Meet Anna Savino, the George Washington manager turned player turned grad assistant
It’s not often that a first-year graduate assistant has been part of a college basketball program longer than the head coach. Then again, nothing about Anna Savino’s time with the George Washington women’s basketball team has been typical.
In the fall of 2015, Savino, then a freshman at GW, joined the team as a volunteer manager under then-head coach Jonathan Tsipis. She had played basketball at a high level in high school, competing against GW recruit Mei-Lyn Bautista and receiving offers to play at Division II and Division III schools. But GW’s high academic standards, combined with the fact that her brother Joseph was already enrolled, won her over, and she became a manager to stay close to the sport she had given up playing.
Savino loved managing right away, even volunteering to stay on campus during winter and spring breaks to help the team. Ahead of Savino’s sophomore year, Tsipis left for Wisconsin and Jen Rizzotti was hired from Hartford. That year, Savino said, “was when I realized this is something I think I could do for the rest of my life.” She changed her major from computer science to sports management and secured an internship in ballpark operations with the Washington Nationals that summer. She followed that up with a basketball operations internship with the Washington Mystics after her junior year.
In her limited free time, Savino played club and pick-up basketball during her first three years of college. Those pick-up games were where her classmates on the varsity team, Bautista and Kelsi Mahoney, noticed her talent and eventually suggested that Savino walk on to the team. Her boyfriend Jack Granger — himself a manager turned walk-on at GW — helped Savino muster the nerve to ask Rizzotti for a tryout. Rizzotti agreed to the tryout and Savino won a spot on the team for her senior year, leading to what Savino called “the best year of my life.”
“I thought I was going to get no minutes,” Savino recalled. But a rash of injuries prompted the coaching staff to call Savino’s number early and often in the 2018–19 season. She played in 29 of the team’s 30 games and started the final 27, averaging 2.4 points, 2.6 rebounds, and 1.2 assists in over 25 minutes per game. Her first start came at Iona, which is located about 10 miles from her hometown of Bronx, New York, and, in a storybook moment, she drilled a 3-pointer to open the game in front of about 50 friends and family members.
For the season, Savino shot 32% from 3-point range and scored in double figures twice. “I loved it so much,” she said. “I had so much fun with the team. Although we didn’t have a winning season, it was really [a] great experience. Everyone was so excited for me, which I thought was so cool, too. Even the girls that I was playing over, none of them ever were mad that I was playing.”
In the middle of the season, Savino received two exciting pieces of news: she would receive a scholarship for the second semester, and she would be hired as a graduate assistant with the program after graduation. She called her teammates’ jubilant reaction to her scholarship “the cherry on top” of the evening, but she kept the second piece of news to herself until the end of the season. For Rizzotti, hiring Savino was “a no-brainer” because of her stellar track record as a manager. Rizzotti explained that, when she arrived at GW, “it was very obvious early that Anna was one of [the best managers] in terms of being invested in the program and … helping the team in any way behind the scenes. That was her passion. … I don’t know if it’ll always be that easy, but Anna was an easy [hire] for us.”
This fall, Savino began her tenure as a graduate assistant and her fifth season with the program overall, making her the first player Rizzotti has ever had who transitioned from manager to player to staff member. “I’ve had players go from walk-on to scholarship; I’ve had players go from playing to working for me. We’ve never had anyone with Anna’s path,” Rizzotti confirmed.
Although many graduate assistants are hired following standout playing careers, Savino says that her experience as a manager is what has made the transition easy. “I would say [being a manager] helps more than being a player because as a manager, I knew all the stuff that goes on behind the scenes and also, on top of that, I was used to not being in the spotlight … I did all the stuff that no one saw.” She added, “I think becoming a player was much harder!”
After her playing career ended, Savino had to transition back to what she called “more of [a] professional relationship” with the players on this year’s roster, built on a foundation of mutual respect. “It wasn’t as hard as I thought it was going to be,” she said. “… I still hang out with them here and there, but I kind of give them their distance, let them do their own thing. And they know that I’m here for them whenever they need me.” Her playing career does come in handy in connecting with players, she said, because she can fully empathize with the competing demands that student-athletes juggle.
Savino’s relationship with Rizzotti has also had to evolve as Savino became a player and then a staff member. “It was probably a little bit harder for her than it was for me,” Rizzotti said, “because she’s just a really great kid and she’s easy to get along with.” Savino characterized their relationship now as “professional,” more similar to when she was a manager than a player. But for Rizzotti, one of the best aspects of hiring Savino has been getting to know her better on a personal level. “She’s way more playful and witty than she let on as a player,” Rizzotti said. “… She’s a lot funnier and more outgoing … We joke a lot as a staff; we kind of playfully make fun of each other. And she’s right in it … [She] fits in really well with our playfulness, and she gives it as well as she takes it, so it’s fun.”
One thing that hasn’t changed in Savino’s five years at GW? She still plays pick-up. “I still beat all the boys in the in the rec gym,” she said with a laugh.
After she completes her two-year stint as a graduate assistant, Savino intends to remain in women’s basketball in some capacity, but she is open-minded about her next step. She has thoroughly enjoyed the operations side of the sport, but several people have encouraged her to try coaching. Wherever Savino ends up, Rizzotti is confident that she will do well. “I hope to think that the different experiences that she’s had in her time here, between manager, player, and now grad assistant, [are] going to really help prepare her in the best way possible for her future,” she said. “… It’s very unique and it couldn’t be a better story.”
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