ARIZONA WILDCAT EQUIPMENT

Great Job, Thank You Coach Comm

2011-09-20T11:05:00.000-07:00

I ordered the new Tempest sideline communication system from Coach Comm a week ago, and Adam Frank of Coach Comm came into town this past Friday and installed the system in our current Coach Comm trunk, along with our NG system.

We had frequency problems at home against NAU and I felt that our older technology had seen its better days, so I confirmed that with Frank Hiett at Coach Comm and we went ahead and bought the new Tempest system. After the game against Stanford, no one was happier than Coach Stoops, and maybe Benny Conger and Mike Valentine. When Coach Stoops headset works well it is better for everyone!

Benny and the managers do an OUTSTANDING job with Coach Comm communication every single game and it can be taken for granted most of the time; but when there are problems, you realize how good we have it most of the time.

There is no better outfit than Coach Comm to take care of all your communication needs! I have been very fortunate to have a close relationship with them since we went wireless with them back in 1997 when I was with Washington State University. I just remember how happy our coaches were at WSU that year, and even happier when we went to the Rose Bowl. I still give much of the credit to Coach Comm and of course, Ryan Leaf.

Anyway, Channel 4 came out to do a story on our set up, and it was ironic that they did the story on the day that we launched Tempest. By the way, we had ZERO problems this game!

Click on the link below to see the story:

http://www.kvoa.com/videos/ua-football-behind-the-scenes-coaches-headsets/

Another Great Job by the Equipment Staff

2011-09-19T17:28:00.000-07:00

Well, the outcome of the game was not what we wanted, but we felt really good about our preparation for the game! Our 8 new students, and 1 new full time assistant now have a few weeks and a few games under their belts and it is making a HUGE difference!

I have always said, my number one role is to surround myself with great people, and I have done that! We have an OUTSTANDING equipment staff and I couldn't be any happier with our work and attitude.

Our staff does an incredible job each week in making sure we have our team ready to play the game. I think what I like the most is they get the job done and seem to have a GREAT time doing it. I have said this before, but we have awesome leadership and 8 incredible new managers that are picking things up rapidly!

I have told many people close to me that I can't remember the last time I had this much fun coming to work. It is so much fun to see things come together as planned.

Like I said, we sure wish the outcome of the game was better, but we see our team improving after playing such a tough schedule. This will be the third Top 10 team in a row that we have had to play. Many of our younger players are really getting an opportunity to learn the college game at an extremely high level.

Below are some pictures of our work this past Saturday in our game against Stanford.

Kristen Javens, a freshman from Chicago, cleans a pair of shoes for the game:

Derek Janssen helps clear out trunks from the locker room to give us more room to work:

Michael Barnett sprays a little ReekOut on a pair of game gloves:

Kristen checks a pair of game gloves before the team arrives:

David Bodzin moves trunks from the locker room to the hallway before we take them to the sideline:

Jordan Aronson, a freshman from Boston MA area, helps get the locker room set up properly.

Mike Valentine double checks each locker before the team arrives to the stadium:

Many home game weekends, we host recruits from all over the nation, and I always speak to them before the team arrives at to the locker room:

This is what we set up to display equipment for our recruits:

Dana Cooper, of IMG, always checks to make sure communication is set for post game locker room interviews:

Longtime friend, Andre Moore of Houston, TX, came to Tucson to spend the weekend and game with me:

This is what the recruits saw when they walked in the team locker room:

Lending a Hand

2011-09-16T12:02:00.000-07:00

As fun as yesterday was, the fun just gets better by the hour! Today is day before the game, and the excitement really starts to pick up!

The managers started showing up for their duties at 8am this morning in our home locker room, where we dropped of the player bags last night.

Then, at 10:30am, we met Stanford's equipment manager, Gary Hazelitt and his truck drivers to help them unload their equipment into their locker room. Gary is not only a GREAT equipment manager, but a really GREAT guy. I enjoy Gary as much as any other equipment manager! I always learn something new from him, and I ALWAYS laugh at his humor.

We will finish up with all of the player's lockers later this afternoon and we will have security set up at the locker room and set our alarms until we return tomorrow to finish up our work.

Below are some pictures of work going on over at Arizona Stadium this morning.

Painters work on south endzone this morning in preparation of tomorrow nights game against Stanford:

Looks like painters are working on one of the two Pac 12 logos on the playing field:

More painters working hard the day before the game! Here, they are working on the A at midfield:

This is our old video board, which we still use, in the north end of our stadium. The next picture will show you the difference with our new video board:

This is the new south end video board, as you can see, it is a considerable upgrade!

Stanford's equipment truck arrived to our stadium at around 10:30am today.

David Bodzin carries in sodas from the Stanford equipment truck:

Brennan Smith helps unload Stanford player bags into their locker room:

Gary Hazelitt, hand on truck, is Stanford's Head Equipment Manager, and a dang good one at that!

Benny working hard as usual, assisting Stanford with unloading their truck:

Robert Lloyd assist with some of Stanford's players bags:

Matt Sterling, one of our student equipment room assistants, helps Stanford unload this morning.

Amber Sipe, freshman from right here in Tucson (CDO H.S.), works on the helmet of one of her players this morning during her designated time to work in the locker room:

THURSDAY!!!!!

2011-09-15T09:25:00.000-07:00

You can feel it when you arrive on campus every single Thursday of a home football game weekend........it is time to play some football!!!!!!

Even when you get on campus real early in the morning, even before sunrise, you can feel it! Whether it is all the traffic directional markings out on the roads leading in to campus, or all the party rental tent companies putting up tents, you can just feel the excitement starting to swirl.

You can count on it, a little later this morning, there will be lines at the ticket office upstairs of people snatching up the remaining tickets. Visitors will start stopping by the equipment room, especially former players. It is just exciting!

Enterprise dropped off our equipment truck early this morning for us to use for hauling all the equipment to the stadium. Just another sign game time is getting close.

Well, as things pick up around campus, it also picks up here in the equipment room. Each Thursday morning of game week, 3 or 4 managers will come in between classes and put tape on our shoulder pads. Since we do not wear shoulder pads on Thursday practices, we started to tape on Thursday mornings just to better utilize our time. The tape will stay on the shoulder pads this way until Saturday when we start pulling jerseys onto the pads right before the team arrives to the stadium locker room from the hotel.

Below are a few pictures of 3 of our AWESOME student managers that have volunteered to come in and help out.

Brennan Smith, a freshman from here in Tucson, is putting tape on of the players we tape for every single game.

Robert Lloyd, one of our leaders and a senior from the Bay Area, is coming in and doing extra work as usual! Robert is doing a fantastic job in so many ways and so many areas. He will be hard to replace!

David Bodzin, another senior, is from Texas and is ALWAYS willing to come in and lend a hand! When we asked about people who could come in on Thursdays to help tape pads, David was first one to raise his hand, as usual.
Here, David is very careful to get the tape on the correct way.

2011-09-09T16:21:00.000-07:00

Well, the team didn't play at their best, and it did not help we were playing one of the best teams in the country at their place, before a very hostile crowd. It was a great college football environment for a Thursday night ESPN game.

Even though the game did not turn out great for the Wildcats, our equipment staff did a GREAT job and the entire trip was very smooth and successful.

As usual, our student managers did an OUTSTANDING job of getting our team ready to play. Benny Conger and Mike Valentine also did a GREAT job of leading our students into action. We are so fortunate and blessed to have such good people in our equipment operations!

Below are some pictures of our work to get our team ready to compete against the Cowboys.

David Bodzin starts out the process soon after we arrive the night before the game by unpacking player travel bags in to lockers:

Benny and the managers did a GREAT job of getting our truck unloaded into our locker room on Wednesday night:

Wes Edwards, head equipment manager at OSU, and his GREAT staff did a tremendous job with hospitality for us:

Jordan Gobel pushes trunks to the locker room, as Benny goes back to the truck compound to get more:

Lots of TV trucks in Stillwater for the game against the Cowboys:
Bob and Bob, the two best drivers in the world, had to be spotted in the truck loading dock area by 9am on Wednesday. ESPN actually did two separate broadcast of the game and there were many trucks in the compound!

Our newest staff member, Mike Valentine, assist with off loading our truck on Wednesday evening:

The managers set out helmets that need touching up with paint soon after we unload into a visiting locker room:

Trunk 27 is our extra helmet trunk. We have to make sure we have back ups if we need them during a game: or while we are on the road:

Benny is our touch up pro of the staff!

After each managers makes a list of their players that need touching up with paint, they set their helmets out on the night before the game so Mike and Benny can make them look real nice!

Mike touches up a helmet on Wednesday night when we set everything out:

David Bodzin pulls a jersey over a set of pads:

I pose in a picture with one of the true legends in our profession, Jim "Shorty" Kleinau. Shorty worked with Mike Stoops while Coach was at Kansas State.

Billy gets something out of a container in Trunk 3, one of our most valuable trunks on the road that Michael Barnett is in charge of packing for each trip. Mike does an OUTSTANDING job with Trunk #3

Mike double checks some paper work before he moves on his list, as Billy puts out valuable bags in each players locker:

Jordan gets Earl's jersey ready for the game against the Cowboys:

Robert pulls Kadeem Carey's jersey over his pads before the team arrives:

Mike enjoys his work on a pair of shoulder pads:

These are two of the coaches trunks that I unload to set up lockers for our coaches:

Billy and Robert get shoulder pads ready before they pull jerseys over the pads:

Jordan pulls another jersey over a pair of pads in preparation:

Billy putting two clothes hangers in each players locker so they have a way to hang up what they wear to the stadium:

Mike Barnett puts some finishing touches on a pair of game shoes before the team arrives:

Sorry Folks

2011-09-07T09:58:00.001-07:00

These past few days have been a blur!

I got about 3 and a half hours of sleep after the NAU game and was back up here at work around 6am on Sunday. I have arrived at work before 6am everyday this week and stayed late everynight and I am just now sitting here in a waiting mode. I apologize to those of you that have been waiting for pictures from the NAU game. As I have stated before, the team is the most important part of my job and I will post blogs when time permits.

I will say that the student managers, Benny and Mike did an OUTSTANDING job of having our team ready to play against the Lumberjacks, in spite of my chaotic state of mind. It has been a LONG time since I have had this much fun doing my job, but it has been CRAZY getting it done. I am doing alot of things different from years past and it has been a real adjustment. I am so fortunate to have such GREAT people around me!!!

As I have mentioned before, our student managers are doing an AWESOME job! I am so proud of our seniors that are showing GREAT leadership; and we have some new managers that are going to be seeing some road trip action sooner than later. What an INCREDIBLE group of Freshmen we have assembled!

We are leaving for the airport in less than 30 minutes. We will hit OKC about 4:30 local time this afternoon. Emerick's Van and Storage, run by Paul Baker, will be taking care of us this afternoon by picking up our travel bags and a couple of trunks and carrying them to Stillwater for us.

Bob and Bob, the two BEST truck drivers in the entire world, called me this morning to say they are already spotted at the loading dock there at the football stadium. The truck is sitting there ready for us to unload tonight when we arrive. I really hope to have some pictures of this trip.

I really appreciate all of you and your patience with my blogging. Things are starting to settle down a little and I hope to get a little more regular with the post.

BEAT THE COWBOYS

GAMEDAY!!!!! THANKS EVERYBODY

2011-09-03T09:39:00.000-07:00

Hopefully I will be able to post some pictures from later today.

I really appreciate your patience with the blog. I apologize for doing such a terrible job with the blog this year! One thing is for certain though, getting our team ready, training 8 new AWESOME student managers, and introducing a new staff member to a new environment is much more important than doing a blog!

I have so many things to be thankful for! Obviously I am really thankful to the AWESOME and WONDERFUL people I have surrounded myself with! I have been so blessed in my 33 years in this business to have worked with so many GREAT people! I have worked with some real super stars in this business! People like my brother, Milton Neal at WSU, JT Galloway at University of Colorado, Paul Lopez at ASU, Josh Pietz also at WSU, and so many more who are just GREAT people! I think of people like Brad Wilson, who is now a principal at Lake Roosevelt H.S. in Coulee Washington (he is also an AWESOME basketball coach and AD), Jeff Bopp with the Seattle Mariners, Brian Rose (pawthentics), and so many more that are just so successful in whatever they have chosen to do in life.

Well, right now, here at UofA, I have a group of student managers that could be the best group of all time! Not to mention, I have some wonderful people in this equipment room that I get to work with every single day like Tom Boesel, Benny Conger, Zac Cook and now Mike Valentine. These guys have been AWESOME this past month! There is NO WAY I could do what I get to do with out these four GREAT men and these 13 amazing student managers.

This is saying alot, since I have had great student managers here at UofA in the past 13 years! It makes me so happy when I see and hear from past student managers that are doing so well in life! One thing about UofA, it produces some great people! These kids get a GREAT education, and a GREAT college experience here. I just have to be careful not to screw it up!

Again, today is a very special day in my life, and as I sit here alone in my office I get very emotional about ALL the great people I have had the privilege of working with all of these years. I have never been happier in my career and it is all because of the people that have put up with me over these years. Also, I am very fortunate to work with GREAT coaches here at UofA! Mike Stoops is by far the best coach I have ever had the honor of working with. I only wish people had the chance to know him like I have been able to know him. Yes, he is an intense man and very emotional (I hope he never looses that either) man, but he is equally intense, passionate and emotional in the way he treats his players, coaches and EQUIPMENT MANAGERS. He thanks me everyday for the job that all of us (including student managers) here in the equipment room. The difference with him and coaches in the past, he not only talks the talk, he WALKS THE WALK!!!

But of course, the most important person I want to thank is my AWESOME wife, Cindy! She is an amazing woman and I would be NOTHING without her! She is by far my best friend too, and she supports me in everything I do, including dumb ideas that I have way too often. She has given me three incredible kids too, and they have always been so supportive and proud of what their dad does. It truly makes a difference.

I know I have left many names off, and it is always dangerous to blog something like this because I run the risk of forgetting people, but I just feel so strong about sharing my feelings and letting people know that it is really about people, not the individual. THANK YOU ALL!

We Are Getting Very Close to Game Week!!!

2011-08-26T17:15:00.000-07:00

Well, some of the players came to the window today and told me that I looked a little stressed. Dang, I can't fool them anymore! The good news is that I am barely stressed, and the even better news is that I am NOT stressed out.

Fortunately, we have very fun jobs that are incredibly rewarding and enjoyable, but there are times where the stress level can sneak up on you.

Today we broke out some game shoes for the players to start working in and breaking in for the NAU game. Even though we issued them the exact shoes they have been wearing all camp, AND even though we have been communicating with them all camp about what they want to wear and what is most comfortable and perform the best.....we still have almost a quarter of the team come up to the window before practice and either tweaked sizes, or changed styles of shoes all together. Fortunately, we were able to accommodate all of their request.

Tomorrow will be a long day of work, and every single minute will be focused on getting ready for our first game of the season against a very good and TOUGH team, the Lumberjacks of NAU. It is always fun to play the Lumberjacks because that means I get to see one of my favorite equipment managers in the business, George Fox. It is always great to visit with George. I always learn something when I visit with George.

Below are some pictures from yesterday's practice.

Defensive scouts are doing their best to make it tough on our kickers on FG's and PAT's:

Robert Lloyd and others are working with QB's during special teams practice:
Colby Matzke, from McKinney, TX works with Coach Kish and the linebackers. Colby is in his first season as a student manager, but in his second year as a student at the UofA.

