice every single day… We’ve formed great friendships with them, on and off the court, you know, like they’re all coming to our games during the season and stuff like that,” said guard Kristina Godfrey.

It is clearly evident that the relationship between the players and the team is strong. During practice, they’re either working hard and challenging each other or they’re doing three-point contests with each other and having fun. When they run drills and plays, they are constantly cheering for one another, bringing energy into everything they do.

“I would say, it raises our level when we’re playing up and down because the guys are stronger than us, faster than us, so we could adjust to the level that we’re going to be seeing in our league this season… I think they bring a lot of energy and it makes us a lot more competitive than I think it normally would be without them,” said forward Maria Myklebust.

With only a few more practices, the players are locking down to prepare for their first exhibition game on Oct. 29 at 7 p.m. against the University of Fort Lauderdale Eagles.

Molly O’Flynn is a staff writer for the University Press. For more information regarding this or other stories email her at moflynn2024@fau.edu or DM her on Instagram @molly_oflynn_.