Fourth Annual Pac 10 Eq Mgrs Meeting a success

The fourth annual Pac 10 Equipment Managers was a huge success. Everyone got into Las Vegas with no problems, attended some great meetings, enjoyed some golf, and left for home on time. Everyone arrived around noon this past Wednesday (May 20) and checked into our Excalibur Hotel, which has hosted us all four years. After getting checked in, we all went to Thomas and Mack Center on the UNLV campus. We met for 3 hours and had two great outside speakers.

Our first speaker was Duane Lindberg of the Pac 10 office in Walnut Creek, CA. He talked to us about the importance of branding of our conference. He talked about importance of logos on our uniforms. He also talked about different operation functions that affect us. Then he was nice enough to open the floor for questions.

After that, Jon Cooperstein talked to us about different Bowl gift programs that can help us take care of our teams better. Jon has extensive background with a number of bowls, including BCS bowls, with their bowl package gifts.

The next morning we had Thad Ide of Riddell speak to us about the development of the Revolution helmets. He did a great job of going all the way back to the 1970's with design of helmets. He had awesome videos of research done on different kinds of impact. He then show more videos of impact when chinstraps are not properly fit, or helmets not properly fit. The presentation was AWESOME.

Then, Dick Lester, had the difficult task of following a great presentation on a talk about liability and how it affects our jobs. He did a tremendous job of opening up talk and discussion among all of us. His presentation was a talk that ALL equipment managers should have to hear. He talked about how important it is for each of us in the equipment managing business to be the professional in determining helmet and shoulder pad fitting.

We then had the great opportunity to hear from Tina Kunzer-Murphy of the Maaco Las Vegas Bowl. She talked about the importance of our role with our teams and how we can help their bowl and our teams to be successful while at the bowl. She had Paul Puccarelli, Head Equipment Manager at UNLV talk to the group about logistics while using his facilities during that week. Since our conference has a tie in to that bowl, this workshop was incredibly important.

Along with all the workshops and meetings, we were able to have open discussions about important issues that confront us each day.

Then on Thursday afternoon, we were able to enjoy an afternoon of golf at Wildhorse Golf Club in Henderson. Steve McCoy was the individual winner with a score of 76. Wow, what a round!

We are already putting together ideas for next years meeting, which will be the Fifth Annual Meeting.


From L to R: Greg Allen of USC, Paul Lopez of ASU, Milton Neal of WSU, and Tino of USC:

From L to R: Tino Dominguez of USC, Gary Hazelitt of Stanford, Bart Fullmer of Washington:

From L to R: Steve McCoy of Oregon St, Arnold Alcantar, also from OSU, Pete and Tony of UCLA, Mark Zimmer of ASU, Josh Pietz of WSU, David Moosman of Cal, and Tim Pfennig of Arizona:

Pete Maglieri and Tony Perri, both of UCLA:

Paul Lopez of ASU, talking with Milton Neal of WSU:

Thad Ide, VP for Research and Development for Riddell:

Dan Vooletich, Dick Lester, Thad Ide, and Mike McBride: