Highlighters Highlighted: What it's like being part of South Carolina women's basketball's practice squad

South Carolina head coach Dawn Staley credits part of her team’s success to her practice squad. It’s a big reason why they receive rings with every championship the Gamecocks win.

Male practice players have long been a thing in women’s college basketball and South Carolina is no exception. However, the Gamecocks’ practice group has developed a special name in recent years.

Five years ago, the South Carolina staff wore spare neon camp counselor shirts. They decided to print their theme that season on the shirts and give them to their practice players. 

“One of the guys were like, ‘Yeah, we’re the Highlighters’ based off the shirts and it just stuck,” said Freddy Ready, the director of player development at South Carolina.

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To become a Highlighter, you must have played some level of basketball during high school, Ready said.

“Not anybody can just come out here and play with our girls,” Ready said. “But we want them to have an understanding of memorized plays at a fast rate so if we have a scout they can handle what we throw at them.” 

Ready starts with figuring out which of the Highlighters are returning that season. After that, he sends out a mass email to different departments within USC to send to interested students. 

Fourth-year senior exercise student Benjamin White was one of those students who received an email from his academic advisor about the opportunity.

“I had a meeting with my advisor and it wasn’t even like I was looking for basketball. She just said, ‘What are things you are interested in?’” White said. “… Literally as soon as I got back to my apartment I had an email from her and she was like, ‘I don’t really know what this is, but I’ll send it to you and just tell me how it is.’” 

The tryout process setup is similar to an open run, with around 20-25 players trying out every year. Ready said he splits them into different teams and runs them through various plays. Those plays are what Ready grades the players on.

“That’s how it’ll be in practice,” Ready said. “It’s not just having the basketball skills, but having the mental capacity to remember plays and do as we ask them to do.” 

For White, he said the process wasn’t intimidating. He said he wasn’t nervous, not knowing what it was going to be like.

“I never really imagined it was what it is,” White said. “I guess that’s a good thing because I was able to go to the tryout, play free. I had a good time, and it just transitioned to me, I’m here all day now.” 

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The relationship between the Highlighters is similar to any other basketball team, White said.

“It’s just something about being a part of a team, having to need each other for defense, offense. When you collab like that you just kind of understand each other,” he said. “That sometimes carries on and off the court. We’ll hang out after practice, getting food and stuff like that. So I’d say we’re a pretty close group.”

White gets the enjoyment of continuing to play basketball post-high school, but he also enjoys seeing the team’s success, he said.

“I feel like we play a big part in just, like, preparing them,” White said. “It’s fun seeing that if we’re scouting a girl, and then we go to the game and watch the girl if we were doing a good job or not seeing just to make sure that they’re prepared. We’re just trying to make the game easier.”

Starting guard Raven Johnson said the Highlighters are hard on the players and make practicing much more difficult.

“Practice is so (much) harder than games. That’s a big difference for us,” Johnson said.

The team tries bringing in 12 to 15 guys, with classes leaving the chance of some not making it on a specific day. Practice players get priority registration through student manager privileges. Despite this, sometimes it’s unavoidable to not have a class conflict. 

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White has it easy this spring semester in managing his schedule as a student and a practice player. White spends his mornings from 8 a.m. to noon doing his practicum with strength and conditioning coach Molly Benetti.

After that, it’s setting up the practice, fulfilling his practice role for South Carolina, then going back to his internship.

“That’s pretty much how similar it was, even when I had regular classes,” White said. “It was kind of, I’d go to class, come in, be a practice player, and then as soon as I finished, like take a quick shower and head back to class.”

There’s so much that goes into being a Highlighter. It’s not as simple as lacing up the shoes and hitting the court. It can be a lot at times. But the hard work they put in pays off in the long run, like it did on Feb. 4.

Through the brand Oofos, a partner of Staley’s since 2022, the Highlighters received neon-colored gear. The gift package includes socks, water bottles, and slides.

It’s the first NIL deal of its kind exclusively for practice players.

“They sacrifice so much. They work so hard,” Staley said. “… And part of it is they love basketball. The other part is they know they’re helping us. I try to come up with innovative gifts, Christmas gifts. I got partnerships with different people and Oofos was cool enough … we gave them a design that they put on their recovery shoes. … (The Highlighters) do enough for us. I know their dogs are hurting sometimes.” 

It was a nice opportunity to reward them for their hard work, Ready said.

“Especially since they (the team) can’t do anything financial for them,” he said. “… It was a nice little gift bag that they received, and I think that’s gonna be something they’ll be doing each year.” 

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