Trailblazer Sarah Backovic keeps the Sheffield Sharks’ show on road

General managers select players via the draft and by trade, manage budgets in line with a specific salary cap and even have power to hire and fire their head coaches. They are answerable only to the team owner.

English sport has never followed such a structure, with the head coach or manager often the most accountable job at a club.

But some American sports imported to this country do follow the model, with Sheffield Sharks basketball club one such example of an organisation that has tailored the general manager position to their benefit.

And not only that, they have done so by taking a unique approach to the role, by ignoring conventional wisdom of the sporting boardroom in their appointment of a woman as their general manager.

Sarah Backovic has held the position at the British Basketball League’s Sheffield Sharks for 18 years.

“My role is quite diverse,” says Backovic, who was taken to the club by future Sharks chaiman Yuri Matischen, who was her manager at MLS Logistics, a sports logistics and event deliverer that grew out of Sheffield’s staging of the World Student Games in 1991.

“It’s not just overseeing the management of the team it’s the strategies of the club, the business of the Sharks, which incorporates community very heavily.

“It’s a very enjoyable job and I’m still young enough to carry it off.”

For Backovic, even during the coronavirus lockdown, the role is a full-time one.

Right now, the order of the day is conference calls with counterparts from across the BBL, stress-testing when basketball can possibly resume.

But outside such uncertain times, Backovic can best be described as the glue that binds all areas of the club, with a hand in pretty much everything the Sharks do.

“In the USA a GM will ostensibly recruit, obviously with input from the coach,” Backovic tells The Yorkshire Post.

“There’s very different styles around the BBL, but from my point of view you employ the coach as the expert, and we’ve got Atiba Lyons.

“I’m not the expert in terms of playing side, I try to deliver the player that he wants in the context of finances and we work very closely together on that.

“I really enjoy that side of the business, the whole mathematical process of it, making a team fit into a budget rather than a budget fit into a team which is where basketball probably has an advantage over some bigger sports.

“My side is more speaking to the player; if I like the player, if I think he will fit as a personality, if I think he is willing and able to deliver the whole contract, so he’s not just playing but he’s got to be able to be amongst the community programmes and be able to communicate with primary school kids. Is this person the complete fit? That’s where our sport is, it’s not just about talent on the floor, there needs to be a whole package.”

Part of that package is how a player interacts in society, with the Sharks’ community work a key component of what they do.

“Our community programmes are quite extensive,” explains Backovic.

“We’ve run a classroom facility for the last 15 years. We work with primary schools delivering maths and English, but using sport in a fun way. For example, measuring a player’s wing span, stride etc, making it a fun and creative way of delivering maths and English for primary kids.

“A lot of our players from the States come from tough schools, tough neighbourhoods and tough social backgrounds, so we get these players to talk about the journey they have been on to help other children avoid falling into a negative lifestyle. That way we’re taking a more positive approach to their school, their families and their environment.

“We operate two outreach programmes on health and wellbeing where we go into schools and we do workshops on healthy eating, how to look after your body, the importance of exercise.

“Tied in to all the community programmes is the teaching of basketball, so for every workshop we do six weeks of coaching and we help the school create a school team, and then we run inter-school summer tournaments which is a culmination of the work we’ve done with them all year.

“We probably work with about 600 students during the course of a season, delivering various workshops.

“These programmes are important for us because we couldn’t afford a marketing budget that would access 100,000 people in a season, but if we go direct to the community and work with them and they get to know us, it can be vital.”

When not overseeing the club’s community arm or running the day-to-day operations of the playing side, Backovic is required to represent the club at league level, which for a long time meant she was the only woman in a male-dominated environment.

Not that this has ever fazed her.

“I was the only woman for a very long time, up until about three years ago.” says Backovic, without a hint of resentment.

“I personally believe I bring qualities to the game that perhaps a male counterpart wouldn’t do. I’m perhaps more compassionate, slightly more empathetic to wider issues that athletes suffer from.

“There’s every bit a capable woman as a man, so if a woman gets the opportunity to get in there and perform that role I’m sure they’d bring an extra dynamic to the table.”

Has she ever felt intimidated?

“Never. My experience and the empowerment I’ve always had from working with the people I’ve worked with for a long time, has equipped me well.

“I don’t walk into a room full of men and feel intimidated, but I’m sure it can be intimidating at times. I think there are occasions where I’m a little bit out of the club, because you just get a sense that not everybody appreciates a woman in the boardroom, but I don’t let that stop me and I don’t think any female ever should. Your strengths will come through.”

Backovic’s all-round attributes certainly have. You could almost call her the Sharks’ most valuable player.

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