Cute Sports Club Manager

Misangas for everyone, made by your lovely manager!

A High School Stock Character, the Cute Sports Club Manager is the equivalent of the Team Mom for the high school sports club of which she's part. She holds important various roles for the cohesion of the club: cleaning and buying equipment, preparing energy food, keeping tabs on the players' data, and providing moral support to said players.

Usually a pretty and good-hearted girl, she's loved and respected by the club's members. She may be seconded by one or two female assistants (more often than not her underclassmen) who act as her Lancer(s), or as either her girly girl or her tomboy, depending on the girl's own personality traits.

There are two common variations of this character:

1. She's the official team manager who is actually part of the school system. There, the Cute Sports Club Manager has a good chance of becoming an Official Couple with the story's club player main protagonist, even more so if he's the team's captain, such as the Kendo Team Captain. Her assistant(s) and the other club players will then usually go Shipper on Deck for the two.
2. She's the coach's daughter, acting as the unofficial manager of the team. This variation tends to have her be a Tomboy and a sports nut, and either too young to be a viable love interest, or off limits because the coach would kill you (though this has the possibility of romance drama too).

It's not rare for both variations of this character to, at a point, make lucky charms such as hachimaki or misangas for every member of the team. The one she'll design specifically for her love interest will usually have an extra feature or be better made than the others.

A Stock Character in High School sports-themed manga, anime and Dating Sims (usually seen in works of The '80s and Nineties). Metatextually, she's a good way to insert a female character in a male-dominated ensemble.

In the West, this fits as a Discredited Trope. It was popular in The '50s, with such girls functioning as the token girl (or a mix of that and The Smart Guy) in an all male squad. She usually took the form of team managers, water girls, cheerleaders and fraternity sweethearts. Nowadays such characters are much less sympathetic, usually the Alpha Bitch.

An Always Female trope. Since most sports teams are for a single gender, this is often the only way to bring a female lead into a male team, thus another reason why she's so shippable.

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Examples:

Anime and Manga

• Sanae Nakazawa, in the Junior High arc of Captain Tsubasa, is the manga Ur-Example and Trope Codifier. She's a cute-looking, popular Shorttank in love with the Soccer Club captain of Nankatsu Junior High Tsubasa Ohzora, and her assistants are her best friend Yukari Nishimoto (who, along with the rest of the team, ships Sanae and Tsubasa), and her kohai Kumi Sugimoto (who loves Tsubasa). Several years and arcs later, Sanae and Tsubasa marry, and she's pregnant with their child.
  • Yoshiko Fujisawa is Sanae's counterpart in the Furano Junior High Soccer Club. In love with captain Hikaru Matsuyama, and her assistant Machiko Machida is her best friend (who, along with the other members, ship Yoshiko and Matsuyama). She makes hachimaki for everyone, and gives Matsuyama a special one with her confession of love for him sewn on it (which will help them getting out of their Twice Shy issues). This hachimaki will become in later arcs Matsuyama's iconic item, wearing it in crucial matches.
  • In Musashi Junior High, Sanae's counterpart is her and Tsubasa's friend Yayoi Aoba, who is also very close to captain Jun Misugi. There's a buttload of Ship Tease among them, but not a definitive confirmation about them being either an Official Couple or Platonic Life-Partners.
  • The videogames add Youko Katagiri, who is actually the assistant for the National Team and the younger sister of counselor Munemasa Katagiri. She has a slap stick relationship of sorts with Ryo Ishizaki, of all persons.
  • In the WYC manga, the manager of the National Swedish team is a cute-looking nurse named Shirley Marks, the little sister of the team doctor and the best friend of Stefan Levin's dead girlfriend Karin.
• Hiromi in Bakuten Shoot Beyblade, who joined in the second season. She arranges training based on keeping the basics secure, makes sure Kyōju can do his work in peace, and sees to it that any stress doesn't drive the team apart.
• From Harlem Beat, Johnan’s opponents usually thought that Kiriko was this. They have NO IDEA (although she's more of a benevolent one).
• Slam Dunk:
  • Ayako, but as a subversion: while pretty and good-natured, she's much more assertive and tomboyish, practically a Tsundere.
  • Almost at the end of the manga, Akagi's younger sister Haruko gets promoted from Fangirl to Cute Sports Club Manager.
  • Also subverted with Eri from the third movie, who is very Hot-Blooded.
• Eyeshield 21 loves this trope, as it's just about the only way to feature a female prominently on each team, as the cheerleaders are mostly stuck with the role of Chorus Girls.
  • Mamori, Sena's overprotective childhood friend, joins the Devil Bats as manager to try and protect Sena from the worst of Hiruma's bullying.
  • The Oujo White Knights have the cute and hard-working Wakana as their manager.
  • Juri of the Bando Spiders is a sassy young woman who tries to keep the peace between Vitriolic Best Buds Akaba and Kotaro.
  • Maruko "Maria" Himuro of the Hakushuu Dinosaurs subverts this trope to hell and gone. She's cute and she's the manager. She's also the object of team captain Marco's affections, and the reason for his slide into Love Makes You Evil. This leads to the poor girl becoming an Emotionless Girl until his eventual defeat.
  • Subverted even more violently by Megu Tsuyumine, manager of the Zokugaku Chameleons, who despite being romantically connected with star player Rui Habashira and quite attractive, looks and acts exactly like a stereotypical sukeban, with her blonde hair, long skirt and shinai which she uses to dish out blows to the groin of anyone who crosses her (her idea of a recruiting pitch is "Join the football club, or I'll crush your balls!").
• Discussed/invoked in the Scorebook manga, where the two remaining members of the boys' baseball club dream about getting a manager like this.
• Princess Nine has one of these, but the romance element is left out, presumably because the writers didn't want to do the lesbians thing. Also Lampshaded: the individual in question wanted to become one of these like in the manga she reads, but was disappointed to find that her all-girl's academy she attends didn't actually have a baseball team. When she heard they were putting together a team, she promptly recruited herself to the surprise of everyone else.
• In the Full Metal Panic? Fumoffu episode "The War Cry of Excessiveness", Sousuke and Kaname (of all people) are roped into coaching Jindai High School's failing rugby team. Student Council President Hayashimizu has Kaname fill this role, insisting that she wear a sailor suit, style her hair in twin braids, and carry a large brass kettle in order to specifically evoke this image. However, she doesn't do a very good job because the rugby team's wimpiness annoys her so much that when the Opposing Sports Team trash-talks them, Kaname says "You've got that right!" and starts laughing along with them.
• Ako Izumi of Negima! Magister Negi Magi is this for the boys' soccer team, nominally; it never really comes up and we never see the team. Presumably added in just for the sake of completing the series' authoritative catalog of otaku fetishes. Word of God says she joined because she liked the team captain but was turned down after she confessed, pushing her Butt-Monkey status even even higher. She even manages to demonstrate some soccer skills during the Dodge Ball match.
• Big Windup! has two — Chiyo Shino'oka for the principal Nishiura team, and Suzune Miyashita for Musashino.
• Shion Sonozaki in Higurashi: When They Cry plays this role for the Hinamizawa Fighters, although the team is tangential to the main plot and only shows up a couple of times.
• Case Closed:
  • Asami Uchida was the soccer club manager when Shinichi was in his first year of high school, before he left the team to pursue the Amateur Sleuth ways. She fancied him, but he politely rejected her as he was already in love with Ran. And when she reappeared... it was in a case when she was the victim and barely survived a human-caused fire.
  • Yumi Horikoshi and Noriko Kimoto were the CSCM's for Kogoro's judo club from college, and several years later they're very pretty ladies. But Yumi is murdered in their last college reunion.
• In Ojamajo Doremi's first episode, the Nice Girl Maki Takahashi is the soccer club manager and has a crush on her sempai and the top scorer of the team, Igarashi, but is too shy to tell him (And coincidentally, so is he). She has a magical pendant purchased in Majo Rika's shop, and when Igarashi gets seriously hurt, Maki wishes that she can help him even if she hurts herself. Inadvertently, this activates the pendant's magic: Igarashi is healed but Maki is injured... yet as a plus, this lets them act on their feelings. Too bad Doremi also had a crush on him and thus couldn't say anything.
• The Prince of Tennis:
  • In some of the anime-only training arcs Sakuno Ryuzaki, An Tachibana and Tomoka Osakada get upgraded from Tag Along Kids and Chorus Girls to this.
  • Kotoha is supposed to be this for the Tsubakikawa team, but she's not seen doing work aside of taking peeks at other teams to gather info and failing to get it.
• Moshidora:
  • Minami who's taking over from her equally cute friend Yuki specially after Delicate and Sickly Yuki's death.
  • To a smaller degree, there's also the score keeper Ayano Hojou.
  • Later in the anime, Yunosuke's childhood friend Hanae joins them to make something of herself.
• 14 Juicy is a Slice of Life about a trio of these.
• Several of the girls from After School Sex Slave Club are these. In a way.
• Gender Flip in Cross Manage: The male protagonist is dragooned into being one of these for a girls' lacrosse team.
• Kuroko's Basketball:
  • Satsuki Momoi used to be the manager of Teiko Middle School's basketball club, and now she is the manager of Touhou High School's basketball club. Momoi serves as both, the Love Interest to Kuroko from Seirin, and the Childhood Friend of Aomine from Touhou who doesn't bond with anyone else from his team unlike the other members of the Generation of Miracles.
  • Subverted with Riko Aida. Most people initially assume she is the manager of Seirin High School's basketball club, but she is actually the coach, not the manager. Sometimes, she does fill into this role, though. Not the Love Interest to Kuroko nor Kagami, but there are hints that she and The Captain Hyuuga have something for each other.
• Kurogane features one for its three major Kendo clubs with Tsubame Shiratori being the main one shown.
• Gou "Kou" Matsuoka, manager of the Iwatobi Swim Club in Free!, who also acts as the Audience Surrogate because of lots of Female Gaze.
• Mio Nishizono, manager of the Little Busters Baseball team in Little Busters!.
• Miki, self-proclaimed cycling otaku, is one for the Sohoku team in Yowamushi Pedal.
• At the beginning of Nozomu Nozomi aspiring shortstop Nozomu has a crush on baseball team manager Ide; by the end he's become her assistant after a pair of inexplicable gender benders force him to trade identities with his sister.
• Rui Megawa from Cute High Earth Defense Club LOVE! is a Rare Male Example of the first variety, since the setting is an all-boys school. He's the manager of the baseball club, does all the usual manager duties and is outwardly friendly and sweet, but secretly he takes great pride in the "cute" part. When Yumoto undergoes a sudden personality change and becomes so dutiful and cute that all the sports teams ask him to be their manager, Rui becomes jealous enough to be turned into the Monster of the Week by the villains.
• Haikyuu!!:
  • Kiyoko Shimizu, although she's more aloof and distant than most examples.
  • Kiyoko's later joined by Hitoka Yachi, who's supposed to take over her position once she graduates and fits the stereotype much better.
• Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha: In episode 3, the Victims of the Week are an unnamed soccer team manager and the goalkeeper. Both have a crush on each other, and their desire to stay together forever accidentally triggered the Jewel Seed.
• Hungry Heart: Wild Striker has one of each gender for Kyousuke's team: the Genki Girl Karin Fujisawa and the Adorably Precocious Child Kazuto Mouri who used to be an active soccer player but suffered a Career-Ending Injury.
• Downplayed with Yuki Machida from Cheeky Brat who is very strict with her school's basketball team to the point where they consider her a demon at the worst, and a yakuza woman at the best. Their nickname for her is "Anesan", a term often used for a yakuza boss' wife. When Yuki decides to retire from her post after the second trimester of her final year, the basketball team pictures having a club manager that is cute and easygoing, but Himiko also shatters their illusion of such. That said, she goes above and beyond in supporting the basketball team and takes care of all of their concerns including everything the coach is supposed to, to the point that he does nothing because she's handled it anyway. She gets something of a reputation for this that, upon entering college, she gets asked to join up as their team's second manager because the first one isn't all that great. As well, the downplayed part comes because, despite her stoic nature and sternness, she's something of a Dude Magnet.
• Aurelia Dingle from Inazuma Eleven: Ares is the plucky manager of the main school's soccer team.
• Akira from Kanojo ni Naritai Kimi to Boku is unsure whether to join a sports team because she's transgender. She ends up becoming the manager of the boy's soccer team. Though she's cute and sweet, the team doesn't initially like her. They make homophobic comments about her behind her back.
• The Seidou High baseball team in Ace of the Diamond has four of them (a rival team once told them they're very lucky for having so many cute managers): 3rd year Fujiwara Takako, 2nd years Umemoto Sachiko and Natsukawa Yui, and 1st year Yoshikawa Haruno. The last one is the most prominent as she always dreamed of being a team manager, but she's also a Cute Clumsy Girl who makes mistakes rather often giving her seniors a lot more of extra work.
• In the nineteenth chapter of Asteroid in Love (adapted as part of the sixth episode), Hoshizaki's otherwise all-male baseball team has a girl as its manager, and due to the art style, she's rather easy on the eyes.
• Discussed in one chapter of Monthly Girls' Nozaki-kun where Sequential Artist Nozaki sits in on a basketball club practice for research (as the heroine of a sports story can be a cute, supportive girl manager). Wakamatsu wonders if he intends on filling that role. They're joined by Seo, and she and Nozaki end up acting like the complete opposite of this trope.
• In The Girl I Want is So Handsome!, Hina joins the basketball team as a manager, since Shiki, her crush on the team, mistook her Love Confession as a request to join. The team is entirely female, but Hina has no athletic talent, so this is the only way she can participate.

Film

• In Remember the Titans, the daughter of the assistant coach is an example of the second variety.
• The Wildcats 1986 has an example of the first variety.

Literature

• In Run with the Wind, the male Kansei University Track Team has the cute and bubbly Hanako as their manager, and the guys (especially the ones with slight crushes) are affectionate towards her. Interestingly, while she's the official manager and attends the same university in the novel as well as the manga and movie adaptations, in the anime adaptation she's still in high school and so doesn't officially hold this role (but she still acts like one and is very dedicated to the job).

Video Games

• Saki Nijino, in the Kirameki Saga of the Tokimeki Memorial series, is the Dating Sim Ur-Example. In the original game, being one of the easiest girls to win the heart of, she's highly likely to become the main protagonist's love interest; and in the Nijiiro no Seishun canon, they become an Official Couple.
  • Minori Akiho is at first Saki's kohai and assistant, and will oppose their relationship because she's in love with Saki; she'll let it go in the end, though. She then becomes a Cute Sports Club Manager herself in Tabidachi no Uta, once Saki graduates and once she takes under her wing her kohai Tomomi.
  • It's not her main gimmick, but Shiori Fujisaki can become one if the calculations of her starting parameters set her as a member of the Soccer or Baseball Clubs.
  • In the Radio Dramas of the first game, Megumi Juuichiya is the manager of the Basketball Club.
  • In Tokimeki Memorial 2, Kaedeko Sakura is the Cute Sports Club Manager of the Baseball Club of Hibikino High, and later, after she transfers, of Daimon High.
  • In Tokimeki Memorial Girl's Side, Konno Tamami is the Cute Sports Club Manager of the Basketball Club and is your rival for Suzuka Kazuma. The Player Character can become the Cute Sports Club Manager of the Baseball Club and be the love interest of Hibiya Wataru. In Girl's Side 2, the player character can again be the manager of the baseball club, this time in order to romance Shiba Katsumi.
• The Persona series:
  • Yuko Nishiwaki in Persona 3.
  • Ai Ebihara in Persona 4. Unusually for this trope, she did not become the manager by choice. Her attendance was low, so she was forced to become the manager in order to pass. We don't really see her doing any "manager" work at all, and is even vocally disdainful of the position.
• Inazuma Eleven has junior high students instead of high schoolers in this role, but technically it's more or less the same:
  • The three original games have Aki Kino, Haruna Otonashi, Natsumi Raimon, and later Fuyuka Kudou. Either Natsumi or Fuyuka will become Endou's wife, depending on the continuity. (Natsumi in the anime, manga and Go SHINE games, Fuyuka in the Go DARK games.)
  • The Inazuma Eleven GO games, set 10 years after the events of the first three games, have Aoi Sorano, Akane Yamana and Midori Setou.
• In Fate/stay night, one of Rin's classmates that she talks to at the beginning is a very cute girl named Yukika "Yukicchi" Saegusa◊. Rin specifically says that she's the manager of the track team.
• Ensemble Stars!: In Summer Sky Stories, Anzu tags along with Subaru to check out the basketball club and essentially spends a day doing this, getting drinks and towels for the boys during practice. Said boys are so pleased they suggest she become the official club manager, but they also acknowledge that it'll be a lot of work and she's busy enough already as a producer. (She, being a Workaholic who hasn't had much to do recently, looks excited about that, but presumably she does end up too busy in the end to keep it up.)

Western Animation

• Hurricanes: Amanda Carey is a 16 year old girl who inherits a professional soccer team, the Hispanola Hurricanes, when her father disappears. The team already have a head coach but she basically becomes club chairwoman.

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