Dane Schrader, from Monterrey, CA snaps to our QB's during passing drills. This is Dane's first season as a manager, second year in school a UofA:

Introducing Some of the New Faces

2011-08-25T13:59:00.000-07:00

There have been some changes with our football equipment operations over the off season, and I have taken on a much more involved role with the day to day operations. I am very fortunate to have so many good people around me in this overall operation, so this transition has been really smooth.

With football moving into the new North End Zone facility in a couple of years, I decided to move some responsibilities around. Of course, with baseball leaving McKale, that has factored in to the thinking as well.

With all of this said, I feel very good about what we have going on and where we are going with our equipment operation. One thing is for sure, we did a GREAT job of bringing in some new managers. With 5 of them true freshman, the future is really bright; and with the senior leaders we have this year, those new freshmen are being trained by some of the best!

We start off each practice with special teams. Jordan Gobel, one of our senior leaders, is once again coordinating special teams practice with Coach Hammerschmidt.

Benny Conger has really stepped up this year and has made a huge impact on our football equipment operations. He is an extremely popular and fun guy to have in the program. All of us, including the coaches and players, love working with Benny.

One of our very trusted senior leaders, Mike Barnett, has saved the day for us with his new found knowledge of our new practice clock from Coach Comm. Mike Stoops watches our practice clock very close and he depends on us to make sure we stay on time. The clock is AWESOME, but the operator, Mike, is even better! Mike has worked with the manufacturer directly with any questions or problems we may have had with the new clock and has made sure we stay on time each day.

Joe Xavier is a freshman from the Bay Area in California. Joe came highly recommended from one of our past student managers, Colin Jordan. Colin did many great things for us as a student manager, but sending Joe to us has to be one of the best things he has ever done.

Robert Lloyd, another one of our senior leaders, is once again hustling around on the practice field. Robert is once again working with Coach Scelfo and the Quarterbacks. Robert worked with us all summer in the equipment room, and we would not have made it this summer without him. He has turned out to be one of the best I have ever worked with.

Kristen Javens (pictured with white cap on), is a freshman from Chicago, IL. She works with Coach Salave'a on the practice field.

Amber Sipe (holding the stick ball) is a freshman from CDO H.S. here in Tucson. She works along side veteran, Jordan Gobel (pictured) with the defensive line.

Brennan Smith is a freshman from here in Tucson. She went to Pusch Ridge Christian. She works with the defensive backs, along side David Bodzin, a veteran from Dallas Texas.

Jeremy Rosenthal (left) and Jordan Aronson (right) are both new to the program. Jeremy is originally from here in Tucson (Catalina Foothills HS), and spent time with the Oklahoma Sooners; Jordan is from Boston MA and is a freshman. Jeremy is assisting with practices only.

Benny and new full time assistant, Mike Valentine, talk things over during practice. Mike comes to us from Southern Illinois......the Salukies! He is orignially from Indianapolis, IN and has also spent time at Tulane University. We are very fortunate to have Mike on our team. He fits in perfectly!

First Day of School for the Wildcats

2011-08-22T13:15:00.000-07:00

Well, after a long break, and very quick and short summer, I am finally going to try to get going on the blog again.

I truly appreciate all the emails, facebook messages, phone calls and personal comments from many of you that have said they miss the blog. I never realized how many people read and enjoyed the blog.

I can not remember the last time I have had so much fun being an equipment manager! I have been extremely busy, but every minute of it has been extremely enjoyable.

I have decided to start our transition move a little earlier than expected. There have been some changes in our department, and with us moving into a football only equipment room in the future over at the stadium, we were going to have to change our way of operations eventually. As mentioned, there have been some changes, and one of the big ones was the announcement of baseball moving to Hi Corbett which is off campus.

I have decided to make some changes of sport responsibilities within our staff, so I have been extremely busy all summer long with the changes.

I am happy to report that the past few weeks with training camp have been really smooth! It always helps when you have GREAT people around you. Our student managers have been OUTSTANDING since they arrived for work back on July 29. We return 5 seniors, and added 8 new managers. We have 5 new freshman to UofA as managers, and all of us in the equipment room couldn't be any happier with those 5 additions.

They are: Jordan Aronson from Boston, MA.; Kristen Javens from Chicago, IL; Amber Sipe from CDO High School, right here in Tucson; Brennan Smith, from Pusch Ridge Christian also here in Tucson; and Joe Xavier from San Francisco, CA.

Our other three new to the program were already students here at the UofA, but new as football student managers. They are: Derek Janssen from Illinois (he has worked in the equipment room with Benny Conger helping with Basketball and Baseball for the past few years); Colby Matzke from Texas, and Dan Schrader from Monterrey, CA.

These 8 new managers join an AWESOME group of returners, which are showing incredible leadership throughout camp. These five are: Michael Barnett from New City, NY; David Bodzin from Texas; Jordan Gobel from Chicago, IL; Robert Lloyd from San Francisco, CA; and Billy Worthington of Brophy H.S. in Phoenix, AZ.

I hope to start blogging with more regularity, along with always popular pictures. As usual, I am very excited about the upcoming season. Thanks again for all the encouraging comments about the blog. I am glad that there is more than a couple of people that look at the blog each day.

Great Day in the Equipment Room

2011-05-04T14:33:00.001-07:00

Today has been another GREAT day in the equipment room.

It started off with a webinar with the Heery, the architect firm handling our North End Zone project. These guys are the BEST in the business, and we are very fortunate to be able to work with them! We are getting very close to the final drawings for everything in the project. We are extremely excited about the drawings they have for our new equipment room. STAY TUNED!

Then, we had 3 guys from Stahls' visit our equipment room. I have been a very satisfied and loyal customer of Stahls' for about thirty years. They are in Tucson for the NSGA conference being held at the Ventana Canyon Resort. I was able to visit with them at the hotel on Monday evening, and it was a GREAT night for me, as I got to meet Mr. Ted Stahl. The NSGA honored him this week by inducting them into their Hall of Fame. Monday night I asked if they could come by the equipment room for some expert advice. Man, did we ever get that!!!

We have been using one of their Cad Cutters to make our own heat transfer labels and logos, but we have only been using a very small tip of the iceberg in terms of what all it can do for us. The Cad Cutter is one of the best things we have in our room, and today, they made it even more valuable for us!

We mainly use it for making our own numbers and names for our garments (the machine has paid for itself in less than 2 years, many times over!!!), but we have never mastered the 3 color log for our "A" logo. Today, Jason Murphy, National Sales Manager for Stahls', showed Tom Boesel, our very own Stahls' expert, how to do it. As you will see in pictures below, Tom blew it out of the water (as usual).

We are excited that Stahls', led by Jason Murphy, will be leading a workshop on embellishing at our second annual Equipment Clinic on Saturday, June 18, 2011. This will be a workshop that all equipment managers will not want to miss!

Below are some pictures of Tom putting the "A" logo on a pair of shorts:

Tom gets a little help from Dave Wheatley, CSO/Director of Operations, of Stahls'

Tom handles the pressure of an audience like a champ!
First ever 3 color logo, made from our Cad Cutter, hot off the press:

The finished product:

From Left to Right: Wendell, Dave Wheatley, Jaime Flores, and Jason Murphy:

Just Finished First Scrimmage of Spring

2011-04-02T11:25:00.001-07:00

I did not take my camera out to practice this morning, so I have no pictures (sorry), but I just wanted to let everyone know that we had a GREAT scrimmage over in the stadium today. We had some new Pac 12 officials in our locker room before and after the scrimmage. Our new commissioner continues to make GREAT decisions for our conference, and adding some new officials looks as if it is going to pay off as well. It was a good "scrimmage" for us on the equipment staff too. We had a new clock operator, new chain crew, and we still were able to have a good flow to practice. We still have some learning to do on minor details, but hey, that is what practice is for! Two weeks down, and a couple more to go.

DAY 2 of Spring Football Practice

2011-03-26T10:20:00.001-07:00

Yesterday was another great day of practice. Our veteran managers are still working out the details to the new managers that are helping us out this spring.

With all the new help, it does seem very different out there, but it is not just the managers. You can definitely see a newer up tempo style of practice!!!!! We have 3 new coaches out there, and you can see also that there is an emphasis on up tempo (which makes it even tougher to break in new people).

All I know, I see many exciting things out there. You can tell there is a new attitude and guys on the team working hard to "turn the corner". It is very obvious to me that the team is not satisfied with just going to a bowl game every year, they want to win championships!

They have worked very hard all winter, and now they are out on the field working hard too!

I didn't get very many good pictures yesterday, but I will try to get better ones this morning at our 9:45am practice.

Robert Lloyd snapping to Matt Scott, who now wears #10:

Back In the Saddle Again

2011-03-25T15:56:00.001-07:00

Well, we were back into it on Wednesday, the first day of Spring Football practice! It was a GREAT day of weather and football.

For us as a staff, it couldn't have been much better! We had to break in a bunch of new help, with the graduation of so many seniors. Many would expect to have many big problems, but our student veterans did an OUTSTANDING job of leading the new people.

For Tim and I, we were very pleased. Our coaches were pleased as well. After practice, and even throughout this morning, I visited with each coach individually to make sure all of their needs were met, and to a man, everyone of them were pleased.

Now, for me, it has been different! I seem to be busier than normal with so much going on. Tim and I have interviewed close to 20 people for new positions available and it has seemed non-stop! The great news is that we have so many great applicants. It will be hard to turn down so many good ones.

Below are some pictures of Wednesday's practice. I am headed out now for today's practice.

Some things never change, the managers are still snapping balls to the quarterbacks every single day of practice:

Some of the new managers gathering up ball bags between periods:

David Bodzin, a veteran of one whole semester, hustles after a ball during team:

One of our leaders, Robert Lloyd, runs team portion of practice.

Arizona Basketball Back in Top 10

2011-02-21T09:48:00.000-08:00

After a few years absence, the Arizona Wildcat Basketball team is back in the Top 10!

I knew that Sean Miller and his incredible staff would get this accomplished eventually, but I didn't know it would be within 2 years of him landing here, especially with no kind of recruiting the previous year or two.

Not only has he built a great team, but the team is more than 10 deep. Among all of his great attributes, developing players is definitely one of his many strengths.

Then there is recruiting! In his first real full year of recruiting, he has assembled a top 5 recruiting class.

Maybe one of his biggest assets though is his equipment staff. Benny Conger continues to do great things for not only Men's Hoop, but Baseball too. Zac Cook helps Benny so much each day with both of the sports since both of them are going strong at the same time.

For instance, this past Saturday, Zac had everything under control in McKale for the basketball game against the Huskies, while Benny was in the dugout helping baseball get a weekend sweep over North Dakota State.

All in all, it was a GREAT weekend of Wildcat Athletics. Women's Basketball went on the road and got a sweep as well.

Fun times in the Old Pueblo. Tiger Woods and friends are in town for the World Match Play too.

Nice Article On Our New Basketball Locker Room

2011-02-09T09:03:00.000-08:00

Hopefully the links work below on the articles on our new basketball locker room. The team has been in it for a few weeks now, and they LOVE it.

www.azstarnet.com/sports/

Yes, the Team Did Make it to the Alamodome...Sorta

2011-01-26T08:35:00.000-08:00

First of all, I would like to apologize for not posting for almost a month. I have heard from MANY of you about my lack of posting on this blog. There are many reasons that I have been absent from posting, but none of the reasons are very good ones.

The team did make it to the Alamodome, and we did play the game. It was not the outcome that I had hoped for, or for that matter, NONE of us really expected. The end of our season was very frustrating and quite difficult for many of us in the program.

Those of us inside the program know and understand that our program is in the best shape it has been in a LONG time!!!! I have just completed my 13th season, so I have seen and have been directly involved with our football program for a long time. I can tell all of you this, our program is SOLID!!!!!! Mike Stoops is without a doubt one of the best things that has happened to University of Arizona, and he continues to have this program going in the right direction. All of us inside the program are equally as frustrated as our loyal fans, but we have confidence in what is going on, I just sometimes wished our loyal fans knew what we know and had the same confidence.

I love this team, I love this program, I love this school, and I LOVE Tucson!!!!! When we lose, I hurt like everyone else. Even though the past month has been difficult, the most disappointment has been having to listen to so many people who criticize and question Coach Stoops. NO, he is NOT perfect, but he is without a doubt the BEST person to lead our program!!!!!

I will continue to focus on all the good he has done (academics, character, winning, etc) for this program and continue to work hard for him, his coaches and his players!!!! I already feel better just getting this off of my chest!

I look forward moving on past all of this and to start posting things about our equipment operation. I apologize for sounding off about this, but I have to tell you that I needed to do it in order to move on.

Thanks for all of you that have reached out to me and shared with me how much you enjoy the blog. It really inspires me to become better.

Bear Down

Moving Into the Alamodome

2010-12-29T13:27:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was a busy day for us, as we moved the truck from UIW over to the Alamodome early in the morning and set up over at the stadium.

Then, we went to the Kick Off Luncheon at the Marriott Rivercenter Hotel. After the luncheon, we all went with the team back over to the Alamodome for our team picture and practice walk through.

We left the dome at about 4pm and headed back to the hotel. Yesterday afternoon and evening was about the only free time it seems like I had since Christmas eve. It was a very busy, but fun day. You could feel the excitement starting to build for the reason we are here.....the GAME!!!

I am sitting in the locker room right now watching the guys set up the locker room. I will have some pictures later.

Benny Conger, and his wife Greta, attended the Kick Off Luncheon yesterday:

The cheerleaders did a GREAT job of getting the crowd going at the luncheon!

Even Wilbur was in attendance, and he was FIRED UP!

Coaches and players waiting around for the team picture in the Alamodome:
Director of Football Operations, Erick Harper, was showing the coaches where the coaches box was at up in the pressbox area:

Coach Stoops already had his game face and focus working at yesterday's walk through and team picture:

Nick Foles, and other players getting ready for the team picture with Coach Stoops:

The managers were waiting for the picture too, plus they were ready for the walk through practice after the picture:

This was right before we, the equipment staff, were added to the group:

The photographer for our team picture was AWESOME! We were done in minutes!

Our locker room sign out in the hallway of the Alamodome:

Managers were picking up and straightening the locker room up a little after the team left to go back to the hotel after our picture and walk through:

Oklahoma State Strength and Conditioning Coach, Gary Calcagno and I use to work together back at Washington State. We remain good friends and it was great to see him as we were leaving the dome and the Cowboys were arriving for their team picture and walk through:

A Busy Bowl Week!!!!!

2010-12-28T08:15:00.001-08:00

If I had one complaint about this week in San Antonio it would be that I have been so busy that I have not been able to keep up with blogging like I would have. It has not all been work, but also many fun activities.

There has been a dinner every night that I had to attend, and getting in late and having to get up super early every morning made it very tough. I don't feel that I did a very good job blogging this bowl game.

I am sitting in Coach Stoop's personal locker room here in the AlamoDome blogging right now. I have been uploading pictures all morning and just now getting caught up on some stuff.

The morning started early once again, as we had to give our truck drivers a ride over to UIW to get the big rig that we loaded up after practice yesterday. We then moved everything over here to the dome. The managers have been working all morning setting up.

I am getting ready to have to go to a kickoff luncheon so I will blog after I get back and show pictures of the guys working this morning.

It has been a GREAT week, I just wish I could have done a better job of keeping everyone up to date with stories and pictures.

Below are some highlight pictures of the past few days.

