University of North Carolina Athletics
Countdown to Kickoff: Meet the Parents
August 11, 2005 | Football
Aug. 11, 2005
For the last two months, we've been getting you ready for the opening of training camp. Finally, it's here. Now we've changed the theme of our football coverage from Countdown to Camp to Countdown to Kickoff. Over the next month, we'll be providing wall-to-wall coverage of Carolina's football training camp. Check back daily for new stories, interviews, practice notes, and practice photos.
By Adam Lucas
All the parents were thinking it. But only one was brave enough to say it out loud.
John Bunting had assembled the entire freshman football class and their parents in a meeting room inside the Kenan Football Center late Thursday afternoon. Varsity players moved into their temporary dorm housing during the day Thursday, and the hours were getting slim until parents officially had to leave their children--they're still children, even when they're 6-foot-3, 240 pounds--in Chapel Hill.
So when Bunting ended the meeting by calling for questions, he fielded a few of the standard-issue parent concerns: redshirting, how the travel squad works and when players know they've made it, the issue of late-night snacking and how it's controlled (Richard Quinn gave a first-hand testimonial for Carolina's strength and conditioning program--since arriving in January the freshman tight end has gone from 218 pounds to 242), the study hall schedule.
And then one father, whose name will be withheld to protect the innocent, asked the most important question of the day: "You're going to take care of my baby, right?"
There were a few chuckles, especially from the players. But it was a legitimate question on what athletic director Dick Baddour described as annually one of the happiest days in his job--the day the University of North Carolina extends a significant opportunity to another group of freshmen.
Bunting smiled at the question, but he also soothed the concern. The theme of one of the last scheduled parent-inclusive events of the day was communication. Parents and freshmen learned how to get health information from head trainer Scott Oliaro. They learned how to handle the pesky media from communications director Kevin Best. They were given a manual of team policies and a training camp schedule. They learned how Bunting feels about rookies having a car (there's no need) and about cell phones (off inside meeting rooms and not on road trips).
By the time they left the auditorium, they'd been given a crash course in becoming a member of the Carolina football program. Most uniquely, they'd learned it from several men who have first-hand experience, as Bunting and assistant athletic directors Rick Steinbacher all are Tar Heel lettermen. Holliday was able to reminisce about his first day on campus, when he sat in a very similar meeting room with Steinbacher and current linebackers coach Tommy Thigpen.
"Corey," Steinbacher was quick to point out, "was homesick that first week."
Players are likely to have a twinge of that same feeling at some point over the next seven days. But they're quickly being enveloped into the Carolina football family. Bunting highlighted the signs that have been posted around the Kenan Football Center all summer that read "Take Pride in Yourself, Your Position Group, and UNC Football."
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Countdown to Kickoff: 30 Days
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"I want to add something to this sign," Bunting said. "And that's that you are family. Everyone here is part of the Carolina football family."
Those signs are coming down soon. They'll be replaced by new ones bearing the senior-chosen motto (and Tommy Richardson brainchild) of the 2005 Tar Heels: "Building a Champion."
Parents will officially turn their kids over to the coaches tonight after a freshman parent's picnic in the North Stadium Box. The 2005 Tar Heels convene for the first time as a team tonight at 9:10.
Tomorrow's schedule includes conditioning testing first thing in the morning and an afternoon practice in helmets only.
Adam Lucas is the publisher of Tar Heel Monthly and can be reached at alucas@tarheelmonthly.com. He is the coauthor of the official book of the 2005 championship season, Led By Their Dreams, and his book on Roy Williams's first season at Carolina, Going Home Again, is now available in bookstores. To subscribe to Tar Heel Monthly or learn more about Going Home Again, click here.
