Any mom can tell you that washing clothes and picking up after just one college kid can be hard enough. Try doing that for 100 college guys.
That’s just part of the job of equipment manager for the Mississippi State football team. For head equipment manager Phil Silva and his staff of 15 student workers, game week is just as hectic for them as it is for the players and coaches.
“People just don’t understand what we do,” said Silva, a 21-year veteran. “We do a lot of stuff behind the scenes.”
Game week for Silva starts at 8 a.m. Monday with a staff meeting. From there it evolves into a plethora of different jobs that have to be done by the equipment staff.
The equipment staff is responsible for everything from getting the practice jerseys ready for the team to reserving the buses the team will be using to making the opposing team’s jerseys.
The opposing team’s jerseys?
“For the scout team,” Silva explained. “We made purple jerseys for LSU and we made black jerseys for Vanderbilt.”
The equipment managers also take apart most of the helmets to polish and clean them. That’s not something that can be done in half an hour. The equipment staff spends many hours during the week to make sure that everything is ready by game day.
Game day
For some people game day means tailgating. For others it means sitting in Colvard Union watching football on the big screen TV with friends. For the equipment staff it means a whole lot of work.
During the game the staff makes sure the coaches and players have everything they need, from working headsets to the mist blowers during hot games.
“We just try to make sure we have no problems with anything on the sidelines,” Silva said. “Then after the game’s over we’re just picking everything up. We’ve gotta pick everything up and move it back over here (the equipment room in Shira Fieldhouse). Every game for us is like a road trip.”
After everything is moved back over to Shira, the washing starts. Everyone knows how long it takes to wash one load of clothes. Multiply that by about 10 and you will understand how long it takes the equipment staff to wash all the uniforms.
“The Oregon game didn’t end ’til a quarter to 12 (midnight) and by the time we picked up everything and got the laundry we didn’t leave the stadium til 2,” Silva said. “I left three guys to do the laundry and they didn’t leave ’til about five.”
And this is for a home game. For away games, the nights are much later and can even stretch over into the next day.
“On a road trip we fly everything home with us and I do all the laundry,” Silva said. “After the Houston game we landed at about a quarter to 3 a.m. and me and two other guys that fly on the plane with me started the laundry. I didn’t finish ’til about a quarter to six. Then the bus comes (with the rest of the equipment staff) and then the truck comes. The bus showed up at nine and the truck showed up at 10 so I took me a nap for a little while before we had to unload the truck.”
So with all this work, why would anyone want to be an equipment manager? Student assistant Billy Drane says that it’s all about being close to the football action.
“I like being around the game,” Drane said. “I played football in high school and this is really my best opportunity to stay around the game.”
Drane said that being an manager has provided unique experiences that other students don’t get.
“You get to see things from a different perspective–what it looks like from behind the lines,” Drane continued. “(People) don’t realize what all goes on to make a game happen.”
Silva agrees, “If we’re not there, it’s hard for the game to happen. We put the game on. We try to do everything we can to help the team win. That’s the big thing.”
Drane says that the complements the staff receives from the players and coaches make all the work they do worthwhile.
“The best thing is when guys look at their helmet and see how their locker is set up on game day and notice how we’ve cleaned them all up and everything looks top notch and almost professional. I’ve had a couple guys come up to me and say ‘We really appreciate what you do.’ That’s the best.”