The world's BEST rep, Dan Vooletich, made an appearance at one of our practices:

I was able to see my cousin, Mike Kipp, who coaches up the road a little in Blanco Texas:

I was also able to see one of my fellow student managers from my days at the University of Houston, Keith Day:

Another shot of the BEAUTIFUL campus and the managers working practice:

One of our practices at University of the Incarnate Word:

We had GREAT weather and perfect facilities all week!

University of Incarnate Word was a GREAT host and a BEAUTIFUL campus!

University of Incarnate Word is an OUTSTANDING facility, and the people there were AWESOME!!!!

Tito Foster, Juron Criner, Terrance Miller and Dan Buckner here at Seaworld:

Most of the players really enjoyed riding the Steel Eel, including myself (back still hurts though):

Justin Washington exiting the rollercoaster ride:

Derek Earls and Jake Ficsher enjoyed the Steel Eel rollercoaster:

A Very Busy Christmas for the Wildcats!!!

2010-12-26T19:55:00.000-08:00

I am just now sitting down and writing as I have just got back to my hotel room from a dinner I went to tonight with our coaches and the Oklahoma State coaches. It seems to be the first break I have gotten since early yesterday morning, Christmas. So much has happened, but I wanted to blog a little about what all happened yesterday.

After Benny and 3 other managers unloaded everything at University of Incarnate Word on Christmas eve, we went early yesterday to get the team all set up for the next few days.

After getting everything set up, we had practice yesterday afternoon, then back to the hotel for a very nice Christmas dinner.

Below are some pictures from yesterday:

Mike Harlow sets up a player's locker yesterday morning at University of Incarnate Word (UIW):

UIW has a GREAT facility for us to use this week:
This is our equipment room in the players locker room area at UIW:

Here I am setting out valuable bags in the coaches lockers so they can put all their stuff in to, then we lock them all down during practice:

We brought our own towels for the players and coaches to use this week at UIW:
We brought all the essentials for our coaches to use each day:
Robert Lloyd and Ben Hulka helped me a lot in the coaches locker room:

Billy Worthington and Mike Baranowski (driving) use one of UIW's carts they are letting us use this week:

Managers set up one of chutes from Rogers Athletic that we brought from Tucson on the truck:

Alamo Bowl volunteer, Lou Kaluza, helped us out a lot on Christmas Day setting up our locker rooms and assisting in so many ways:

We had the coaches locker room looking nice yesterday when they arrived:

UIW has a GREAT locker room set up for us! We have nice lockers and plenty of space:

Managers did a great job of setting up the lockers at UIW:

Lot of media at our practice yesterday:

Jordan Bates running balls during drills on Christmas Day practice yesterday:

Ben Hulka, working with Coach Kish at yesterday's practice:

Jack Banker running balls during yesterday's practice:

Billy Worthington holding a down marker during team at yesterday's practice on Christmas Day:

Our offensive line after practice on Christmas Day:

Santa joined the team for Christmas Dinner last night:

The team had a very nice Christmas Dinner at the hotel last night:

Players enjoyed Christmas Dinner together, then got their bowl gifts from the Alamo Bowl afterwards:

Managers ate dinner with the team the last two nights:

Mike Harlow eating Christmas Dinner with the team last night:

One of our fabulous truck drivers, Bob Caprari, enjoyed having Christmas Dinner with the team last night:

Truck drivers: Bob Caprari and Bob Keith enjoy dinner with team last night:

Benny Conger, Billy Worthington and Michael Barnett enjoying dinner last night:

Managers: Michael Barnett, Jack Banker and Mike Baranowski enjoying dinner last night:

MERRY CHRISTMAS from Deep in the Heart of Texas

2010-12-25T07:08:00.001-08:00

Merry Christmas!

Well, we arrived yesterday afternoon, and as you can see by the picture below, there were alot of smiles everywhere.

San Antonio is a GREAT destination, and those that had never been here before are blown away of how nice the Riverwalk and the surroundings are. Aleady, the comments from the players, coaches, managers and others that are here for the first time are very positive and they are LOVING it!!!

Once we arrived, everyone went to a welcoming dinner at our hotel. After a few short announcements, everyone had free time.

The equipment staff is meeting at 11am this morning in the lobby so we can get to work over at University of Incarnate Word (UIW). We have to get ready for a 2pm practice.

Benny, Robert Lloyd, Mike Baranowski and Billy Worthington put in a full day yesterday, as they got the truck unloaded at the hotel early yesterday and then set everything up over at UIW.

We hope you have a GREAT day with family and friends!

We Are Done Working in Tucson, Off to San Antonio

2010-12-23T08:04:00.000-08:00

Well, our work in Tucson is done for our preparation for the Alamo Bowl! Tim Pfennig, Benny Conger and the Student Equipment Managers did an OUTSTANDING job of getting this team ready for the bowl trip! Zac Cook and Tom Boesel also played an important role in getting the Wildcats ready. I am very blessed to have so many great people around me. I truly am the LUCKIEST GUY IN THE WORLD!!!!!

Benny and three of our finest managers (Mike Baranowski, Robert Lloyd and Billy Worthington) left this morning on an early Southwest Airlines flight to San Antonio. They will arrive early and get everything set up there for our arrival. The rest of us will fly with the team tomorrow on our team charter. We will all be together Christmas Eve for dinner at the Hyatt Regency Riverwalk, our team hotel.

Then, Christmas day we start working again, as we will have practice that afternoon at University of the Incarnate Word. The entire team and families will have Christmas Dinner together that evening.

Our staff has an AWESOME responsibility of getting this team ready and moved, and they were OUTSTANDING in getting it done. They did a great job of doing a lot of up front work, and that will allow us to have a smooth and stress free bowl week in San Antonio.

Tim Pfennig has an incredible responsibility as my right hand man, and he hit home runs every day since we knew we were going to the Alamo Bowl. Of course, he has had this role for three years and this is his third bowl game in a row, so he has become an expert in moving a team for a bowl game. He and Benny make a great team, and they are GREAT at what they do. Those two make it so much fun for me, and that is why I can not wait to get to work each day! They do not get enough credit for all their hard work and loyalty to me and the program. THANKS GUYS!!!

Below are a few pictures of our last day of work in Tucson.

Benny Conger was given the responsibility to get the truck loaded for our trip to San Antonio. He was able to get all the trunks, player bags, field equipment, and personal luggage (including 4 Christmas Trees for Coaches families) on the truck for our bowl trip:

Once again, Horizon Moving will be responsible for getting the Wildcats moved to the bowl game:

Mike Baranowski takes a personal bag up to the truck. Coaches families started dropping of bags and boxes, Christmas Trees, and even Tricycles at 8am on our last day of practice in Tucson:

Benny had plenty of help from our staff of the GREATEST student equipment managers in the country! I can't say enough good things about our student managers. They are AWESOME!!!

Benny got the trunks loaded up front starting at 6am on our last day in Tucson:

Ryan Ewalt and Benny put out the ramps so the trainers can side load their trunks on to the truck before we take off for practice:

Buses lined up waiting for players, while we are busy loading the truck with trunks and personal luggage:

Players loading up for practice at Salpointe High School, wear they have Field Turf, just like what we will be playing on in AlamoDome:

Players headed to the buses for our last practice in Tucson:

We are Getting Very Close to Leaving for San Antonio

2010-12-20T19:37:00.001-08:00

We only have one more practice here in Tucson, then it is off to San Antonio, DEEP IN THE HEART OF TEXAS, to get ready for the Oklahoma State Cowboys in the Alamo Bowl.

Tomorrow we will load up the truck with everything, then head east on I-10 for San Antonio. Tonight we will have everything ready and we will start loading the truck up first thing in the morning.

Today we finished getting in all the bowl gear and tonight we got it all printed and issued to players. Now all that is left is getting it all to San Antonio.

Practices are going great!

Michael Barnett helps clear the field of HEAVY pop up dummies after passing drills at the beginning of practice:

Billy Worthington helps shag balls during passing drills:

Ben Hulka catches up for Coach Kish. These guys have been together for 4 years!

Managers snap balls to QB's during passing drills:

Jack Banker makes shagging balls look very comfortable and easy:

On the other hand, Michael Barnett knows one speed.......FAST:

Ben Hulka and John Landwehr hustle while running the defense versus scouts:

Tim Pfennig adjust a chinstrap during practice:

Jordan Gobel clears the field after special teams period:

John Landwehr plays QB during OL/DL drills:

2010-12-19T13:39:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was a long, yet very productive day! Below are some pictures of some of our work in getting the team ready for the Alamo Bowl in San Antonio against the Oklahoma State Cowboys.

All the managers put in a long day yesterday to get our team ready for our bowl trip to San Antonio:
Michael Barnett and John Landwehr put double stick tape on the back of the locker nameplates that we made ourselves in the equipment room:

Jordan Gobel puts numbers in the bowl sweats for one of her players that she is responsible for:

David Bodzin retrieves bowl sweats from the boxes so he can number them:

Mike Reed gets some bowl sweats ready for one of his players:

Jack Banker does some weeding so we can number the bowl gear for the players:

Robert Lloyd presses a number in sweat top for the bowl gear:

After we make numbers using our Cad Cutter, the managers have to "weed" the logos:

There are the numbers we use to print players numbers in the gear we give them:

One of the managers responsibilities yesterday was to also issue the gear to the players using the computer inventory system:

Ben Hulka and Jordan work hard yesterday before practice:

Mike Harlow, along with all of the other managers, worked very hard yesterday getting the players bowl sweats numbered and issued to the players going to the bowl game in San Antonio:

Ryan Ewalt uses one of the many heat transfer machines to put number in one of his players bowl sweats:

Jack Banker gets some of his players ready for bowl practice gear yesterday morning before practice:

Adam Grant hits the sled early yesterday in 70 degree weather in Tucson yesterday:

Michael Barnett, Jack Banker and Jordan Bates feed balls to the quarterbacks during passing drills:

Robert Lloyd assist the other managers during drills yesterday:

Managers shag balls for the quarterbacks during passing drills yesterday:

Managers work extremely hard at practice yesterday at Salpointe High School where they have field turf, much like the Alamodome turf:

Billy Worthington hustles an empty ball bag back to the sideline where he and Robert Lloyd assist during passing drills:

Billy Worthington and Robert Lloyd work the sideline during passing drills:

Robert Lloyd loads balls into ball bag during passing drills:

Newest coach, Joe Salave'a works his first practice yesterday at Salpointe High School:

Mike Harlow and Mike Baranowski spot balls during offensive team drills during practice yesterday:

Mike Harlow and Mike Baranowski work the jugs machine for the receivers during special teams period:

Ben Hulka works with other managers working the jugs machine during special teams:

Managers work with Juron Criner on the jugs machine during special teams period:

Jordan Gobel hustles at practice yesterday:

FINALS ARE OVER!!!!!!!!

2010-12-17T15:41:00.001-08:00

We are getting down to less than a week before we load up the truck and head to San Antonio for our bowl game against the Oklahoma State Cowboys. Things are really starting to get much busier, now that finals are over and the players are all done with studying for the semester.

Our student managers were able to get some time off for studying as well. Now, all the focus is on getting our team to San Antonio for about a week of practice and a game.

We will be working all weekend getting ready. Our bowl workout gear is hitting the door as I type, so we have alot of that stuff to get ready for each player.

Today we spent alot of time getting bag tags ready, patches on jerseys, locker nameplates, and of course, practice over at the stadium.

We will be back at it first thing in the morning. We have to host some recruits in the equipment room in the morning, then it will be getting players gear ready, and then go set up for a practice over at Salpointe High School.

You can begin to feel the excitement as time draws close for us to go on the road again!

Tomorrow morning we will talk to some recruits here in our equipment room, so we have set up a display to show them some of our equipment:

We get alot of request for team autographed balls, so we have had the players come by this week to sign some balls:

This is our planned look for the game against the Cowboys in the Alamo Bowl.

Jordan Bates gets the locker name plates organized for our bowl trip to San Antonio:

We do all of our nameplates for road games right here in our own equipment room. Many schools buy them from companies that specialize in this trade, but when you have the BEST student equipment managers in the country, why not just do them yourselves and save the school money?

Ryan Ewalt cuts the nameplates for our trip to San Antonio:

This is a stack of locker name plates for the locker room at University of the Incarnate Word locker room we will be using.

The managers also made luggage and bag tags for all the coaches and football staff to use through out the year and on this upcoming trip to San Antonio.

This is how this years baggage tags turned out, with the Alamo Bowl logo on them:

Coach Stoops has an envelope full of luggage tags with the bowl logo on them:

One of our superstar managers, Jordan Gobel, uses a checklist to make sure each of the players for the bowl game have patches on their game jersey:

Before Jordan sews the patch to the jersey, she uses our heat transfer machine to press the patch, which has an adhesive backing, to the jersey so it is easier to sew on.

Jordan sews ALL of our patches on ALL of our jerseys! She is the BEST!!!!!

Jordan putting the final stitches to the patch and jersey:

Meanwhile, Benny gets the basketball team all packed up for their trip to NC State for a game on Sunday. They just played last night and then they leave after a morning practice tomorrow. Things are busy in the equipment room!!!

No Practice Today

2010-12-13T12:54:00.000-08:00

The players, managers, water techs and video student workers are all in the middle of final exams. Plus, our coaches are all out recruiting, so we will not be practicing today.

I was in the weight room getting a little treadmill workout in during lunch, and noticed that Coach Edmonds and his staff did have many of the players in the weight room getting a good workout in too.

Today, Tim and I have been working with Caesar Martinez at University of The Incarnate Word going back and forth about field equipment we may be able to use for our practices at their campus. He has been great about taking pictures of their items and emailing them to us to see if we can utilize any of it so we won't have to haul our stuff all the way out to San Antonio. Just like their facilities, they have nice equipment too!

Tim has also come up with a player checklist for each player so the managers have something to go by as they pack their player bags for the trip. Since the weather may be cooler than normal, we have to take those things into consideration. The good news is the weather will be perfect for the game!!!!!

We are also keeping in touch with Julie Turpin at Walt's Distributing to keep track of where they are at with our bowl items for the players and coaches.

It is nice to get a day off of practice, but we are finding enough stuff to keep us busy today.

SUNNY and 70 degrees in Tucson for Practice Today

2010-12-12T11:28:00.001-08:00

It was another normal, chamber of commerce, kind of day in the Old Pueblo today for practice. Warm temperatures and PLENTY of sunshine made for a GREAT day for a Sunday practice in December.

Today was another GREAT practice, as the team works hard to prepare for our game against the Oklahoma State Cowboys in the Alamo Bowl game on December 29th in San Antonio.

I was able to get some valuable planning done with our video coordinator, Tim Cummins earlier today. He and some of his staff will be arriving before the team in San Antonio to set up 9 meeting rooms at the hotel. His equipment will be on our Semi Truck that will be delivering at the team hotel the morning that the team arrives. We will also be sending a crew early to San Antonio, and Benny Conger will lead that group of people and he will coordinate all of the off loading of the truck at the hotel and practice site.

There are many moving parts in the movement of an entire football program for a week. It takes a lot of focus and planning to pull it off. Fortunately, we have many good people in our program, so we should have no problems.

Below are some pictures from today's practice.

Robert Lloyd is positioned to retrieve balls from the receivers during pat and go drills early in practice. Once he gets the balls from the receivers, he puts them in a bag near him. When that bag is full of balls, another manager hustles that bag of balls to the managers that are snapping to the QB's:

Billy Worthington works with Robert Lloyd to gather balls from the receivers during passing drills:

Four managers snapping to the QB's during passing drills. You can notice that Jack Banker just ran a bag full of balls for them to use that Jack and Michael Barnett gathered from players on the sideline:

Jordan Bates, Mike Baranowski, Mike Reed, and Ryan Ewalt, snap balls to the QB's during passing drills:
Jack Banker hustles to get an empty bag back over to where he and Michael Barnett are gathering balls on one sideline from receivers during passing drills:

Jack Banker and Michael Barnett work opposite sideline as Robert Lloyd and Billy Worthington during passing drills. We use 8 managers to run this passing drill. It is extremely important for safety reasons not to have balls on the ground during this drill. The tempo is FAST and it requires an enormous amount of hustle on the managers part to keep it going!

Michael Barnett hustles, as usual, to run down an over thrown ball during 1 0n 1 drills:

Mike Turner shows Ben Hulka his helmet, and tells Ben that his facemask needs to be tightened. Each of the managers are properly trained by our full time staff to know how to deal with problems with equipment that needs to be fixed on the field. Benny Conger heads up this effort of training the managers.

Hulka reaches in his fanny pak for a screwdriver so he can tighten Mike's facemask on his helmet. Each of the managers are required to wear a fanny pak with everything they need to fix things at all times during practice, just for these kind of situations:

Hulka tightens the screw on Mike's helmet:

Ryan Ewalt puts the QB balls out of the way for the next drill:

Jordan Gobel getting yellow scrimmage vest ready for the special teams period. Jordan supervises and organizes the special teams period with Coach Hammerschmidt:

David Bodzin shagging balls from the kickers and punters at one end of the stadium while team was going on:

GREAT to be Working on Saturdays in December!!

2010-12-11T10:19:00.000-08:00

There is not much better in our profession than working practice on a Saturday in December. That usually means one thing......you are going BOWLING!!!!!

This morning was our second bowl practice, and then we practice again tomorrow. Since we are in the middle of final exams, and plus the coaches are out recruiting, we are trying to get as much work done on weekends for now.

The team really seems focused on the task at hand. We will give the managers off most of next week so they can focus on finals. We will get started on packing trunks this time next week. Tim and I will be going over our travel checklist for the week in San Antonio on Monday and Tuesday so the managers have an exact packing list for each of their trunks.

Everything seems to be shaping up nicely in San Antonio. Yesterday we hired Alamo Bowl legend, Matt Saenz, to do our laundry while we are there! Matt is the equipment manager at Trinity University there in San Antonio.

Below are some pictures from this mornings practice.

Erick Harper, answering question from Adam Hall about the trip to San Antonio. Erick has the tough job of coordinating all facets of the travel to the bowl game. Not an easy job, and Harp knocks it out of the ball park every single time!!!!!!

Ben Hulka and some of the managers run chains during practice this morning at Arizona Stadium:

Jordan Bates snaps the ball to Nick Foles during 7 on 7 drills:

Jack Banker (left) and Jordan Bates (right) run 7 on 7 drills this morning at practice in Arizona Stadium:

Two great players, getting ready for the Cowboys of Oklahoma State. Shaquille Richardson and Juron Criner. Juron was just named All American yesterday! Shaq was one of the top freshman players in the league this year. He was Pac 10 player of the Week in the game against Washington State.

Robert Lloyd, with the tough task of looking for over thrown balls to receivers:

Back Home from San Antonio

2010-12-09T18:46:00.001-08:00

Well, I am back from my advance planning trip to San Antonio, and one thing is for certain.....it will be a GREAT week in San Antonio!!!!!!!

First of all, the Riverwalk is so AWESOME!!!!!!! Fans who do not make this trip will really be missing out on something special. I hope all Pac 12 fans will support this bowl, because our conference is so fortunate to be tied in to this game!!!!! In my 30 plus years of going to bowl games, this bowl is at the top of the BEST for the fans!!!!!!!! The trip will be fun for the team too, but this bowl is for the FANS!!!!! Hopefully the Wildcat fans will support the team and the conference, and travel to this game.

Then, the game is played indoors, so the weather is AWESOME (again, listen up fans). The practice facilities are as good as any bowl team can hope for. The hospitality is great. Plus, being tied in with the Big 12 conference and playing great teams, like the Oklahoma State Cowboys....well, this shapes up to be a GREAT week.

Tim Pfennig and Benny Conger have been working hard on getting bowl stuff ordered and getting it ready for the team. Then, tomorrow, we have our first bowl practice. So a lot is going on in the equipment room right now.

After practice tomorrow night is our team awards banquet at the La Paloma.

Then back to work on Saturday morning for practice #2, but before practice, Tim and I will meet and show equipment to our football recruits that visiting this week. We will finish off the weekend with our third practice on Sunday.

It isn't just the equipment room working hard, but everyone involved with Wildcat Football is very busy right now, and I know in the equipment room, we wouldn't want it any other way!!! I was with Coach Stoops last night and most of the day today, and you talk about a busy man!!! We are so fortunate to have such a great hard working head football coach!!! When we were dropped off at the airport, he was headed to Salt Lake City for recruiting work. Seems like he gets no rest at all.

Oh well, I hope to keep up with the blog during the process so you can get a up close and behind the scenes view of what it takes to get the team to a bowl game.

Julie Baker, of the Alamo Bowl staff, talks with Erick Harper, our Director of Football Operations on the field of the Alamodome. One thing is for sure, NO bad weather for the game against the Cowboys!!!!

Maintenance crews were working in our locker room at the Alamodome while we were there. This is a picture of the long and narrow locker room. There are only 61 lockers, and we will be dressing around 100 players for the game. We will have to decide if we want to double players up (nice big lockers), or put benches down the middle????

This is what our bowl game jersey will look like for the game (no suspense!!). The bowl and the Pac 10 conference are very particular on where patch placement should be on the jerseys. We have some sewing to do!!!!!

Julie Baker of the Alamo Bowl staff, took our advance group to our practice facilities for the week in San Antonio:

Part of the advance group, looking at the AWESOME facilities at the University of The Incarnate Word:

This is actually inside the lobby of our team hotel. Part of the river runs through the lobby of the hotel.

This is the atrium at our team hotel in San Antonio. It is a beautiful hotel, right on the Riverwalk:

This is one of many patio restaurants on the Riverwalk. This one is located near our team hotel, the Hyatt Regency Riverwalk.

This is one of many water taxis that go up and down the river all day and night on the Riverwalk.

This was the media room for the press conference this morning at The Club at Sonterra in San Antonio.

There was quite a bit of coverage at the press conference this morning in San Antonio. Here, some of the TV camera men setting up:

Coach Gundy and Coach Stoops before the presser this morning, talking to some of the media:

Coach Stoops earlier today in San Antonio addressing the media:

Hyatt Regency Riverwalk in San Antonio is AWESOME

2010-12-08T06:32:00.000-08:00

We arrived yesterday afternoon here in San Antonio to do some advance work for the bowl trip later this month. One thing is for sure, this is a GREAT Bowl game, and the team and fans should have a GREAT time!!!!

We spent all of yesterday afternoon and evening going over the hotel property and working with the bowl people on logistics of the week we will be here. We then had an AWESOME dinner with the Alamo Bowl staff on the Riverwalk. Fans are going to LOVE this place!!!!!

This morning and the rest of the day will be spent going through the Alamo Dome where the game will be played, and then at our practice site, which is going to be at University of The Incarnate Word. I understand it is a new facility and Texas Tech used it last year and they were the first ones to use the new facility. Word is, the LOVED it. I can't wait to get over there and take a look at it. I will have Benny Conger give them a call at Tech, since he used to work there and knows those guys very well.

I will try to have some pictures up of my trip to these sites.

This is my view from my hotel window here at the Hyatt Regency Riverwalk in San Antonio. Right across the street is the Alamo.

Merry Christmas, San Antonio Style

2010-12-06T09:32:00.000-08:00

We are working hard right now getting ready for our trip to San Antonio later this month to play the Oklahoma State Cowboys in the Valero Alamo Bowl.

We had another bowl meeting this morning to clarify all kinds of things, from how many vehicles we need for the week, to arranging times for the equipment truck to deliver in San Antonio and return home to Tucson.

There are all kinds of logistic things that must be addressed right away. That is why I am leaving in the morning to spend a couple of days in San Antonio to work with the hotel, the staff at University of The Incarnate Word where we will be practicing, the Alamodome where the game will be played, setting up laundry service while we are there, among many other things.

In the meantime, we are working on getting our bowl sweats ready for the team to wear to different functions, patches for our game jerseys, nameplates for lockers, etc.....

We have a team meeting later this afternoon, and since most of our coaches are out recruiting, we will not resume practice until later this week. This is nice since we can use all the time possible to set things in motion for a fun week in San Antonio Texas.

This will be my second Alamo Bowl and it is a FUN bowl to go to!!!! I was with Washington State University when we played the Baylor Bears in the 1994 game there. Hopefully we will have the same results as we had then. Beating Baylor topped off a very fun week had by all.

I will be posting pictures in the coming days of some of our work.

Awaiting Word on Bowl Destination

2010-12-05T15:03:00.000-08:00

Just got through watching basketball team beat up on Oklahoma, and now we are waiting to hear if we are going back to San Diego, or headed to the Riverwalk in San Antonio.

Either way, it is a GREAT way to end a season.

Once we hear tonight, we will hit it runnin' tomorrow getting ready.

Stay tuned......

GAMEDAY is Finally Here

2010-12-02T09:38:00.000-08:00

Yes, I know, it is Thursday, but today is gameday!

I am about to go over to the stadium in about an hour or so. I don't want to get over there too early. Usually I get there early and take my time and watch college football, but this Thursday thing doesn't give me much to watch on TV while I set up.

We got the Devils moved in to their locker room last night at about 6pm, then we moved in to our locker room too. We generally move in two nights before, but we wore helmets to our walk thru yesterday so we decided to just move everything over after the walk thru. The last time we did this was versus Washington, so hopefully we have the same outcome.

It has already been a GREAT day. We had an all staff meeting with a special guest this morning, Larry Scott, Pac 10 commissioner. What an impressive leader he is!!!! After the meeting, it made everyone feel really good about the future of our conference and our institution as well. This guy is the REAL DEAL!!! He fielded questions for almost an hour and he hit a home run with every single answer. In my 30 plus years of being in this business, this was the first time that a conference commissioner addressed a staff meeting.

This morning just confirmed why I feel like the luckiest person in the world. With the great leadership we have with our new AD, Greg Byrne, and the leadership in our conference, it makes me realize how exciting the future is going to be here in Tucson.

Now we just need to take care of the devils tonight on ESPN and top off an already great day.

Stay tuned for pictures on the next blog of our work to get ready for tonight's game.

Looking Forward to Thursday Night!!!!!

2010-11-30T15:15:00.000-08:00

We are having some GREAT practices this week! Our team seems very focused at task on hand. They know that the Sun Devils are bringing one of their best teams in recent years to Arizona Stadium this Thursday night. No doubt, ASU is one of the top teams in our conference this year!

It is hard to believe that the regular season is in it's last week. After a little time off, we will be working towards going to our third bowl game in a row. Tons of fun ahead.

Everyone seems very excited about the game this Thursday.

Jordan Bates running 7on7 drills yesterday:

Starting Offensive Tackle for the Jacksonville Jaguars, and former Wildcat, Eben Britton made an appearance at practice yesterday. One of the all time GREAT guys!!!!!

Senior Ben Hulka getting one of his last chances at running chains for the Wildcats. Thanks Jim Furyk for recommending Hulk.

Robert Lloyd had a great practice yesterday and a better Monday night after his 49ers killed the Cardinals on MNF

Senior Ryan Ewalt charting passing drills for Coach Scelfo:

Senior Mike Reed gets ready for special teams period:

Mike Baranowski and Michael Barnett work hard during Team Drill:

Myself with a future Wildcat, Bode Hammerschmidt. Bode is the son of coach Jeff Hammerschmidt and he is 11 months old. He was born right after the team returned from the Holiday Bowl. Bode and the rest of his family was here last night for Cookie Night.

A GREAT Hunting Trip

2010-11-28T10:46:00.000-08:00

Over the years, I have heard all kinds of stories about hunting trips. Many of the stories I have heard speak of the fun had by all, even though they didn't get what they went for. Well, the same can be said about our trip to Eugene. We set out to bag the Ducks, but we came back with nothing to speak of. The trip was great, with the exception of being delayed in the Eugene Airport after the game for about 5-6 hours. The plane flown up to get us from Phoenix had an engine go out at the end of the flight up to Eugene, so US Airways had to get another plane and crew up to Eugene at the last minute on a holiday weekend. Other than that and the outcome of the game, the trip was really nice.

First of all, a shout out to Kenny Farr, the new equipment manager for the Ducks. He and his student managers did an OUTSTANDING job of assisting us with our trip. That has not always been the case in Eugene. Kenny is a future super star in this business. The Ducks and the Pac 12 equipment managers are very fortunate to have Kenny up there for a long time. Thanks Kenny!

Once again, we took 5 tremendous student managers on a trip. Four of the five were seniors and those guys will really be missed! We will have a tough time replacing our six GRADUATING senior managers. I may shed a few tears this Thursday when those six managers are introduced before the game! I am extremely proud of these six young men! They did another great job for the Wildcats this past weekend. The game was cold and wet, yet the equipment staff did a great job all week in preparation, then also executing a plan on gameday to keep the players and coaches warm and dry during the game.

Now it is on to the final regular season game this Thursday against ASU. It is so hard to believe that this will be the last regular season game. As they say, time flies when you are having a good time. This season has been a blast and I am sad to see it ending so soon. Of course, we do have the bowl game to look forward to!!!!

It will be fun hosting my two good friends from ASU, Equipment managers Mark Zimmer and Paul Lopez. I always enjoy getting to visit with them, whether we are playing them at their place or at ours. As ugly as this rivalry game can be, it is nice to know that we can get along with each other! I am smart enough to know though, once that ball is kicked off on Thursday, each of us want to win the game!!! It will be tough to beat them again, as they are one of the best teams in this EXTREMELY TOUGH conference. It is hard enough to beat a team 3 times in a row, but especially when they are as good as they are. Great talent, and a legendary Hall of Fame head coach too. Should be fun!

Enjoy some pictures from our trip to Eugene:

John Landwehr, making his first road trip (excluding bowl games), was a really nice addition to the travel squad this past weekend! This Sacramento California senior will be missed when he graduates in May.

Mike Baranowski folding an empty player bag so it will fit neatly in the players locker:

Tim Pfennig putting out extra warm long game socks for the game:

Ben Hulka making sure Jovon Hayes has everything he needs for the game against the Ducks:

Ryan Ewalt putting out jerseys for the game:

Ben Hulka putting out jerseys for the game:

Mike Baranowski getting players ready for the game against the number one Ducks:

John Landwehr paying attention to every little detail!

Ryan Ewalt, working hard with a smile on his face! He has done this from day one when he started working with us. As far as I know, he has made every trip since he started. He is a solid worker, and a more solid person and will really be missed.

Mike Baranowski is only in his second season, but has quickly become one of our future leaders. He made every trip this year but one.

Ben Hulka is one of the six seniors that will be graduating in May. This Chicago native will really be missed when he is gone! Ben has traveled to many game with the Wildcats in his four years.

It was so nice to have John Landwehr on the trip. He is only in his second season, but he is a senior and a GREAT guy so we had to get him on a trip. We will really miss him when he is gone!

Mike Reed and Ben Hulka worked hard before the team arrived:

The managers did a GREAT job of setting up the players lockers for the game. We had everything they would need for a cold night in Eugene.

Some of the suites at Autzen Stadium. Oregon (Phil Knight) has done a great job with their facilities!

Benny Conger was in charge of setting up our 3 sideline heaters for the game. Tom Boesel ordered us 3 heaters in Eugene for delivery at noon on gameday. For some reason, the Ducks do not provide sideline heaters like the other 3 Northwest schools???

GREAT Duck Hunting Weather in Eugene Today

2010-11-26T09:06:00.001-08:00

After a little workout in the exercise room, I went to the local Safeway store to get some grub for later on today. While I was out, I took some pictures of beautiful Eugene, Oregon.

On the radio, they said it was a great day for duck hunting in the area!!!! I couldn't agree more.

When I came out of the grocery store, it was raining pretty hard. The forecast is for cold and 60% rain at game time. I say, BRING IT ON!

We are about to head over to Autzen Stadium where we will off load into our locker room at 10am and get ready for the HUNT!

The lobby of our team hotel:

I have been coming to this hotel for over twenty years, and not much has changed.

The neighborhood Safeway close to the hotel where I went to get hot dogs and buns for the guys later:

Some of the neighborhood around our hotel:

Team eating breakfast this morning. NOTE: Waiters and Waitresses wearing the colors!

Players eating a hearty breakfast early this morning:

River that runs behind the hotel and right off of the balcony of the hotel restaurant:

Hotel restaurant, Sweetwaters with a beautiful view of the river:

What A GREAT Thanksgiving Day

2010-11-26T07:29:00.001-08:00

I could not have asked for a better day yesterday! First of all, Cindy cooked an unbelievable Thanksgiving Dinner (lunch) AGAIN. She is AWESOME.

After I blogged yesterday, and I knew it when I was writing the blog, I realized I left off so many people that have been so special to me. That is why I should never try to name people, but I just can't help myself sometimes. My friends, family and co-workers over the years have been so instrumental, and I just wanted people to know just how I feel about them.

After I wrote yesterday's blog, Cindy's mom, Cindy and I started talking about all the people that have helped us along the way. Cindy's mom mentioned Charlie Moot, who I worked with at Sam Houston State, which made me realize how awesome he was, but more than that, made me realize I should have mentioned Coach Bob Riley at SHSU. He is one of my all time favorites and he has blessed me since by coming to Tucson a couple of times to visit me. I really love that man!

Then I quickly realized that there were so many other people. I know I mentioned all the student managers, but I should have mentioned Brad Wilson from WSU, because he came down to Arizona to work with us and he was so important in helping JT Galloway and I change the culture in our equipment operation here at Arizona. There is NO WAY we could have done it without him. He is truly one of the most extraordinary people in this entire world. He is not only a great person and great friend, he is brilliant in all that he does, including being a great husband and father.

As I told the group before our blessing yesterday, friends are so important! There is no way I could have ever made it without so many wonderful friends.

Then of course, having both of our Mom's with us made me realize I could have never made it without an awesome family. Cindy and I were blessed with GREAT parents, PLUS, 3 AWESOME kids. I now realize how much of a sacrifice each of my family members made in order for me to be able to enjoy this career I love so much.

Then to top it off, we had 7 young men join us yesterday who did a remarkable job of representing every single student manager who ever helped me throughout the 30 plus years. Again, I realize how important these young people are. There is not a football program in America that could make it without student managers!, and I have had the privilege of working with so many GREAT ones. But yesterday, WOW, these guys were ambassadors. They are such good people. It really touched me when I saw each and everyone of them hug the ladies, as if they were their own Mom or Grandmother. It just topped off a GREAT day.

Then, as I sat in my seat on the plane ride up to Eugene, I realized just how symbolic the whole day was. It was like a play or a story right in front of me which made me realize just how blessed and fortunate I am. I am so thankful to so many people over the years. Like the caption on this home page says, "We are the LUCKIEST people in the world".

My beautiful wife Cindy and I with my mom, Norma:

Cindy and I with her mom, Jean. Both of our mom's live close to us here in Tucson, which is a year round blessing!

The managers seemed to enjoy Cindy's great cooking!

These young men are really special people. I always knew they were GREAT kids!

Another shot of the managers:

The managers were nice enough to take a group picture with Cindy and I. She and I really wanted a picture with them since they made our day so special.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

2010-11-25T08:11:00.001-08:00

It goes without saying, I am one of the most fortunate and blessed people in the world. I have so many things to be thankful for.

First of all, I have the BEST wife in the entire world! Not only does she support me in everything I do, she loves me despite all of my faults, and best of all, she is my best friend! She is where it all starts!

Then, I have been able to surround myself at work with the best people possible. I have the best people in the world that I get to work with each and everyday! Without them I would be lost and in big trouble. I am also thankful to the University of Arizona for allowing me the resources to hire these kind of people.

Then, the UofA also allows us to hire as many student managers as needed to run a first class equipment operation, and pay them what they deserve. We have the BEST student managers in the world!!!! They are not only hard workers and dedicated to this football team, but they are first class human beings!!!! I can not remember a better season in terms of student managers, and they deserve all the credit. We ask much of these kids, and they do such a GREAT job!

I can't forget all of the AWESOME people in my life that have allowed me to get where I am at today, starting all the way back to Dayton High School. Ironically, one of the men who mentored me and kept me focused on getting to college (really helping me get in to University of Houston, because I wasn't a good enough student to get in on my own) is my Junior High Principal and High School Counselor Mr. Bill Johnson; and he is just down the street from me today here in Tucson visiting his daughter who lives down the street from us. Then there are so many people after him that have made my life so great. People like Bill Yeoman, Ron Randleman, Jim Livengood, Bob Cook, Milton Neal, Paul Lopez, Jeff Bopp, J.T. Galloway, Tim Pfennig and Benny Conger. Also, the many parents who have allowed me to work with their kids over the years. I know there are many more, but people like this make me realize just how blessed and fortunate I really am.

So, on this Thanksgiving Day, thank you to all who have blessed my life in so many ways!

Here is an individual I am VERY THANKFUL FOR!!!!!! One of the best hires I have ever made, Zac Cook, from Northern Kentucky (Cincinnati, OH area). Zac is easily one of our most important people in our operation. He hits home runs for us daily, even more than his beloved Reds.

The managers use our new jugs machine to shoot high punts to David Douglas:
David Bodzin helps out with the drills:

David Douglas throws the ball to David Bodzin after catching the high punts from the jugs machine:

Senior, Mike Reed gets the balls back to Baranowski:

Mike Harlow and Mike Baranowski shoot high punts to the returners:

In this picture are three people I am really thankful for! First of all, Coach Ed, the BEST Strength and Conditioning Coach I have ever worked with!!!! Not only GREAT at what he does, but he is one of the best people I have had the pleasure of working with. He is an incredible difference maker in our program. Then, of course, our two monster defensive ends, Brooks Reed and Ricky Elmore. Here, Coach Ed does more than just work in the weight room, players respect his opinion in EVERYTHING.

Time for Duck Hunt

2010-11-23T09:42:00.000-08:00

The Wildcats are preparing for a GREAT opportunity this Friday.....beat the number one team in the country....at their place.

The biggest problem for the equipment staff is the part, AT THEIR PLACE! The weather report is not very pleasing. Rain and cold is the forecast for game time.

The truck left this morning for Eugene and we will be setting up on game day at Autzen Stadium. We will not be setting up at Autzen on the day before since it is Thanksgiving Day and the game is later in the afternoon anyway. We did not want to bother people at University of Oregon with having to open up for us on Thanksgiving.

The biggest challenge for us may be finding a good place to eat for dinner the night before the game. So far, we have not found many places open on Thanksgiving night. All of the managers going with the team for the game will be eating Thanksgiving lunch at our house before we leave for Eugene. Maybe Cindy will have to pack up some left overs for us to eat when we arrive in Eugene?????

Below are pictures from yesterday's practice:

Managers snap the ball to QB's during passing drills:
Mike Baranowski and Mike Reed snap balls to the QB's during yesterdays practice:

Ben Hulka and John Landwehr run middle drill during yesterdays practice:

Michael Barnett hustles during special teams period:

Billy Worthington helping out with Special Teams period:

Coach Kish and Coach Brown talk about how to stop the High Flying Ducks:

Already Getting Ready for the Ducks

2010-11-17T14:56:00.001-08:00

The managers worked hard this afternoon getting their trunks ready for the game in Eugene. Before they start packing though, they have to get stuff ready that goes in the trunks.

As mentioned yesterday, the truck leaves for the northwest on Tuesday. Plus, we will probably have to load the truck early in the day on Tuesday because we host a men's basketball game on Tuesday evening, which causes huge problems.

The GREAT news is that we will get to work over the weekend, which will give us a little extra time to get ready.

Below are some pictures of the managers working in the equipment room before practice:

This is our travel notebook for our game against the Ducks. We have all of our trunk checklist and other info in this book.

Robert Lloyd cleans a pair of coaches game shoes:

Ben Hulka cleans a pair of coaches game sideline shoes:
Coaches game towels:

David Bodzin folds the coaches game towels. He is responsible for packing them. They are very nice, over sized, bath towels with their initials printed on them:

GREAT Practice Today

2010-11-16T16:33:00.001-08:00

We had a GREAT day of practice today, and finished it up with some of the younger players having a scrimmage at the end. Our future looks really good with all of our young players!!!!!

We also got much done throughout the day to get ready for our trip to Eugene next week. With the truck leaving a week from today, we took advantage of some time today to get trunks packed.

Below are some pictures from today's practice.

Michael Barnett moves a pop up for passing drills:
Jordan Bates gets set up for snapping balls to the QB's during passing drills:

Managers snap balls to the QB's during passing drills:

Billy Worthington and Robert Lloyd hustle to get more balls in to the drills:

Billy Worthington hustles to get balls to managers snapping:

Ben Hulka and John Landwehr hustle running balls during inside drill:

Picture Day

2010-11-15T17:18:00.000-08:00

Today was team picture day, and before the team came out for the picture, I had the managers pose for some pictures of their own.

This has been a GREAT group of people to work with!!! Not only are they very dedicated hard workers, but they are AWESOME students and people!!! It is very obvious that this group has had some great parenting! It is nice to have a group this size, with very few, if any, problems.

These managers put in many hours each week to provide a very valuable service to this football team, and yet, they also are all full time students who work very hard in school too. I have had the great fortune of working with many super student managers over the years, and this group ranks towards the top in terms of staffs!

These guys will be great as University of Arizona graduates!

Six very valuable Senior Managers (left to right): Jordan Bates, John Landwehr, Ben Hulka, Ryan Ewalt, Mike Reed and Mike Harlow:

Three managers from California (left to right): Robert Lloyd, John Landwehr and Mike Reed:

Two from Texas (left to right): David Bodzin and Ryan Ewalt:

Three managers from Illinois (left to right): Mike Baranowski, Ben Hulka and Jordan Gobel:

Five managers from around the country (left to right): Jordan Bates, Florida; Michael Barnett, New York; Jack Banker, Indiana; Mike Harlow, Idaho; and Billy Worthington, Arizona:

The entire group, Left to Right: Jordan Bates, David Bodzin, Michael Barnett, Ben Hulka, Robert Lloyd, Jack Banker, Mike Harlow, John Landwehr, Jordan Gobel, Billy Worthington, Mike Baranowski, Ryan Ewalt, and Mike Reed:

Hardwork Does Not Always Pay Off

2010-11-14T07:46:00.000-08:00

As we know, there are not very many guarantees in life, and the Wildcat football team learned a tough lesson last night. No matter how hard you work at something, it does not always guarantee success. The managers, along with the rest of the equipment staff and team, worked very hard this past week to get ready for an important game against the Trojans. One of the lessons learned for the team was, you still have to execute.

In football, when you are playing a very good team like the USC Trojans, you can not turn the ball over (especially in critical spots on the field) and make mistakes like we did last night. The team fought hard to come back in the fourth quarter, but we were not able to recover an on sides kick at the end of the game.

Our team, like so many other teams this time of the year, is really beat up. This weeks bye will come at a great time! Now it is time to get ready for the number one team in the country, the Oregon Ducks. We will travel on Thanksgiving Day to go play them the day after Thanksgiving. Another tough challenge in this very tough Pac 10 conference. There are no easy games in this conference, just ask the Oregon State Beavers, who got beat by a very much improving WSU Cougar football team!

I am so fortunate to have such a great staff of full time and students to help me with the football team! They deserve so much credit to this teams success! Below are some pictures of their hard work yesterday before the team arrived from the hotel.

The managers were all smiles when they arrived at the stadium at noon yesterday:

One of the best newcomers we have had in a long time, David Bodzin of Texas, gets a pair of shoulder pads and jersey ready for the game:

Mike Reed works his next to last home game for the Wildcats. He will be missed when he leaves the program!
Billy Worthington (visor) and Ben Hulka work hard yesterday morning to get the team ready for the game:

Robert Lloyd prepares a pair of shoulder pads so he can tape the jersey to the pads:

Ben Hulka helps Tim Pfennig get trunk 30 situated in the equipment room:

Jack Banker focuses on getting a jersey just right on a pair of pads:

Jordan Gobel gets a pair of shoulder pads ready so she can tape the jersey to the shoulder pads:

Mike Harlow and Ryan Ewalt, two seniors, came to work yesterday to get the team ready for battle against the Trojans. This is their next to last home game to work for the Wildcats:

Managers showed up focused on the job at hand yesterday before the game:

All the managers showed up ready to work hard for the game against the Trojans:

David Bodzin gets a pair of shoulder pads ready for the jersey:

John Landwehr pulls a jersey on to a pair of shoulder pads:

Mike Baranowski works hard to clean a pair of shoes, as part of the checklist of things to do before the team leaves the hotel:

Jordan Bates tightens all the screws on Chris Merrill's helmet before he arrives from the hotel with the team:

Mike Reed checks to make sure Adam Grant's helmet is ready to go for the game against the Trojans:

Jordan Gobel organizes Trace Biskin's locker for him:

Ryan Ewalt makes sure Justin Washington has everything ready and organized for the game:

Robert Lloyd checks over Joe Perkins helmet very closely to make sure Joe has no problems during the game:

Michael Barnett cleaning a pair of shoes before the team arrives from the hotel:

Managers had the locker room looking good and ready to go for the players:

What a GREAT Weekend!!!

2010-11-13T09:53:00.001-08:00

I have mentioned before how fun Friday's can be in the equipment room, especially home games. Yesterday was no different.

We had many visitors, and it is always fun to see everyone!

Dave Schecter of Nike came by with a few of his friends from his fraternity when he was here at UofA a few years ago. They had a little reunion of sorts, and they made sure they came by the equipment room as part of their weekend. It is ALWAYS nice to meet more Wildcats!

We are also hosting a number of representatives from Riddell. Taylor Hanohano spent a good bit of Thursday with us going over product and just talking about protective gear in general. Taylor is a former equipment manager himself, and a good one at that, so it is always nice to gather info from other experts in the field! We spent more time yesterday, including Jeff Watson who is the local rep here in Tucson. Later in the day, we were joined by Larry Pierce who is the Regional Vice President for Sales on the West Coast. We all went to dinner last night, which was a lot of fun!

We had some former players stop by, including Antoine Cason, who is having his jersey retired in a ceremony later tonight at the game versus USC. Antoine always finds time to spend with us in the equipment room. He was a regular visitor when he played here, and he still stops by any time he is around. He has always been a very classy man, and it is nice to see that he is still the same humble and appreciative guy that he has always been, even though he is in the NFL. I have had the pleasure of working with some incredibly nice people in this business, and Antoine ranks up at the top in terms of GREAT people!

We have had quite a few pro scouts hanging out in McKale lately, and in my 30 plus years of being in the business, I have been able to get to know many of them very well and some of the really nice ones spent time with me yesterday, and that was enjoyable as well!

All in all it was a GREAT day, and now I am about to head over to the stadium locker room where we will begin getting ready for tonight's game against the Trojans. I hope to have some pictures up tomorrow of all the hard work that the equipment staff does to get ready for a game.

Starting cornerback for the San Diego Chargers, and really good friend of the equipment room, Antoine Cason:

Student Managers Working HARD

2010-11-11T16:13:00.001-08:00

I would like to give a shout out to all the football student managers who have worked hard all season, and especially this week. After a tough defeat, it is very important for the managers to work hard at keeping an up beat and fast pace of practice to get things going.

As you can see in the pictures below, they are working very hard and always hustling!

Ben Hulka and Mike Harlow fire balls at receivers during special teams:

Mike Baranowski retrieves ball from net:

Jack Banker and Ryan Ewalt (snapping) work with QB's during special teams:
Billy Worthington hustles during special teams:

Michael Barnett hustles during special teams:

Mike Harlow hustles to get something:

Jordan Gobel hustles during special teams:

Michael Barnett snaps the ball to QB's during 7 on 7:

Robert Lloyd spots balls during scout team for defense:

Robert Lloyd (squatting) and Ben Hulka (hustling), run balls during scout team for the defense:

Fight On and BEAR DOWN

2010-11-09T16:23:00.000-08:00

After a tough defeat the other night against a very good Stanford team, the Wildcats have to get up, fight on, and BEAR DOWN against the Trojans of USC this Saturday night. The Trojans will be coming in to Tucson looking for another win for their new coach, Lane Kiffin.

After a nice practice yesterday to go over the game plan for the Trojans, today the team had a GREAT practice today. The players seem hungry for the 8th win this season.

I have received many phone calls of people coming back for the game this weekend against the Trojans, so I expect to see many friends this Friday and Saturday. That is always so much fun.

Below are some pictures from today's practice.

Billy Worthington and Ben Hulka work the chains during 7 on 7:

Robert Lloyd spots balls during team run:

Robert Lloyd and John Landwehr hustle as they run balls during team:

Robert Lloyd helps out with balls for the jugs machine during special teams for the receivers:

Mike Harlow works the jugs machine as David Bodzin feeds him balls:

Jordan Bates snaps balls to the QB's during drills while special teams is going on:

Jordan Bates and Jack Banker work with the QB's during special teams:

Jack Banker and Michael Barnett on the chains during team:

Nice Monday Surprise

2010-11-08T15:29:00.000-08:00

We are always very happy when one of our favorite people visit the equipment room, but today he brought his brother with him. Bill Baffert stops by the equipment room and football practices quite often, but today, his brother Bob came with him to see us. Bob is on his way home to California from Kentucky where one of his horses ran in the Breeder's Cup.

I have never met a more fun guy to hang around with than Bill Baffert! He has the gift of putting smiles on every ones faces when he is around, so we love it when he comes to say hello every now and then. Today, he was nice enough to bring his famous brother Bob with him.

Bob Baffert is one of our most recognized alums at the UofA, especially fans of horse racing. Bob is one of the most successful trainers in the history of horse racing. His horses have won numerous times at the Kentucky Derby and Preakness, among others. He has trained horses such as: Silver Charm, War Emblem, Looking at Lucky (which finished 4th this past weekend at the Breeder's Cup, and won the Preakness this year), and Midnight Lute. You can read more about Bob at his official website: www.bobbaffert.com

We get many visitors from time to time in the equipment room, but today's visitors were just what we needed! Once again, Bill brought a lot of smiles to peoples faces!!!

From Left to Right: Bill Baffert, myself, Bob Baffert

Tough Day in Palo Alto

2010-11-08T12:06:00.000-08:00

This past week, the players, coaches and equipment staff worked extremely hard in an attempt to get a win at Stanford this past Saturday. Unfortunately, sometimes even extremely hard work doesn't guarantee a win. Stanford Cardinal played a GREAT game Saturday night, and the score indicated just how well they played!

Jim Harbaugh has done a TREMENDOUS job at Stanford, which isn't good for the rest of us in the Pac-10, but I couldn't be any happier for Gary Hazelitt, Stanford's Equipment Manager. Gary is one of the nicest people in the world, and he is being rewarded with a GREAT team!

I always enjoy going to Stanford, and this past weekend was no different, until kickoff. It was a tough defeat, but the Wildcats still have much to look forward to. All of us in the equipment room are excited about this Saturday's game against the MIGHT Men of Troy!!! I guess it is about time for me to start playing their fight song!

Here are some pictures below of the managers hard work at Stanford:

As soon as we arrive on Friday nights and unload the truck, Benny and some of the managers do so touch up painting on a few of the helmets. Here, Mike Reed does some touch up work:

Once we are done with our work on Friday nights, we use the chains and locks we bring from home to double secure our locker room:

Jordan Bates (left) and Ryan Ewalt (right), put out uniforms in the lockers when we arrived on Saturday morning:

Tim Pfennig put out the players laundry bags in their lockers:

Jordan Gobel put out game socks in each of the players lockers:

Mike Reed gets a pair of shoulder pads ready for a jersey:

Robert Lloyd puts out game jerseys in the lockers:

Ryan Ewalt helps put out game jerseys in the lockers:

Because not all lockers on the road have hooks in them, we always pack plenty of hooks of our own and plenty of different kind of screws so we can install hooks if needed. Here, Tim puts a hook in in a locker so we had a way to hang game pants:

Jordan Gobel has turned in to one of our very best student managers! We are extremely lucky to have her on our staff!

Ryan Ewalt, who has traveled to every game for the past few years, once again did an outstanding job. Ryan is Mr. Dependable!

Once again, we had an AWESOME crew of student managers that went on the trip with us:

Jordan Bates getting Adam Grant's jersey ready on his shoulder pads for the game:

Jeff Cohn, who I use to work with at Washington State University, lives in the Bay Area, and he and a couple of his friends always help us out when we play in the area. They are so much help!

Myself with Stanford's equipment manager, Gary Hazelitt. Gary is not only one of the best equipment managers in the business, he is one of the All Time GREAT people. I always enjoy the time I get to hang with Gary!

Stanford did a tremendous job with building their new football stadium!

A beautiful day for football in Palo Alto, on a BEAUTIFUL campus:

Sunken Diamond where the Cardinal baseball team plays:

Another shot of the BEAUTIFUL Stanford campus:

One of the many great things about the Stanford trip, you can spot and park your truck right outside of the the locker room and leave it there until you are ready to go after the game!

Tunnel entrance to the field from the locker room area:

There are alot of good changes going on in Stanford football, but some things there are not changing.....their band and empty seats:

Managers right before kickoff:

Headed to the Bay Area

2010-11-05T13:20:00.001-07:00

Well, we are about to head to the airport where we will board our charter flight to San Jose for the game against the Cardinal.

Here are some pictures from yesterday:

Robert Lloyd printing sweats for a new traveler:

Bob and Bob were ready yesterday afternoon:

Augie Jimenez, who donated a large amount of money to fix up the practice facility and the practice facility is named after, came out to practice yesterday:
Managers run chains during team:

Lloyd takes off in the gator to go get pizza for the managers before they load the truck:

Mike Harlow on the spot for the defense during team:

Jordan Bates hustling as usual:

Jordan Gobel and Mike Reed on the chains:

Hump Day

2010-11-03T16:47:00.001-07:00

Well, so far it has been a GREAT week of practices! Today was no different. The team seems really focused on the coaches game plan to beat Stanford.

Many of the managers were in early today to pack their trunks for the trip to Palo Alto. Some were in today, as they are scheduled today for their helmet and shoulder pad maintenance.

We have also been doing some mid season work in our storage rooms and re-stocking our cabinets in the equipment room.

Tomorrow night, we load the truck up for our trip to the Bay Area, home of the World Champion San Francisco Giants (that's for you Lloyd!).

Here are some pictures from today's practice:

Brian Odom, one of our AWESOME strength and conditioning coaches, looks on at practice early on:

ESPN College Gameday was out a practice today and they had Coach Mike Stoops wired up for sound for Saturday's show.

Michael Barnett runs the down marker during goal line:

John Landwehr hustles during middle drill:

Mike Baranowski spotted balls for offense today:

Robert Lloyd and Mike Baranowski run team drill:

Michael Barnett fixes a helmet during team:

Jordan Gobel gets ready for special teams period:

Managers ready on the spot for chain gang activity:

Nice November Day at U of A

2010-11-02T16:43:00.001-07:00

Everyone out at practice this afternoon enjoyed the nice weather and was working hard to take on a tough Stanford team.

This Saturday will be so much fun watching to highly ranked teams go at it on ABC TV. I know all of us in the Equipment Room are extremely excited.

We are working hard at practice along with getting our trunks packed for the truck that is leaving after practice this Thursday evening.

This weekend will also be fun because I will get to re-unite with some former managers. Once again, I will have Jeff Cohn, who I worked with at WSU helping us on game day. Then, the night before, I plan on having dinner with some former UofA managers too.

All in all, I am very excited about this week!

Here are some pictures from today's practice:

Ben Hulka moves the Rogers chutes away from the drills and out of harms way after Linebacker individual drills:

Coach Hammerschmidt and Coach Tuiasosopo work the Defensive Linemen on the Rogers sled during individual drills.
Everyone is working hard to get ready for Stanford, including these offensive linemen that will run scout team for our defense. These guys are our future, and believe me, we are in GREAT shape with these AWESOME players!

David Bodzin helping run offensive scout team drills for the defense. He is also enjoying some of that nice Tucson November sun!!!!!

Billy Worthington gets the balls from the receivers during passing drills. He then puts the balls into a ball bag:

Billy takes a full bag of balls to the mgrs snapping to QB's. He gets the balls from the receivers.

Billy hustles back to retrieve balls from receivers:

Managers snapping the ball to QB's during passing drills:

Coach Littrell and his running backs are working hard too:

Managers ready to run the chains for 7 on 7:

Just Another Beautiful Day in Southern California

2010-10-31T09:00:00.001-07:00

First of all, I have to share this right off the bat. My beautiful wife, Cindy, made the trip over to UCLA and she went on her own so to say. She went over early with Benny and some of the managers. She spent a lot of time with managers on this trip. Normally, she will fly with the team when she goes, and hang out with the other wives, but this time was different. The first thing she said when she woke up this morning, was, and I quote: "You have the most awesome managers working for you. They don't just work hard, they are GREAT kids!" To me, that said it all. She is so right.

Once again, the trip went very smooth, and it is because of the hard work by everyone in the operation, and it starts with Tim Pfennig and Benny Conger. They do an OUTSTANDING job of working with the students. The thing is, they don't just work hard on the trip, but everyone works so hard during the entire week, and that is what makes the trips and games go so smooth!

There were many things to be happy about this weekend in Pasadena, but the best thing, besides the final score, was there was NO rain during the game! When we left the hotel in Glendale at 5:30am, it was pouring rain and it seemed to rain even hard the closer we got to Pasadena. We stopped for breakfast at McDonalds in Pasadena, and it was pouring. The good news was that once it got to about 9am or so, the sun came out and conditions were PERFECT!

The team moved to 7-1 and all of us in the equipment room could not be any happier for the coaches and players. Also, Coach Stoops got to .500 in his overall record and it could not happen to a more deserving and super nice man. People have no idea what he inherited here at the UofA when he arrived. He has built this program from NOTHING, the only thing he had when he got here was problems!!! Now, we have players who go to class, work incredibly hard, play even harder, and graduate from the school. No one ever seems to talk about that in the media. I have been doing this for over 30 years, and I have had the honor of working with some GREAT head coaches, but none of them can compare to Coach Stoops. I have never been treated better by a coach. Not only does he treat me good, but everyone one in the equipment operation, including the managers! He is without a doubt, the most genuine good person that I have ever been able to work with! Congratulations Coach Stoops!!!!!

Now it is on to Stanford to take on the Mighty and Powerful Cardinal. I am so excited about this week, it should be fun.

Enjoy some pictures of our trip to the Rose Bowl stadium in Pasadena, California:

Without a doubt, some of the BEST equipment managers in the business! FRONT ROW from left to right: Billy Worthington, Ryan Ewalt, Jordan Bates, Ben Hulka, Jordan Gobel and Tim Pfennig; BACK ROW: David Bodzin, Mike Baranowski, Mike Reed and Benny Conger.
Speaking of the BEST, Erick Harper is without a doubt the BEST Director of Football Operations I have ever worked with, hands down!!!!! He coordinates every trip, and they are ALWAYS smooth!!!!! Here he is making sure everything is being done right on the tarmac at Burbank Airport:

Every trip we go on, even in places like Pullman/Moscow, we have a police escort, but no one does it like the California Highway Patrol in LA!!!! They are amazing every single time!

Smooth sailing from the Burbank airport to our hotel in Glendale!

3 motorcycle cops keep the traffic behind us out of our way as we move over 3 or 4 lanes so we can exit I-5 to the freeway to Glendale, where we stayed:

Motorcycle cops stop the entrance ramp on I-5 as we go by with no traffic. NICE!

What I love the most about this picture is the smiles on all of the managers faces at the McDonalds in Pasadena, even though it was not even 6am yet!

This is a view of the locker room when we arrived early yesterday morning:

A view of the coaches locker room before I started setting it up:

Even I had a little office/desk area in the coaches locker room. Man, this place is so nice!

This is a view of the locker room from the coaches locker room:

Jordan and Mike working hard early yesterday:

At 6:25am yesterday, Ben Hulka was putting out game pants:

Mike Reed puts the player's game pants in their lockers early yesterday morning:

Ben Hulka, loading game jerseys in the players locker. NOTE: it is not even 6:30 am yet.

Nice spacious locker room!!!!!

Ryan Ewalt does some work early yesterday:

Coach Stoops had a desk, TV and locker in his office, which is right off of the coaches locker room. They thought of everything in this visitors locker room!!!!

Coach Stoops locker in his office:

Robert Lloyd and Ben Hulka do an AWESOME job of packing the coaches wardrobe trunks for each and every single game:

These are the coaches lockers at the Rose Bowl. VERY NICE!!!!!

From Left to Right: Ben Hulka, Billy Worthington and Mike Baranowski:

Ryan Ewalt and Jordan Bates, doing some detailed work early yesterday at the Rose Bowl:

Mike Reed gets a players jersey and shoulder pads ready for the game:

Jordan Gobel getting a pair of shoulder pads ready for a jersey:

David Bodzin pulling a jersey on to a pair of shoulder pads:

Jordan Bates doing some work before the team arrived. It was nice to have all the plasma screen TV's on while we were working!

