It’s 1 A.M. and Terrence Echols is in McCann Gymnasium. In the barron athletic facility he diligently grabs a handful of basketball jerseys, freshly smelling of Tide Pods to mask their sweat-filled aroma from practice a few hours prior. He puts the pile in the dryer as he realizes the machine is broken; and here he is, in the middle of the night with damp laundry trying to find a solution before the Marist Men's Basketball team returns for practice the next day. Echols is the team’s manager. He heads home that night with the same question lingering in his mind: “When am I going to get my shot?”
Echols did not intend on coming to Marist campus to manage the basketball team. Instead, the now-graduate student had high hopes: to walk on to the Division One basketball program and become a part of the squad. “I planned out everything. I had written down my goals for all four years before I even got here” Echols said, “My number one goal was to be on the team my freshman year”. However, as tryouts commenced during Echols’s freshman year, he was not met with an offer to join as a player, but rather as a manager.
“I felt like basketball just got taken away. Not because I didn't work hard enough, not because I wasn't good enough, not because I didn't like it. It was the first time I felt like I didn't deserve something that happened to me”
“That was probably one of the best things that [has] happened to me. But honestly, it's the most depressing thing that happened to me [too]” Echols reflected, “I felt like basketball just got taken away. Not because I didn't work hard enough, not because I wasn't good enough, not because I didn't like it. It was the first time I felt like I didn't deserve something that happened to me”.
Despite the initial frustration, Echols reluctantly took the position. Little did he realize the opportunity that once crushed him would shape him into the person he is today, and eventually earn him a jersey for himself by sheer determination.
Terrence Echols (Top row, second from the left) as a manager on the 2018-2019 Basketball Team
Credit: Marist College Athletics
“I never really had a ‘Why am I doing this?’ moment”. Echols said, “It was always just a part of something bigger. I always just had this image in my mind of who I was going to be at the end of this”. Echols spent every day performing the jobs the coaches demanded of him, from grabbing water to attending each and every practice despite not initially participating in drills. At the end of the night, when all the players were heading out, Echols was just getting started. He continued to work on his craft, taking extra shots on the shooting machine, and participating in pick-up games.
When the school hired current head coach John Dunne in April of 2018 - approaching Echols’s sophomore year - he was eager to make his presence known. “Coach Dunne - his very first day in office- I go up to his office, and I walk right in and asked this man ‘Can I walk on?’” Echols laughed. From Dunne’s arrival, he began suiting up for practices, earning practice shoes, a jersey, and running with the team. “Even though I was still technically a manager at that point, I was dressing for every practice. I was super grateful for that”.
After two years of being a manager, Echols was finally given his chance at the beginning of his junior year. Coach Dunne had a conversation with Echols and expressed that if he had to take an extra walk-on spot for Echols so he could have the opportunity to play with the team during his senior year, he would.
“It was finally like all my hard work had paid off”
“It was finally like, all my hard work had paid off,” Echols said, “Being diligent to the team, working hard every day, staying after practice to get shots up on the gun, just going above and beyond without even knowing what the result would be - just like this blind faith in myself, and in the fact that it's going to add up”
For the first time Echols had achieved his goal of walking onto the Marist basketball team. However, it did not feel like he thought it would have. “I started to realize I was wanting to be a walk-on for the wrong reasons. I wanted the status, I wanted the gear, and the whole experience humbled me and really just taught me [that] I wanted to be a walk-on because I wanted to play basketball.”
A key reason for the realization was not just the adversity Echols faced, but also his trust in his religion. “[Faith] really [helped] me. You know, Jesus lived the perfect life. At the end of the day, we all need to not exactly replicate him, but do what you need to do that will make you feel like you're closer to him.” Echols explained, “Just try to live the best life you can [and] don't be ashamed of yourself for certain things. That was something I felt, a little bit of shame”.
Now, Echols confidently puts on his jersey printed with the numbers 2-0 on the back. He laces up his sneakers, and prepares for his games with his teammates, realizing that there was no better time for him to join the program than now. “I've learned a lot about myself” he stated, “I learned that I can be resilient, that I can be stubborn. And those are qualities that never really had [...] but some things I just, I can't live without. I gotta just, you know, go after it.”
Yet, Echols will never forget the hard work it took him to get to the place where he is now, and the years spent as a manager. “The year and a half, two years that I wasn't really doing much basketball stuff with the team here was some of the most fun I've had” Echols said, “You know, just being a student [and] being able to like have those two separate lives”
But he would not give up the opportunity now that it's here. In fact, he leads his new teammates in prayer before each game. “I'm trying to just pass on and give these guys my knowledge and wisdom that I've gained over the past four years because I've been through everything” he says, “Four months from now I’ll be just like any other regular person [...] I’m not going to be able to call myself an athlete anymore. [But] it's been life changing, for real. After doing this, I'm just proud of myself”
Terrence Echols suited up as a player on the 2021 - 2022 team (Oct. 2021)
Credit: Terrence Echols Instagram
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