Julie Pioletti, the office manager for the U. of I. men’s basketball team, has job expectations like anyone else: Be prepared to lace up your sneakers every day, push the ball up the court when you can, and use hard work and opportunity in the face of adversity.
Do all that and the team succeeds.
“I do whatever I can to make the coaches’ lives easier, which I hope makes the program better,” she said. “Even when I’m not there, if somebody needs something, they can call.”
Pioletti, a 30-year U. of I. employee, has a number of off-the-court responsibilities – from managing Head Coach John Groce’s schedule to making travel arrangements.
“I haven’t learned how to coach or officiate yet,” she joked, though during busy periods she has been known to dribble behind her back.
What has she learned in her nine years running the office?
“It takes a whole lot to put on a basketball game,” she said. “And the coaches and the players work a lot more than just at practice and games. I’ve become more of a fan than I used to be. Working here, you can’t really help it.”
Pioletti said she is amazed by the fact that the coaches and players are able to stay so upbeat and focused – even after a loss.
“It’s hard for me because I’m the kind of person who wants to fix things and I know there’s really not much I can do when the team is struggling,” she said. “The coaches seem to be able to stay on an even keel no matter what the situation is.”
But she has developed temporary fixes to navigate good times and bad – by supplying hugs when needed and baking something special for each player on his birthday.
“It lets me be mom and gives me the feeling of being surrounded by kids,” she said. “I think, being so far from home, these guys appreciate it. I know they’ve never turned down cookies or a cake.”
Pioletti travels with the team when possible and she’s on call during the season for ticket and other requests, so her hours can be irregular.
“The hours aren’t terrible, but it’s not always 9 to 5, either,” she said. “One thing I’ve learned is there is no off-season around here.”
As soon as the playing season ends, the recruiting process begins, basketball camps start in June, and the team caravan is set for its statewide summer run. There is a small window of vacation inactivity, before it’s back to recruiting and getting ready for the upcoming season.
Pioletti’s office abuts the practice court in the Ubben Basketball Complex, and the sounds of whistles blowing, loose-ball fouls and players seeking an audience in the coach’s office offer continual potential for distraction. That’s where the facing adversity part comes in, and she is able to somehow separate the game from the job.
“I don’t really even hear it (the whistles at practice),” she said. “If I listened to everything that goes on around here, I wouldn’t get anything done.”
She said the program has gotten a lift from Groce’s boundless positive energy.
“He is such a motivator and not just for the players,” she said. “He makes you want to get better every day and not let him down. It’s really been amazing to watch and be a part of.”
Pioletti’s first 10 years of U. of I. service was with Personnel Services (now Staff Human Resources), where she assisted in administering and grading civil service tests.
“At that point, I didn’t know what I wanted to do,” she said, noting she worked in retail before taking the university job. “The university had a position for me, but I thought it would probably be a temporary thing. I was just coming here until I figured out what I wanted to do.”
Some of her workload focused on serving the university police department, which led to her taking an office assistant’s job serving the captain of the department’s patrol division, where she stayed for seven years.
“I was ready for a change at that point,” she said. “The highlight of my time in the police department was when Bill Clinton came to town.”
That meant dealing with Secret Service requests in addition to other duties added because of the event.
From there she moved to the Division of Intercollegiate Athletics and she took a position involving office work and marketing.
“There was a lot of work with corporate sponsorships, which was entirely foreign to me,” she said.
In seven years there she helped coordinate group tailgate parties and assisted with media contracts. It also was during the Memorial Stadium renovation, which meant plenty of deadlines and endless loose ends that needed tying.
“I’ve been fortunate in every job I’ve had here to have worked with and learned from a lot of good people,” she said.
In 2007, she was contacted by DIA officials about the men’s basketball opening, but Pioletti wasn’t convinced the job was right for her.
“I really loved my other job and didn’t know if I wanted to leave,” she said. “I interviewed just because. It ended up sounding like a great opportunity and it was.”
Pioletti has two grown children; her husband of nine years, Pat, has three.
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