Equipment staff supports USU sports
What happens behind the scenes of college sports? How many hours of prep go into a single week?
At the collegiate level, there are teams of people dedicated to making sure each program has all the right equipment on hand at all times. The Utah State sports equipment staff is in charge of operations of equipment, travel days and helping with practices.
“Anything you see players or coaches wearing on the field on game day, we’ve had our hand in it,” said Tobin Lambert, assistant equipment manager.
USU sports thrives because of the magic made behind the scenes from the equipment staff. They are the wheels that keep the machine turning.
The director of equipment operations for football, Chris Dunlap, has made managing equipment a long-term job.
“I love football, and I love watching,” Dunlap said.
Dunlap is in his first year as director, and he found his way into the world of equipment after having a health scare in his high school years.
“Either I could keep playing football and eventually hurt myself, or I can start doing the equipment,” Dunlap said.
He has been working equipment since and has stepped his way up the ladder as the head of football equipment at USU.
The hours, including travel time, are demanding and long.
“I can usually work 40 hours in a couple of days,” Dunlap said.
Lambert, the assistant equipment manager, has been working alongside Dunlap for about a year. Lambert started as a student staff member while he worked through graduate school. Eventually, he landed himself a position as an assistant.
For most Mountain West games, Lambert explained, the truck usually has to leave by Wednesday. This means everything going to an away game must be on the truck, packed and ready to use on the Saturday before the game.
Instead of a travel day, Lambert described it more as a “travel week, not just one day leading up to it.”
When the team travels by plane, equipment staff members are in charge of unloading everything that came with them as cargo on their flight.
“All the bags that coaches, wives, support staff, donors, trainers, anybody who’s on that plane, we’ll unload their bags and put it onto the correct bus,” Lambert said.
Lambert also explained they have the flight attendants announce before they land to allow all equipment staff to exit the plane first to unload everything.
The day-to-day operations of the equipment staff at Utah State change depending on whether the sport is in season or not. Both Dunlap and Lambert noted since football is not in season, days currently look a little different than they would during the season.
“If we are in season, we have our Mondays off and then that’s usually our day of prep, depending on if we’re traveling or not,” Dunlap said.
Tuesdays usually consist of helping to set up practice equipment and looking at any gear that needs repair. Practice duties include bringing in practice dummies, cones and other things like towels for players. Wednesday is usually the day the semis will leave if the team has an away game that week on Saturday. The rest of the week consists of helping at practices and prepping for the travel day on Friday if needed.
Before the game, the equipment team checks all the gear and ensures everything is ready to go.
“We go through our helmets, and make sure there’s no scratches or tears on decals and make sure that there are no mess-ups on the facemasks,” Dunlap stated.
There are 10 students on the staff, along with Dunlap and Lambert. With only 12 people, the prep work that happens behind the scenes can pan out to be hours of work.
When it comes down to specifics in equipment and what the staff is in charge of, the numbers start to pile up. Anything and everything on the field besides trainers’ gear is considered equipment, and the staff is completely in charge of it. When asked about total numbers, Lambert gave estimates of what equipment is kept on hand.
“Right now there’s 112 guys on the roster. In season, we’ll get up to 115. Each guy has two helmets, sometimes three depending on the season,” he said.
That means roughly 230 helmets are kept on hand, not counting any backups. There are also 115 shoulder pads, one for each player, and large amounts of backups kept on hand.
Football is not the only sport that needs these vital pieces of equipment in their programs. Brady Mikkelsen, who works as the director of equipment operations for olympic sports gave another perspective to the world of equipment. The olympic sports designation means he works with all other sports besides football.
Mikkelsen is a former Aggie and loves being involved at USU. He said he works anywhere from 40 to 80 hours a week. Granted, operations for all other sports are similar to the function of the football equipment staff.
Mikkelsen, just like Dunlap and Lambert, said there is so much prep that goes on behind the scenes, and equipment staff are vital to the function of any sport.
Equipment teams are there to help players in any way they need, whether it’s about the sport, school, life or just simply wanting to talk.
“The players know that I am here to help them out,” Dunlap said.
Mikkelsen also talked about relationships with players outside of football and had relatively the same response. He said he gets to know some players more than others, but the relationships between players and equipment staff is strong.
“If you want to come up and you want to talk to us or just hang out, you know we’re more than happy to,” Lambert said. He said it is great to build relationships and see the players improve on the field.
When asked about motivation on what keeps equipment staff members going, it was nothing short of love for the game, players and the job itself.
“I love this job, and it makes me not want to do anything else,” Dunlap said.
He also said his motivation through long hours comes from his results. “Just seeing how the players come out and looking good. There’s a slogan that says, ‘Look good, play good, feel good,’” Dunlap said.
*Editor’s note: source updated to reflect correct names*