Benny's First Game

You would think I am going to say Benny is STRESSED OUT about his first basketball game tonight. Well, he is as relaxed and funny as he always is. Benny keeps all of us in a great mood.

The game is actually an exhibition game against Incarnate Word from Texas. Here is to hoping Benny, Coach Pennell, Coach Dunlap and Coach Geary get their first wins as Wildcat Basketball Coaches and Equipment Manager!

Truck is headed to Pullman

Well, the truck left last night at 7:30pm Tucson time, and our drivers, Bob and Bob, say they plan on arriving in Pullman anywhere from late morning Friday to early afternoon. As usual, everything went very smooth.

We put everything but the player bags on the truck, and they will ride with us on the charter plane Friday morning. Also, our video department didn't put all of their cameras on the truck either. Otherwise, everything is headed to Pullman.

Here are some pictures of every ones hard work yesterday and last night:

Getting the Coaches to Pullman

One of my all time favorite managers, Adam Knapp, along with Ben Hulka is responsible for getting our football coaches packed with proper gear for each game. Following a checklist, put together by Tim Pfennig, they pack their trunks with the necessities.

Daniel Mercado, from Woodside, California, is responsible for getting the coaches towels packed neatly in a red hamper for the trip.

Here are some pictures of their work.

Headed to Pullman

Well, the truck leaves tonight and I hope to post pictures later today of us packing and loading. I think we are all ready to get up there as soon as possible.

We are bringing 5 outstanding managers with us this weekend to Pullman. We are bringing the same three that travel to all the games, Ronnie Platt, Ben Hulka, and Ryan Ewalt, plus two of our newer managers, Robert Lloyd and Mike Harlow. The five of them are pictured above.

We have already featured Ronnie and Robert, and we hope to feature all of our managers in the future. Ben is from Chicago, Illinois and is in his third season. Ryan is from El Paso, Texas and is in his second year. He transferred here from University of North Texas. Mike Harlow is in his second year here at UofA from Idaho Falls, Idaho but his first year as a manager. Mike went to High School in Westerville, Ohio.

At midweek, the forecast in Pullman at game time hasn't changed that much. The high is still 51 and the low is now at 37. The sun is scheduled to set at 4:22pm which means about half the game will be played with no sun at all (COLD)!!! May not be much sun anyway because there is now a 40% chance of rain too. Oh well, we will be prepared!!!

More Pictures of Robert Lloyd

Robert getting ready for practice today.

Student Manager Spotlight, Robert Lloyd

Please let me introduce you to someone that has been one of the best surprises for me in a long time, if not EVER! His name is Robert Lloyd, and he is an undecided major Freshman from San Mateo, CA.

Normally I have the opportunity to sit down and visit extensively with prospective student managers, but in the case of Robert, I was unavailable and out of town when he came to Tucson for the visit. My assistant at that time, who is no longer here, sat down with Robert and told him all about what we do as managers and what we expect of them. At the same time it is a chance for us to evaluate them.

My assistant gave him a thumbs up, and he came highly recommended from a GREAT friend of the program, Mark Harlan. So we offered a position to Robert and thankfully for us, he accepted.

From day one here as a student manager, Robert has done NOTHING but exceed expectations for what we have for our managers. He quickly became someone that we trusted to get things done, and doing it with a smile on his face and joy in his heart. You see, Robert immediately became a hit with everyone. He is a GREAT guy to be around and is extremely hard working. I must remind you, he is a FRESHMAN.

As I have mentioned here before, this is my 30th year of doing this, and Robert became the first person in my thirty years to do something. He is the first and only freshman manager to go on their first ever road game. He EARNED his way to our first trip this year to Albuquerque!!!! I could not have been more proud of a manager. You would have thought he was a seasoned veteran!!!!

He has also been given other responsibilities like packing trunks and doing helmet and shoulder pad maintenance. He works with Coach Nichol and the outside receivers when out at practice. He will be making his third trip this weekend to Pullman. He also was able to go to the Stanford game where he was able to spend some time with his family.

Robert went to St. Ignatius College Prep in San Francisco, graduating in May of 2008. He was awarded the Fred and Katie Cox Scholarship. He played soccer and baseball with in high school. He would like to work in the front office of an NFL team someday.

He loves eating Fried Catfish and his favorite movie is American Gangster. He listens to Rap/Hip-Hop music, with Lil Wayne and Young Jeezy being his favorite artist. His favorite teams besides the Arizona Wildcats are the San Francisco Giants, the San Francisco Forty Niners, and the Golden State Warriors.

We are very fortunate to have Robert Lloyd as a part of our equipment staff team. Thank you Mark Harlan!!!!!!!

Exciting Week in the Equipment Room

Even though this trip to Pullman will be a challenge for all of us with the weather and distance, it is a trip that I have been looking forward to for a long time. It is always fun to see my family and friends up there!

We are getting all of our trunks packed up today and tomorrow, then we load the truck up on Wednesday evening so Bob and Bob can leave Wednesday night for Pullman. They will arrive in Pullman with our equipment on Friday afternoon. Usually our truck leaves on Thursdays.

Since the truck is leaving on Wednesday instead of Thursday, we will have to put the 64 player bags on the charter plane with us. We have hired 3B's in Lewiston to pick up our player bags and drive them to Martin Stadium.

We will have a few extra trunks with all of the cold and foul weather gear for our players, coaches and staff.

I plan on posting this week about some of the managers going on the trip, plus posting with pictures from Pullman while we are there.

As of right now, the forecast at game time on Saturday is 30% chance of showers, high of 51 degrees and a low of 37 degrees. Wind at 13mph. Even though we pack for every possible weather condition, we still check the weather 3 or 4 times per day up until we leave for the airport.