North Carolina State University Athletics
Packed, and Ready To Go
12/23/2010 12:00:00 AM | Football
Dec. 23, 2010
RALEIGH, N.C. - Both Amanda Wujcik and Morgan Soward could have graduated last spring, tucked their degrees under their arms and took off for the real world. They could have spent more time at the beach last summer, instead of taking inventory in the NC State football equipment room.
They could have spent Thanksgiving and Christmas with their families and friends, instead of packing up trunk after trunk of football equipment, folding jerseys and making sure every NC State football player has everything he needs for the Wolfpack's early-morning practices or Saturday kickoffs.
They could have begun their search for real employment, instead of working multiple part-time jobs and spending dozens of hours a week catering to the needs and whims of a bunch of football players and coaches.
But, as the most senior members of the 10 NC State football managers, they wanted to end their college careers with a memorable football season.
For five years now, they have sacrificed their social lives and academic careers for a little bit of scholarship money, travel per diem, football tickets for their parents and complimentary NC State football apparel.
And they've loved almost every minute of it.
"It's a full-time job commitment," Wujcik said. "Few people know how much time we put into it.
"But this is awesome. I'm so excited to spend this last little bit of time with my second family. I wouldn't want to spend my holidays anywhere else but with the team."
The squad of managers is an integral part of the preparation for next week's Champs Sports Bowl in Orlando. When the charter plane carrying the team, the football staff and support personnel took off from RDU International Airport Thursday morning, managers had already spent hundreds of work hours packing football equipment, luggage, baby strollers and Christmas presents into the football program's tractor trailer, which departed Raleigh late Tuesday night and arrived safely in Orlando Wednesday morning.
It was the managers' responsibility to put a list by every locker that included everything each player would need to pack. Inevitably, someone will likely forget something, or someone's favorite undershirt will fall off a laundry loop.
"If anyone needs extra stuff, we have it," said Sean Hess, a junior in biochemistry. "Cleats, pads, helmets, whatever. But the goal is to make sure everyone packs what they need."
Being a football manager, especially at this time of year, is a labor of love, though the emphasis sometimes seems to be more on "labor" than "love." Nate Sparrow, who just graduated with a degree in sports management and accepted a full-time job with research firm 365 Sports two weeks ago, will be taking some yet-to-be-earned vacation time to be in Orlando. He'll spend most of his free time telecommuting.
"This is a tough job, but it's been a lot of fun," Sparrow said. "I wanted to be here through the end of the season, and we were lucky enough to go to a bowl."
Their work is just one part of the whirlwind of activity over the last three weeks at the Murphy Center and the administrative Weisiger-Brown Building, as the Wolfpack prepares for its longest road trip of the season and its Tuesday night meeting with No. 22 West Virginia.
Starting with executive senior associate athletics director David Horning, director of football operations Kit Hughes and head football equipment manager Kevin Hurney, the planning team has made site visits to Orlando, scouted the area in and around the Hilton Orlando where the team will be staying and checked out the practice fields, the theme parks and the other places the players, coaches and their families will be spending their time while in Orlando.
While much of the preparation is similar to any regular road game, there is exponentially more detail work going on, since everything that might be needed for practice and game time has to be packed and delivered to Orlando in the red-and-white Wolfpack-logoed truck.
Fortunately, the Wolfpack coaching staff - which is making its 10th bowl appearance in Tom O'Brien's 14 years as a head coach - has some experience in these things.
"The biggest thing for getting everything done is having done it before," Hughes said. "Coach is very clear with what he wants and how he wants things done. The tough thing can be communicating with everybody who needs to know."
O'Brien has said many times that he wants his team and players to enjoy the bowl experience, but there is a finite amount of time every day to devote to fun and football. The schedule is jammed, starting Thursday afternoon, when the team arrives at the hotel, grabs a boxed lunch and heads to Universal Studios.
Add in the fact that the team will be celebrating Christmas Day in the hotel, and the organizational challenges are even more complex. But this is how much planning goes into the entire process: The staff has been in direct contact, electronically, with the North Pole, letting Santa know exactly how many kids are in the traveling party and who will be in each hotel room for Christmas Eve deliveries.
The list was e-mailed long ago after it had been, like everything else in this massive organizational process, checked twice.
The team will practice Friday morning and take off for Walt Disney World in the afternoon. They will have some time to be with their families and go to worship services Saturday and Sunday, but they have afternoon practice both days.
But there will be a festive and elaborate team dinner Saturday night, hosted by O'Brien's wife, Jenny. She has selected an elegant menu, bought presents for all the young children of the coaching and administrative staffs and made sure the night will be something special for all the people who are away from their families.
"She tries to make it really special for everyone," Hughes said.
To do that, there are a lot of hands involved in the planning, execution and delivery from Raleigh to Orlando.
Tuesday night, the equipment room in the basement of the Murphy Center was practically impassable, filled with suitcases, Christmas presents, football equipment and everything anyone thought someone might need for Tuesday's game.
"I'm pretty sure we haven't forgotten anything," Soward said.
- Tim Peeler, tim_peeler@ncsu.edu.