Each game, we take 2 nice big shower towels for each coach. The towels have their initials on the towel:

David Bodzin, focusing on making sure this player's helmet is ready for the game:

Ben Hulka working on a helmet before the team arrives:

Billy Worthington pays close attention to a pair of shoes, getting them ready for the player:

Billy and Jordan working hard early yesterday morning, making sure our players had everything nice and ready:

A look at the players lockers all set up:

Jordan Bates, working hard as usual, tightening up all the screws on a helmet before the team arrives:

David Bodzin made his first trip ever (this is his first year) and worked hard, just like in this picture of him cleaning a pair of shoes:

This is how the coaches lockers looked when they arrive. Each game we provide them with their own towels and two hangers to hang their clothes on when they change.

Normally we bring a couple of rolling tables for putting items for the coaches on each road game, but the Rose Bowl has a very nice counter, seemingly built just for us so I can put out the things they need for each road game:

Ben Hulka getting a locker ready. NOTE: we put two hangers in every locker each game so they can hang up the clothes on a nice hanger that they wore to the stadium:

Some of the lockers all set up for the players:

Tim visits with Billy while he cleans a pair of shoes for the game:

One of our new trunks by Olympic Case. This case makes for very easy hand out and organization. It is always close to the window on road games:

Olympic Case makes all of our cases and trunks, and they do an incredible job of custom work at a very affordable price! This is our valuable trunk. As you can see, we have plenty of space in each cubby in case a player wants to put his ipod or other electronic equipment in their cubby, along with their valuable bag:

This is the extra shoe trunk with detachable cleats that I blogged about on Friday. Fortunately, even though the area had heavy rains in the very early morning hours, the field was in almost perfect condition and we did not have to change one single player. It is comforting to know though that we were ready and prepared:

As you can see, every single player traveling has a back up pair of shoes in this extra shoe trunk. The cubbies are in numerical order so we can find them quickly:

As you can see in the close up shot, most every single shoe in this trunk is a detachable, longer cleat than what the players normally wear on grass or field turf:

Jordan, Benny and Mike do a walk test early Saturday morning. They started set up around 7:30am. Early set up is so important with this system!

A look at the pressbox at the Rose Bowl. Supposedly, this will all be torn down and a brand new one will start being built on Jan. 2, 2011:

Podium in the visitors media room:

Another picture of the media room for the visitors after the game:

Mike Reed had the equipment room all set up for the players. By the way, the Rose Bowl equipment room is SOOOOO nice!

Managers enjoyed some hot dogs before the team arrived. Nothing like a nice Oscar Meyer hot dog at 10:00 in the morning:

With a 12:30 kickoff, I had some hot dogs in the bag warmer in their locker room. The small case to the right is what we put their valuables in:

This was Coach Stoops locker in his office:

This is what the coaches locker room looked like all set up:

Players take the field for kickoff against the mighty Bruins:

It Never Rains in California.....OH REALLY

2010-10-29T10:03:00.001-07:00

When we get to the stadium tomorrow, each player will have at least 2 or 3 different shoes to choose from. They will choose depending on the field conditions. Most all the players will start out in a molded bottom grass cleat, because that is the shoe they like the most. Some will change to a detachable and longer cleat if they feel the footing was not good during pre game warm ups.

The equipment staff is on full alert when field conditions are not ideal. We try not to make a big deal out of it with the players, but we watch them closely to see how their footing is. We take a couple of trunks with extra shoes in them. We will have those trunks in the equipment room with us in the locker room until right before kickoff, then we push those trunks to the sidelines.

These trunks have individual compartments in them (I will have pictures on gameday blog) and each compartment has the players number in numerical order so we can find the shoes quickly. The shoes are laced up and ready to go in short notice. Just this past week against Washington, Trevin Wade changed shoes on the sideline to a detachable cleat because he felt he was slipping way too much. We were able to change him out just like a pit crew in a NASCAR race!

In 2008, we were playing against Washington State in Pullman, and we noticed Nic Grigsby wasn't necessarily slipping, but to me, his footing wasn't like his normally is. They have field turf and for whatever reason, Nic seemed to be having trouble. Again, we changed him into a detachable, which he wasn't crazy about doing, and he ended up having a great game.

We have very little upside when it comes to the outcome of a game, but sometimes having the right cleats really helps! I learned that in the 1992 Apple Cup when I was the Equipment Manager for the WSU Cougars. We got tons of snow and the field was so slippery a player could hardly stand up. After pre game, we changed out about 50 players into Nike Destroyers, which are designed for those conditions, and we beat the Washington Huskies so bad, and they were ranked in the top 5 in the polls! The Huskies wore Converse at that time and they did not have access to those kind of shoes. It was one of those rare times we might have made a difference?

That just means you never know when you are going to be needed. That is why we pack so much gear and take so much stuff to the field. I want us to be able to knock it over the fence when given the chance at a nasty curve ball.

Below are some of our options that we will have tomorrow against the Bruins.

This is the Zoom Code Pro Shark and is worn by many of our offensive linemen. The shoe tends to be wider than the normal Nike shoe, which they really like. It is a molded cleat configuration and works well in most all conditions, but players may opt for a detachable when field is wet or muddy:

This is the Zoom Code Pro Shark which is mentioned above:

This is the Flyposite molded cleat shoe that is popular with some of our linemen and even some of our linebackers. It has a similar cleat configuration to what skill players wear, but the shoe is designed for heavier players

This is the Flyposite molded shoes that is mentioned above:

This is the Nike Speed TD and has been with Nike for a long time. It is very popular among skill players, but some tight ends and linebackers choose to wear them too, but only if their body weight permits. It also comes in a 3/4 top that some of the linebackers and tight ends like better than the low cut. Some running backs or wide outs will go to the 3/4 if they are having ankle issues. You can see the molded cleat configuration in the next picture.

This is the molded cleat configuration of the Nike Speed TD, a very popular shoe that has been in the Nike line for years. It is worn by skill players and some tight ends and linebackers. It really depends on their weight and foot.

This is the Zoom Vapor Carbon Fly and is one of our most popular shoes! They are worn by most skill position players. It is the lightest shoe Nike makes. You can see the molded cleat configuration on the next picture:

This is the Zoom Vapor Carbon Fly molded cleat configuration:

This is the Hyperfly Detachable and the bottom of the shoe can be seen on the next picture:

This is the Hyperfly Detachable which can be worn by linemen, linebackers, tight ends when field conditions are not ideal:

This is the Flyposite Detachable cleat; you can see the bottom of the shoes on the next picture:

This is the Flyposite Detachable shoe and is worn by mostly linemen and some linebackers when field conditions require the best traction:

This is the Speed D detachable cleat, you can see the bottoms on the next picture:

This is the Speed D with detachable cleats; this shoe provides the best traction for skill players, especially on wet or muddy field:

Getting Ready for Hollywood

2010-10-27T13:30:00.000-07:00

Many times, people will come up to me and say, "you are so lucky, getting to go to LA this weekend!" ; or whatever city we may be going to for a game.

It has happened a couple of times already this week. They will say, "wow, what are you going to do in LA this weekend when you guys go to play UCLA? You are so lucky"

Well, they are right in one way, I am EXTREMELY lucky to be going to LA, or anywhere with the football team; but they are misunderstood in terms of what we get to do when we go on the road. Especially, this weekend!

First of all, this weekend, we won't really ever be in Los Angeles, just close. We will land at Burbank airport around 5:30pm on Friday afternoon. We will be on the tarmac for at least 30 minutes, waiting to get the buses loaded with everyone and their bags.

Then, we will get a police escort all the way to the hotel in Glendale, but for us, the equipment staff, we keep going down the freeway to Pasadena, where the Rose Bowl Stadium is at. Obviously, the police escort stops at team hotel. We will arrive at the stadium around 6:30-7pm, depending on traffic. Then, we will work at the stadium for at least a couple of hours. We may go longer because of the early kickoff.

We will stop somewhere in Pasadena or Glendale for dinner, which means it will be 10:00 or later when we get to hotel.

Then the next morning, we will probably arrive back to the stadium around 6:00am which means we will leave hotel around 5:30am. That makes for an early wake up call!

As soon as the game is over, we hop on the buses that go back to Burbank Airport and we fly home to Tucson. We will be home around 7pm on Saturday.

So basically, this means we see Burbank Airport tarmac, stadium, a restaurant, hotel, back to stadium and then to airport. I am NOT complaining, but also want people to know it isn't always a vacation. Sometimes on a late Saturday night kickoff, we might get some free time on Saturday morning, but that seems rare on the road.

Hopefully I will be able to have some awesome pictures of our trip to Hollywood!

Cats Beat Up on Dawgs

2010-10-25T15:05:00.001-07:00

This past weekend was a GREAT weekend! It was so much fun beating the Huskies, but it was even more fun seeing all the former players that came back to see us. Even got to see and visit with Richard Jefferson, who came to the game because he was inducted into the Hall of Fame, along with team mate, Luke Walton. I also got to see and visit many others, including Dennis Northcutt, Bobby Wade, Nick Folk.

Because kickoff was set for 7:15 (actually didn't kickoff till after 7:30pm) the temperatures got a little chilly at game time. It was in the upper 60's, just cool enough for some sweatshirts and jackets for the staff.

Once again, the equipment staff did an OUTSTANDING job of preparation for the players and coaches! The game went smooth for everyone! We did have to change out some cleats on the sideline during the game, as a few of our players were slipping a little. It is nice to be able to have extra shoes right on the sideline so that goes smooth as well.

Also, our good friend and supporter Albert Vasquez once again provided food for the coaches after the game. Every single game, he delivers food to us towards the end of the game so our coaches have some food in their locker room after the game. Albert does this out of the kindness of his heart, and his love for the Wildcats. His restaurant, El Saguarito has the best AND healthiest Mexican food in town!!!

Below are some pictures of the managers hard work to have the team ready for the 44-14 victory over the Washington Huskies.

Tim Pfennig gets the afternoon started at 1pm on Saturday by getting the uniforms out of the trunk:

Mike Reed assist Tim in getting all the uniforms put in players lockers:

We go through about 600-800 towels between both teams on game days:

Uniforms all packed and ready in the trunk:

This is how the locker room looked when we arrived for work on Saturday:

All the managers showed up fired up and ready to work at 1:00 on Saturday for the 7:15 kickoff:

Managers getting the team ready:

Robert Lloyd enjoying the conversation from the managers as they all talk about Friday night happenings around campus:

Mike Baranowski, always seeming to enjoy his work:

John Landwehr and Mike Reed get players ready:

Jordan Gobel enjoys the conversation as she gets R.J. Young's jersey and pads ready for game:

Robert Lloyd focuses as he gets a players jersey and shoulder pad ready for the game:

Billy Worthington getting a jersey on a pair of shoulder pads, with a smile on his face and joy in his heart....as usual:

Jordan Bates pulls a jersey onto a pair of shoulder pads:

Managers go to work on players lockers early in the afternoon on Saturday:

Jack Banker works to get players ready in the "overflow" locker room:

David Bodzin gets players ready in the "overflow" locker room:

Mike Harlow enjoying his work on a players helmet before the team leaves the hotel:

Ryan Ewalt checking to make sure Nic Grigsby's helmet is ready for action:

Jordan Bates getting a pair of shoes clean for the game against the Huskies:

Robert Lloyd working hard at cleaning a pair of shoes for the game:

Jordan Gobel getting a helmet ready for the game, making sure everything is secure and tight:

Mike Baranowski seeming very happy about cleaning a pair of shoes!

John Landwehr getting Juron Criner's helmet ready for action:

Michael Barnett getting Austin Hill's shoes cleaned before kickoff:

Mike Harlow tightening screws on a helmet before team leaves the hotel:

Billy Worthington getting a pair of shoes cleaned and ready for game:

Locker room ready to go:

Jordan Bates getting the last trunk out of the locker room and to the field:

Benny and managers testing coach comm very early in the afternoon:

Robert Lloyd walk testing coach comm:

Four Zona Zoo fans first in line under stadium at around 3pm for 7:15 kickoff:

ESPN camera man getting his equipment ready for the game:

Coach Stoops arriving to the locker room before the game (note Zona Zoo in full force 2 hours out):

Washington assistant coach Johnny Nansen, who was a player while I was equipment manager at Washington State:

Coach Stoops visiting with Husky Head Coach, Steve Sarkisian before the game:

GAMEDAY!!!!!

2010-10-23T11:12:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was another fun day in the equipment room at McKale. Former players stopped by, other visitors, stopped by throughout the day. Our AWESOME coaches always bring by their friend and family that come to Tucson to visit. It is always nice to meet knew people and make new friends!

Luckily I got to see a couple of AWESOME former offensive linemen, James Treathaway and Blake Kerley before I left for the team hotel. They stopped by as I was walking out.

One of favorite visitors is New York Times best selling author and all-round GREAT guy, Dr. Kevin Leman. Dr. Leman frequently visits the equipment room and football practice. He is a HUGE Wildcat fan. He lives here in Tucson, and has 3 degrees from UofA.

One of our favorite people visits us often, and Dr. Kevin Leman stopped by yesterday to take a picture with me and to show what we will be wearing tonight against Washington.

Among the many visitors this weekend, maybe the best was Tim Pfennig's family. His wife Jenny brought their newborn son, Logan by yesterday. His twin brother, Greg, looks on with Dr. Leman:

One of the all time GREAT people to play football for the Arizona Wildcats, Tony Wingate, dropped by to see us.

Homecoming has Officially Arrived!!!!

2010-10-22T10:34:00.000-07:00

There are many exciting things about Homecoming during the football season, but my favorite is being able to see so many people from the past.

Yesterday, Dan McSweeney, a former student equipment manager from Chicago, IL, came by the equipment room with a couple of his friends. They are in town until Sunday. We were able to have a GREAT visit yesterday afternoon! I always love being able to see former student managers and hear about their lives after college. I really enjoy hearing about their successes.

Also, former punter from Pueblo High School right here in Tucson, James Molina stopped by to say hello. James is one of the all time great guys to play for the Wildcats. I always loved James because he comes from an AWESOME family!!! James' father, Sixto Molina, is the former Chief of Police for the City of South Tucson, and a true American Hero.

Today is sure to be a GREAT day, as we will be able to see so many visitors! I will do my best to have my camera available so I can post some pictures of some GREAT former Wildcats!

Me with Dan W as I like to call him. Dan will always go down as one of my all time favorite managers I have been able to work with!

From Left to Right: George Kotsiovos from Chicago, Tim Shriver of Tucson, myself, and Dan McSweeney of Chicago:

Cats Getting Ready for the Dawgs

2010-10-21T10:15:00.000-07:00

Everyone is working hard to get ready for the Washington Huskies, including the managers. U-dub will bring in a powerful offense this weekend to face the Wildcats during Homecoming weekend.

This week starts the second half of the football season.

All of us are excited about it being Homecoming weekend. We look forward to many visitors to the equipment room.

Defensive Coaches look over the practice schedule as they prepare for Jake Locker and the Husky offense:

Jordan Bates works with Jack Banker as he snaps balls to the QB's during drills:

John Landwehr oversees offensive line drills during practice:

Managers use the jugs machine during special teams to fire balls at receivers:

David Bodzin and Robert Lloyd catch up for WR's using the jugs machine during special teams:

All Star Performance on the Palouse

2010-10-18T15:55:00.001-07:00

As I mentioned in my earlier blog, the equipment staff of Tim, Benny and the five managers did an incredible job this past weekend in Pullman!

Coach Stoops just left my office a few minutes ago and he was telling me how smooth the trip was and how everything was perfect. I told him that the seven people that went with me did and awesome job, and he already knew that. Coach Stoops shows his appreciation to us often, and always tells us what a good job we do and thanks us daily. It is always nice for the head coach to be so complimentary!

