While many people’s windshields were still covered with frost on a frigid Thursday morning, there was a bustle of activity forming in the Mississippi State softball parking lot.Scooter Kellum, the head equipment manager for the MSU softball team, was having a conversation with assistant head coach Bo Reid before the majority of the team arrived.
Kellum, with breakfast pastry in hand, was about to experience the climax of a week of hard work of getting the team prepared to travel to Palm Springs, Calif., to participate in the Cathedral City Kickoff.
“[Having to go on a long road trip is] a lot harder because you have to load the bus and then go to the airport,” Kellum said. “Being in California, you have to make sure everything’s right.”
There’s hardly any room for error. Mapquest.com says Palm Springs is about 1,900 miles from Starkville. If something major is forgotten, it’s forgotten.
Kellum added that it’s also a challenge to play so far away because the team never really knows how much equipment will be provided.
“When you’re here [in Starkville], everything’s here,” he said. “In California though, we don’t know if we’re going to have batting cages or what accommodations we’ll have, so we’ll just have to see once we get there.”
Managing the softball team’s equipment isn’t the only source of stress for Kellum, however.
He had a tough week, having to balance preparing the team for a trip to California with his studies in physical education.
“I’m really scared of forgetting something because Coach Miller has put that responsibility on me and told me that I’d be held responsible,” he said. “But duties come with being head manager, so that’s the way it should be.”
Kellum said that the girls have the responsibility of packing their own two bags.
One is a bat bag, which contains the players’ gloves, cleats, and other personal equipment. The other is a clothing bag, which must weigh under 50 pounds.
Once the girls have their bags packed and brought to the team bus, Kellum said that it’s the equipment managers’ responsibility to load the bags onto the bus.
“The players basically only have to show up and play,” Kellum said. “And that’s the way it should be. After all, they’re the players.”
The night before was full of activity as well. It was that Wednesday night that Kellum and his managing team sorted and distributed the three sets of uniforms the players wore in California to each girl’s locker.
The players were to take their uniforms home and pack them into their bags and bring them Thursday morning.
One of the first women to arrive was senior centerfielder Hayle Guess.
A smiling Guess pulled her equipment bag from the back of her vehicle and draped it over her shoulder, but the bag was quickly taken from her by Kellum.
Guess joked to Kellum that her shoulder “didn’t hurt that bad” after off-season surgery, to which Kellum responded, “I’m taking no chances. We need you to play this weekend.”
Guess appeared ready for the long trip ahead, partly because this would be her fifth trip out West with the team.
“I’m just as excited now as I was when I was a freshman,” she said. “If anything, my attitude has only gotten better in realizing what kind of good things we have going on, and there’s no added pressure anymore.”
Guess added that she felt the team was very prepared for the weekend, just as it would be no matter where it was playing.
“Honestly, we prepare the same way, whether it’s California, Georgia or wherever we travel this year,” she said. “The competition is always fierce. We work hard to prepare ourselves from the tournaments, into SEC play, to wherever we end up.”
Guess said with a laugh that being a female and having to pack a clothing bag staying under the 50-pound limit was definitely a challenge.
Guess, like her teammates, had already made the necessary prior arrangements with her professors for the class she’d miss while being on the road.
She said that sometimes assignments can be done before the trip, but sometimes it takes setting aside time on the trip to study and that it mainly takes self-discipline.
Guess joined her teammates that had just begun to straggle into the parking lot, car by car.
It was clear that a lot goes into playing in out-of-town tournaments before the team can even think about stepping onto the field ready to play.