University of North Carolina Athletics
All In A Day's Work
October 30, 2002 | Football
Oct. 30, 2002
UNC Football Equipment Staff
|
By Meg Schiffman
UNC Athletic Communications
It's another day of football practice. The Tar Heels hustle out, find their positions on the practice fields and hunker down for another strenuous work out. Somehow, all the balls are already in line, the tackling equipment set up, the tees in place. Is it the football fairy?
Hardly. It's the work of Carolina's equipment managers, proving once again that without their dedication and hard work, organization at practice and games would run amuck.
"It would be total chaos without them," offensive lineman Jeb Terry said. "They make our lives at practice run incredibly efficiently."
They're the ones in charge of everything no one thinks about - the loads and loads of laundry, packing and unpacking the equipment truck before and after games, ordering the after-game snacks, ensuring the safety of each players' equipment, setting up before practice and cleaning up afterward. During practice they catch the snaps, they toss, catch and pick up balls, they hand off ball and sticks, they time the periods -- all the little things that make a football program tick.
"It makes it so that the coaches can concentrate on coaching and the players can concentrate on playing," said assistant equipment manager Jason Freeman. "We're here to do these things so they don't have to."
 |
"You gotta have fun. It's a lot of hours, but it doesn't bother me a bit. Working with these guys makes it worth every second."
|
"You gotta have fun," Yaekel said. "It's a lot of hours, but it doesn't bother me a bit. Working with these guys makes it worth every second."
On the field, before, during and after practice and games, they get serious - they've got a job to do. Off the field, down in the equipment room, it's a whole different ball game.
"We have a lot of fun down here," said Morelli, now in his 22nd year on the job. "It's a great environment to work in - it's a way to keep me young."
No one goes by their real name, and "if there's ever a disagreement, we just break out the boxing gloves," laughed student manager Derek Drake.
efore Drake could respond when asked his nickname, a chorus of deafening "Deeeeeez" rang out.
"There's T. Hizzy, Wolf, J-Bone, Hartley, Deez, H. Pizzy, Yakel, Domo...the list goes on," said head student manager Brandon Reynolds, who hopes to work for a professional team when he graduates.
They certainly know how to have a good time, riding to and from practice in Gators and their old, beat-up prison van they call "the Hoopdie," but they take their work and their love for football very seriously.
"I love the game," Reynolds said. "You can't do this job for the money - its gotta be for the love of the game."
Their diligence and devotion rarely goes unnoticed, although it may be taken for granted. Both players and coaches alike are sensitive to the fact that without the managers' help, the team could not function.
"They're great," said defensive end Will Chapman. "They're out here working hard everyday making sure practice runs smoothly. The players appreciate it - we know they're in it just like we are, everyday. They're extremely dedicated."
Morelli may have the stressful job of overseeing the team's budget on top of being head manager, but he can't imagine being in any other environment.
"The environment is such that I can bring my kids to the games to give them the chance to get involved as well," Morelli said. "You get the opportunity to be involved with the team, the coaches, the game, and it teaches you to cope with losing and how good it feels to be successful - it's a good balancing act."
Spend an afternoon with Carolina's football equipment managers and you realize just how integral they are to virtually every phase of the program. They're out there at practice, at the games - and they're in the equipment room until midnight, preparing and loading up for the following day.
"Everybody wants Carolina to win," said Freeman. "But no one wants Carolina to win more than the people in this building."
Meg Schiffman is a senior journalism major from Chevy Chase, Maryland.