The trip was a success in many ways! Below are some pictures to share with you from our trip. Now it is about time to go to tonight's practice to start preparing for the Washington Huskies and Jake Locker!!!!!!

Equipment Staff was in the lobby and ready to go to stadium at 9:30am on Saturday in Moscow, Idaho where the team stayed:

I took this picture from the front door of our hotel of the Kibbie Dome on University of Idaho's campus. This is where the Vandals play football and basketball games:

This was our team hotel in Moscow, Idaho. It is the only hotel that teams can stay at when they play the Cougs:

We stopped at the WSU campus Bear Research area on the way to the stadium:

Billy Worthington and Ryan Ewalt take a look at a bear:

Mike Baranowski, Mike Reed and Benny Conger take in the sights at the bear pens:

One of the bears at the bear pens:

This is the clubhouse at Palouse Ridge Golf course on the WSU campus:

(from left to right): My daughter Natalie, my oldest son Tyler, and Benny Conger:

This is Sean Scanlon, who worked for me when I was at WSU years ago. Sean now does overnight security in the visiting locker room. Sean is a GREAT guy!!!!

Mike Reed pulling jerseys before the team arrived:

Jordan Gobel putting jersey on taped shoulder pads:

This is how the players area looked in our locker room. Brings back memories of high school PE:

This area is where half of our coaches dressed:

Mike Reed icing down some sodas before the team arrived:

Billy Worthington cleaned the top of the lockers in the coaches area so we could put clean towels on top of the lockers:

We got a lot of help from my nephew, Trevor, in setting up our coaches locker rooms:

Because all of the lockers available in the locker room are locked, we had to put up temporary hooks for the coaches lockers:

Tim getting our dogs ready for lunch!

We had hot dogs and chips for lunch before the team arrived:

This is our coaches outerwear trunk that we set up in the locker room before the game, then once the game starts, it is on the sideline with us in case the coaches need more items to stay warm. Many times, like this past Saturday, the weather gets cooler the longer the game goes:

Each drawer has the name of a coach on a drawer. Inside that drawer are different forms of outerwear for the the coaches to stay warm and dry, when it rains.

This is some of the contents of items in the coaches outerwear trunk:

This is an area where half of the coaches dressed:

This is how the players found their "locker" when they arrived:

Mike Reed getting the make shift equipment room ready in the showers. We have to move out of there after halftime so the players can shower:

This picture is taken from the players locker room area and looking up the ramp at where the coaches locker rooms were at, along with the training room:

My daughter, Natalie, with Billy Worthington. My daughter has worked with Billy's mom at Marriott.

The area right outside of our coaches locker room. The players locker room was down the ramp through the doors you see in the back of the picture:

One of our clocks that we take with us to each away game. It is a good thing, because all of the clocks in the visitors locker room were wrong!

Me and my nephew, Trevor before our team arrived:

Mike Reed putting the schedule on the marker board in the players locker room:

Truck driver, Bob Keith, enjoyed a hot dog before the team arrived:

Tim taking coolers to the training room before the team arrived:

My brother Milton and I in our locker room before the team arrived:

Me, my nephew Trevor, and brother Milton:

Another shot of Milton and I during pre game activity:

Our two trucks outside our locker room. Pratt Moving and Storage, out of Pullman, did all of our local hauling for us (thus Idaho Vandal logo on the truck):

Success in Pullman

2010-10-17T22:14:00.001-07:00

I will get pictures up tomorrow, but I wanted to give a HUGE shout out for the Equipment Staff that traveled to Pullman for the game against the Cougars.

I have been doing this for over 30 years, and the WSU trip can be a tough one, and this year the trip wasn't an easy one with everything involved, yet Tim, Benny and the 5 student managers did an OUTSTANDING job this weekend. Their hard work and dedication made the trip a GREAT one and one of the best jobs I have ever been involved in!!!!

There are a few reasons this trip can be trying, and two of them is the weather and the distance from the locker room to the field. In past years, sometimes we have had to wait for the field to get cleared of sideline trunks before the team could leave for the airport, but this year, our managers did an INCREDIBLE job of not only clearing the field after the game in record time, they did an outstanding job the entire trip. This group of Mike Reed, Ryan Ewalt, Mike Baranowski, Jordan Gobel, and Billy Worthington worked their tails off to do a great job. They were sprinting to the field to get the trunks after the game!!!!!

Anyway, it was a GREAT trip, team won the game, I was able to see family and friends, my wife and all three kids of ours were there, it was just AWESOME.

We had some injuries, and that is never good, but I feel sure our players and trainers will work hard to get players back on the field.

I will get pictures up tomorrow.

5-1 !!!!!!!!!!

Headed to Pullman

2010-10-14T17:22:00.000-07:00

Well, Bob and Bob took the truck away from McKale last night and are headed for Pullman, WA. They should arrive Friday sometime afternoon. We are still getting ready for the trip. We still have to get the player bags packed tonight and we will put those on the plane with us tomorrow.

When we arrive in Lewiston, Idaho, Jeff Jones of Pratt Moving will pick up our player bags and drive them to visitors locker room at Martin Stadium. Tomorrow night we will get everything in the locker room.

We will get to the locker room Saturday morning around 10:30am to set everything up for the players and the game.

Tim getting everything squared away. Thank goodness for Blackberry!
Billy Worthington and friends run chains during defensive team drill:

Michael Barnett and friends on the chain crew with offense:
Mike Baranowski snaps the ball to Matt Scott during 7 on 7:

Coach Stoops and the managers working intensely with a drill:

Bob and Bob arrive with the truck last night:

Bob Caprari helps Bob Keith spot the truck for loading:

Bob Caprari gets the truck ready for loading:

Bob Keith puts some of the cheer squad stuff in the truck:

Busy Day in the Equipment Room

2010-10-12T14:15:00.000-07:00

Today has been a very busy day! We have been getting helmet and shoulder pad maintenance done, along with getting all of our trunks packed for our game this weekend in Pullman.

As I mentioned earlier, our Equipment Truck leaves after practice tomorrow night. It will arrive in Pullman on Friday afternoon. Everything is running smoothly, just busy. We still have to get ready for practice as well.

Our Athletic Director, Greg Byrne, was down earlier today to see how things were going. He is a very busy man himself, but you can follow most everything he does on his twitter. You can follow him at www.twitter.com/greg_byrne When he was down earlier, he took a picture of the equipment room and posted something about it on his twitter account. For those few of you that enjoy this blog, you will LOVE his twitter!!!!

Below are some pictures of our work today.

One of our most important products in the equipment room, Reek Out, was used quite a bit today, as many of the managers came in this morning to do their weekly maintenance on their players helmets and shoulder pads. The players are VERY HAPPY that we use Reek Out because their equipment does not stink

John Landwehr came in this morning to do his helmet and shoulder pad maintenance:

Then next two pictures are of the sheets that each managers uses for each player as they record every thing done to the helmet and shoulder pads of each of the players:

Robert Lloyd came in earlier today between classes to load one of his trunks for our trip to Pullman.

Robert Lloyd uses a checklist to load his coaches trunk earlier today:

Robert loads coaches caps into his coaches trunk:

When the managers come in to do their maintenance, they use laundry carts to haul player's helmets and shoulder pads back and forth from the locker room and equipment room. Managers are required to do their maintenance in the equipment room under our supervision:

Mike Harlow came in this morning to do maintenance on his players helmets and shoulder pads:

Mike Harlow writes down the comments of his maintenance:

Ryan Ewalt came in this morning to do his scheduled maintenance on his players helmets and shoulder pads:

Ryan changes out a facemask for Richard Morrison:

We got our coaches laundry bag already from the number one cleaners in Tucson, Shaffer Dry Cleaning and Laundry.

KIIM 99.5 FM radio personalities drop by to say hello this morning. (left to right): Benny Conger, Shannon Black, me, Porkchop, and Tim Pfennig.

Tough Day for the Wildcats

2010-10-11T15:16:00.000-07:00

Well, it is back to the drawing board for all of us with the Wildcat Football Team. Oregon State came in here this past Saturday and beat us 29-27.

Once again, the equipment staff did a great job of having the team prepared. We now look forward to our second road trip of the season, this time to Pullman, Washington. The truck will leave Wednesday after practice, so we have a short turn around time to get everything ready.

I always look forward to this trip, as I spent some of the best years of my life living and working in Pullman. I still have family and friends there in Pullman and I look forward to getting to see them, even if it is only for a few hours.

My brother, Milton, is the head equipment manager for the Cougars and he and his staff do a GREAT job. Milton and I were able to work together at WSU for about 7 years in the football equipment room. He is without a doubt one of the best equipment managers in the business and I learned so much from him while we were able to work together. Those wonderful years were topped off by a Rose Bowl game against the Michigan Wolverines on January 1, 1998, it was our last game together.

Our 3 children call Pullman home, and all 3 of them will be there in Pullman when I arrive this Friday! With my wife on the trip too, it will be a family reunion!

Oh well, enough of the personal stuff. Enjoy a few pictures from game day against the Beavers:

Mike Reed checks each locker before the players arrive:

This is how the locker room looked when the team arrived:

This outstanding crew makes sure the sideline is properly prepared before each game:

Ricky Hunley was honored at halftime of the game:

Chris Merrill picks up his jersey from Tim Pfennig before the team arrives:

Robert Lloyd does some drills with a few of the players before each game:

Mike Baranowski warms up with one of the QB's before pre-game:

Jordan Gobel gets ready for Wildcats pre-game:

Coach Dick Tomey was at the game where he was honored between the first and second quarter of the game:

Ben Hulka assist Coach Kish during pre-game:

Jordan Bates and Robert Lloyd run balls during pre-game:

Jordan Gobel gets ball bags organized during pre-game:

Jordan Bates hustles during pre-game:

Certain managers are assigned the duty to give their coach their Coach Comm headset when they get to the field for the game:

Wildcats Move to Their Weekend Home

2010-10-08T09:35:00.001-07:00

Each Thursday evening before a Saturday home game at Arizona Stadium, the equipment staff puts in a couple of extra hours of work to make sure everything is over at the stadium so we can start work first thing on Friday mornings to get the team ready for the game.

Once we get everything loaded into the home locker room at Arizona Stadium, we set the alarms, alert the police and security, and that starts the motion of us getting in to game mode.

Today, we will have each manager go over throughout the day so someone is ALWAYS with our equipment, and they will get their players equipment ready for final inspection tomorrow before the team arrives at the stadium.

As you will see in the pictures below, we are big believers in using checklist to make sure we properly pack for all games.

Game socks are put on top of Trunk 1 where Jordan Gobel will use a checklist to load them in the trunk.

Once again, using a checklist, we will make sure each coach and staff have a rain suit ready on the sideline for Saturday's game, even if the forecast calls for ZERO chance of rain. I would rather than be with us, than back in the equipment room. You NEVER know!!!! Better safe than sorry.

Mike Harlow uses a checklist to make sure every single player dressing for the game has a valuable bag to put their valuables in during the game. Obviously, this trunk is locked and has security watching it at all times during the game.

Tim Pfennig assist Jordan Gobel in getting jerseys ready for the game against the Beavers. As you can see, Jordan uses a checklist to make sure every single player has jersey, pants and socks in the uniform trunk.

Billy Worthington uses a checklist of players dressing for the game against the Beavers to check off the players when they turn their laundry bag in after yesterdays practice. Once all the laundry is turned in, Zac Cook gets started doing the laundry of the travelers first.

Managers push a couple of packed trunks to the ramp where the Enterprise Truck is positioned for loading:

Mike Reed gets everything packed in Enterprise truck at McKale that goes to Arizona Stadium for the game against the Beavers:

Student Managers Continue to Work Hard

2010-10-07T10:09:00.001-07:00

Just like our players and coaches, our student equipment managers are working very hard to help make our practices go smooth each day.

We challenge our managers to help keep the tempo up beat as they run drills, and they have been doing a great job all season long. In addition to helping run practice each day, they still have to keep up with their academic obligations and their helmet and shoulder pad maintenance on their players. They all seem to be doing a great job at everything.

The managers also look forward to the games. Being able to be a part of the team on Saturdays is one of their biggest rewards. Hopefully they will be able to be a part of another win this Saturday against a VERY TOUGH Beaver team from Oregon State.

Below are some pictures from yesterdays practice.

Mike Baranowski helps run drills during yesterdays practice as the team gets ready for the Beavers:

Mike Baranowski and Robert Lloyd work together on a plan for running offensive drills yesterday:
Coach Stoops running the scout team:

Robert Lloyd hustles as usual:

Ben Hulka hustles as usual:

Robert Lloyd uses a script to know which hash mark to spot the ball on during offensive drills during practice yesterday:

Mike Baranowski works on a helmet during practice yesterday:

Coach Stoops and Coach Littrell are very focused on details during practice yesterday:

Robert Lloyd (standing) and Ben Hulka (leaning over) spot balls during team drills during practice yesterday:

Managers use jugs machines to shoot balls to receivers during special teams:

Ryan Ewalt snaps the ball to Nick Foles during QB drills during special teams period at yesterdays practice:

Jack Banker shags, while Ryan Ewalt snaps the ball to QB's during special teams:

Jack Banker and Ryan Ewalt work with QB's during special teams period:

Cats Are Working Hard To Get Ready for Beavers

2010-10-05T16:57:00.000-07:00

Wildcats had a GREAT practice Monday afternoon in preparation for a GREAT Oregon State Beaver football team. Everyone is excited about playing a game again after last weeks bye.

It was obvious that the players got their legs back with some time off. We had a GREAT crisp workout yesterday.

Below are some pictures from Monday's practice:

Jack Banker feeding balls to QB's during passing drills:
Next two pictures are of Billy Worthington and Jack Banker running balls during passing drills:

Brandon Blumenfeld gets pop ups ready for defensive line drills:

Jordan Gobel sets up cones for special team drills:

Mike Baranowski and John Landwehr run balls during team:

Half of the managers run drills for the defensive team drills:

The other half of managers run chains for offensive team drills:

John Landwehr plays QB during offensive line drills:

Wildcats Back to Work After Some Time Off

2010-09-30T11:13:00.000-07:00

After a few days off from football, the team got back on the practice field yesterday and started to get back to work on some fundamentals. The managers were able to get some time off too, which was nice for them too.

We go again this afternoon and tomorrow, then really start getting focused on our next opponent, which is the Oregon State Beavers. We have one more home game before we hit the road to Pullman, WA for a October 16 battle on the Palouse.

Back when Coach Stoops got here 7 years ago, he started a tradition that still goes on each Wednesday after practice. The wives of the coaches bake cookies for the players and they bring them to practice. The wives bring their kids and the kids play catch with the players and their dads. It is a really cool thing. Cookie Night is in addition to the Family Nights during the season which are on Sunday evenings. Coach has been known to set up slip-n-slides, jumping castles, and other things for the kids to play with. Many times the dads jump right in with the kids! There is such a family atmosphere around the program, thanks to Coach Stoops!

Below are some pictures from yesterdays practice.

Managers snap the balls to quarterbacks yesterday at practice:

Dr. Kevin Leman, New York Times Best Selling Author and HUGE Wildcat fan, visits with Garic Wharton during break at yesterday's practice:

Ben Hulka and Mike Baranowski have fun spotting balls during team drill yesterday during practice:

Mackenzie Odom, wife of strength coach Brian Odom, and their son Ben bring cookies for the players:

Cookies baked by the coaches wives for the team:

Players go after fresh baked cookies after last nights practice: