USA - The Men behind the Liberty

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The men gathered in a circle around the Liberty logo at center court, ranging in age from the 18-year-old high school senior Len Chenfeld to the 53-year-old investment adviser Doug Parker. They were all looking for an entry pass into the world of women’s basketball.

“It's a lot more difficult to play against them than one might think,” Steve Senior said of the Liberty.

Liberty Coach Anne Donovan was looking for more than a few selfless players to serve on an all-volunteer male practice squad for her W.N.B.A. team this season, which begins in May.

“It’s so important that this is not about the ego,” Donovan told them. “It’s about making us better.”

Then the tryout tipped off Monday night at the Madison Square Garden Training Center with 15 guys bringing varied levels of experience, from high school to college to recreation ball.

Donovan put them through drills and scrimmages, watching for talent that could help push the Liberty toward its first league title.

“They’re faster, stronger, bigger, and so they prepare us for the best of the W.N.B.A., just in their athleticism and in their strength,” Donovan said. “The second component is they’ve got to be coachable. They’ve got to be able to run plays. When we’re scouting Phoenix, they’ve got to be able to run Phoenix’s offense.”

Chenfeld knows how to run an offense. He is a 5-foot-9 standout point guard from Manhattan who played this past season at Poly Prep in Brooklyn after transferring from Hunter College High School. He wore a dark blue T-shirt with Brandeis University emblazoned across the front, signaling the Division III team he will be playing for next season.

He flashed into the lane against the bigger, older crowd and hit a nifty one-handed floater from about 12 feet, then swished a 3-pointer late in the first scrimmage. Donovan said she was also impressed with how he ran his team.

“It would be a good experience to go against professionals, regardless of gender,” Chenfeld said. “It would be fun to go against people who get paid to play the game every day.”

Parker played as a shooting guard at Francis Lewis High School in Queens. He did not play in college, but he plays now in pickup games for men aged 18-60 on Saturdays at Blue Mountain Middle School in Cortlandt Manor, N.Y., not that far from his home in Montrose.

“I wanted to test myself,” Parker said, explaining why he was here. “If selected, I do have the time available. I’d love to push myself a little and help the team. At 53 years old, I don’t have much to lose.”

Stephen Mears is younger. He averaged 8.8 minutes and 4.4 points in 24 games this past season as a 6-2 shooting guard for Division II C.W. Post. Mears, from Middle Island, N.Y., is set to graduate next month with a degree in criminal justice. His plan is to attend law school. But there is room for the Liberty in his life, too.

“I thought it was cool that I could actually come down and possibly practice with the team,” Mears said. “At my school, I play with the girls’ team. I help them get better. So it wouldn’t be anything different. I’m used to shooting with a girls’ ball. I’m used to playing with girls.”

That would also apply to David Capers, 34, a Home Depot sales consultant in the Bronx with a soft outside touch.

Capers, who played some at St. Bonaventure and then professionally in Europe and Mexico, practiced with the Liberty during the last two seasons. But it was not the more regular plan Donovan has in store for the men soon after training camp begins Sunday.

“Actually, the first time, I was kind of skeptical because I didn’t know how it was going to be,” Capers, a 6-4 shooting guard, said. “But after playing with them, I respect their game because they can play. It’s real competitive. They try to play a little bit more physical than guys, so that makes it even better.”

Steve Senior organized the group that scrimmaged against the women the previous four years. He is a 29-year-old former shooting guard at Division III Kean who lives in Englewood, N.J., and works in Manhattan as a project design manager for Kids Headquarters. The 6-3 Senior came to realize that men against professional women is not always fair.

“The reason the coaches want you there is they want you to go hard to push them to make it very competitive,” Senior said. “But another thing is, they have so many plays that they know already that if you’re trying to chase a girl around and you get caught on a screen, they hit almost every open jump shot. So it’s a lot more difficult to play against them than one might think.”

The Phoenix Mercury and the Los Angeles Sparks recently held tryouts for a male practice squad, and other college and pro teams have used the strategy for years, including Donovan when she coached the Seattle Storm from 2003 to 2007.

“They come in and sign waivers, so if they get hurt, it’s on them and their insurance,” Donovan said. “In Seattle, we hurt several of them, broken noses and banged-up knees and all that. Yet they kept coming back. So to me, it’s why you love basketball. It’s the ballers.”

In the end, Donovan, who is coaching the Seton Hall women full time after this season, kept 11 men and plans to add a few more to the pool, to ensure seven or eight will be available for each home morning practice. Senior is in again, as is Capers. But Parker did not make it. Chenfeld and Mears were picked.

“Of course, they’re not Liberty players,” Donovan said. “But I want them to really invest in what we’re doing, in our successes. I want them to be accountable.”

When the nearly two-hour tryout was over, Donovan called the players back to center court to thank them for coming. She had the men each raise an arm toward the middle with hers.

“Liberty on three,” Donovan said.

“One, two, three, Liberty,” they all chanted back.