They labor behind the scenes for 40 hours a week, before practice, during and after. Sometimes they work 13 hours on Saturday. Every cleat, pad, helmet, compression shirt and facemask is meticulously prepared, all without any notoriety or public recognition. This is the life of a student football manager.
For the dozen UCLA Bruin student football managers, the fall is a season of routine. They spend countless hours setting up what they call “loops” ““ small, portable packets of clothing and equipment wrapped together so the players can easily access their attire before lifting weights, taking to the practice field, or storming the Rose Bowl on Saturday for a game. They pack and unpack, shag balls, and set up drills. They even take those pesky phone calls from the press box during the games.
“I usually answer the calls from the linebackers and safeties coaches,” fourth-year communication studies student Jenny Tang said. “They’ll call from the press box and ask for a specific player ““ probably to yell at.”
So how was this band of merry managers formed?
Most were introduced to the idea by friends who were equipment managers themselves. “One thing I do is ask the kids to bring somebody in they know,” Tony Perri, who is in his third year as director of Equipment Operations, said. “The last few years it’s been working well.”
Josh Hernandez, a fourth-year student and this year’s head student manager, played football in high school and knew someone whose brother was a manager at the time.
“It’s kind of like, you just know someone and then they bring you in,” Hernandez said.
Although Hernandez’s football career is over, he can still experience the camaraderie of being part of a team.
All told, the 12 football managers comprise a diverse group of students, including psychobiology, political science, history, international developmental studies and communication studies students. While juggling academics, football managers work what amounts to a full-time 9-to-5 job. But they are financially compensated for their efforts; every manager is on partial scholarship.
A typical week consists of five to six hours of daily work on weekdays and up to 13 hours on Game Day, when they arrive at the Rose Bowl five hours before kickoff and leave three hours after the game ends.
“They put in a lot of hours,” redshirt senior punter Aaron Perez said. “They’re here almost all the time we’re here, and they don’t get to go out and wear their name on their jersey.”
During the week ““ the routine
Much of a manager’s life is repetitive, preparing the “loops,” packing bags, and gathering laundry day after day, week after week. There is such a veritable mountain of laundry, produced by more than 100 Bruin football players, that there are two helpers unrelated to the equipment managers to assist with the process.
“We have these really big carts that players throw jerseys and practice pants and all that stuff in,” Tang said. “Think of one person’s laundry’s needs … multiplied by over 100 players.”
On the practice field, managers work intimately with coaches. In addition to overseeing the clock, shagging balls, working the chains and setting up drills, most student managers work with a coach. Some even orchestrate personnel cards, so when offensive coordinator Norm Chow calls a play, a manager holds up a white board allowing everyone to see what is being run.
“That’s our job as student managers,” Tang said. “To make sure all players and coaches have to worry about is playing and coaching.”
On Game Day, they show up early to prepare the locker room for the players who will be arriving a few hours later. The managers unpack bags, prepare gear for both the pregame warmup and the game itself, and even tape linemen’s jerseys to their shoulder pads to prevent them from being tugged.
Once the game starts, a few managers monitor the offensive bench and others, the defensive bench. If a dreaded wardrobe malfunction should ever occur, a manager is quickly there to correct it.
“If a player needs to take off a visor, we’ll do that,” Tang said. “If a player needs to add a back plate we’ll do that. If they need more air or less air in their helmet, that’s all us.”
Such reparations were needed at Cal this year, when senior defensive tackle Brigham Harwell’s jersey ripped ““ the managers quickly replaced it. They bring backup pants to the game as well, in case such a replacement is ever required.
After the game, they collect all of the players’ jerseys and towels and repack everything onto the team’s giant blue equipment truck.
“If we don’t collect it,” Tang said, “it’s going to get lost.”
Worth the reward
For someone like head manager Hernandez, the contributions of a manager to the team ““ although largely unknown to the public ““ are invaluable. Hernandez works with defensive coordinator DeWayne Walker during games and sends formation sets to the defense.
“I hold up personnel cards ““ it tells the defense what offense is on the field,” Hernandez said. “I’m actually involved in the game.”
Managers have a friendly rapport with the players as well. Veterans like Harwell and Perez are quick to joke about the managers.
“The five years I’ve been here, you know what, they’re kind of mean,” Harwell said. “They give us a hard time if we lose our socks or whenever we ask for new gloves.”
Harwell also shared genuine thoughts about their relationship.
“They’re cool people,” he said. They’re fun.”
Tang, who has been with the team for nearly three years, echoes the same sentiment about the players she helps.
“I’m really good friends with a lot of them,” she said. “It makes practice and games fun. I get to watch my friends play and I get to work with them.”
This makes all of the work, late-night flights ““ managers arrived home from Seattle at 5 a.m. after last week’s 27-7 victory over Washington ““ and laundry worth it.
“We definitely do a lot for them, but it pays off when we win,” Tang said.
The team of managers is a playful bunch. Traditionally, they initiate the incoming head manager by unsuspectingly holding him down and wrapping him in training tape. They have played pranks on the players too.
This year, the managers hid third-year history student Michael Ghobrial, who was a walk-on outside linebacker as a freshman before injuring his thumb, inside an equipment trunk with the label “Free T-shirts” on the outside. As players trickled through the locker room after practice, many curiously opened the case, only to find Ghobrial waiting to yell and startle them.
The managers have also enjoyed a new emphasis on having fun this year largely thanks to new coach Rick Neuheisel.
“The atmosphere is different,” Tang said. “We play music at practice now. We play music in the locker room and we never used to be able to do that.”
Neuheisel was once the victim of an equipment manager gaffe, way back when he was a freshman walk-on. Operations director Perri, who funnels information from coaches to his equipment managers, began as a student manager himself when Neuheisel was a player.
“When he came in to get his gear,” Perri said, “we didn’t have him on our list. (We said) “˜Sorry pal, you have to go, you’re not on our list.’ Finally, coach (Terry Donahue) called and said, “˜Yeah, he’s on the team.'”
Eventually, the managers figured it out, as they always seem to. No manager could remember ever not having the appropriate equipment, jersey or backup gear.
Aaron Perez summarizes their importance best.
“Without equipment managers,” Perez said, “we don’t have equipment.
“People don’t realize how important they are for this program. “
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