(The article was
started Sunday and finished Tuesday)
With this season’s road-heavy
schedule, it seems only fitting that I write about the ins and outs of a road
trip with the JMU Men’s Basketball Team. I am writing this post while on the
team bus en route to Charleston. After last night’s great win in Wilmington to
start CAA play we are heading directly to Charleston before heading home as to
save a little bit of travel especially since we aren’t missing any classes by
doing so.
The travel
is an obvious perk of being a team manager. I love traveling and exploring and
seeing new places (biking cross-country this summer is a great example of that).
Little nooks and crannies of the US are so fascinating to me (i.e. Nacogdoches,
TX). Additionally, the annual road trip to Northeastern provides a brief but
worthwhile excursion home to see friends and family.
Most road trips and travel days are
all similar. For every away contest we always go the day before the game and
spend the night to be relaxed the day of the game and get acclimated in
preparation for the game. (Yes, even for UVA we went the night before). The
majority of the time we have a practice at Convo before getting on the road.
After the brief practice we have about an hour in between the end of practice
and the buses departure. While this is a time for the players and staff to
relax, grab a bite to eat or shower this is the time for us managers to shine
and get our stuff done.
One of the first things we do is
get the drinks and snack bin. We have cases of Powerade and water locked up in
a closet and we usually take a Powerade to water ratio of 2:1. After lugging
the cases to the bus with my fellow manager(s) and/or graduate assistant(s) we
must get all the gear from our equipment manager.
Each player is responsible for
bringing his own practice gear but we as managers are responsible for bringing
their game gear. The players have separate undershirts, socks, etc. for games
and practices so we get a big bag from our equipment manager, Kevin, full of jerseys,
shooting shirts and their game laundry loops (undershirts, socks, pads). The
players never see their jersey or game gear until we arrive at the arena for
the contest.
Another bag we get from Kevin is
the gameday bag. The gameday bag holds all of our supplies. It has the
whiteboards, markers, blank DVDs and extra gear for the guys in case they
forget or lose something. It also has an empty bag in it, in case we need an
extra bag for dirty laundry on the roadie.
Once we have all the bags we need,
we put them on the bus along with the drinks. One case of water and one case of
Powerade always go on the bus for consumption while the other cases are left
under the bus. Once all is packed, it’s seat claiming time. Some people like
the left side while others like the right (I’m a left-side kind of guy) and the
battles for seats are usually around which seats have plugs. Sometimes every
row has plugs but often only every third row has a plug. Those are the
high-priced seats.
The loaded bus |
Sometimes the rides go fast and
other times they seem like they take forever. I usually pass the ride by doing
homework or sleeping. Forgetting a pillow is a nightmare. It’s hard enough to
sleep and get comfortable when you do have a pillow.
When the bus arrives at the hotel I
B-line to the lobby for a luggage dolly. With all the team and personal bags we
have to carry it’s never fun to carry every bag by hand.
My best friend--the luggage dolly |
Most of the time the rest of the
night is ours. I’m often found in the GAs room just sitting around sharing
laughs and watching sports. And then I’ll get a text to head back to my room so
a player can grab a Powerade.
Also the night before the game, we
play our support staff game. This is something that I look forward to every
road trip. We started doing it this year and it’s when we play the support
staff of the opposing school the night before the game in a friendly pickup
game. Support staff refers to managers, GAs, trainers, Director of Operations,
etc.—anybody who wants to play. Our players enjoy coming to watch (laugh and make
fun of us). The games are a great way to play some pickup and meet the staffs
of the other teams.
Not typically, except this Wilmington/Charleston trip because we aren't going home, we do laundry on the road. I coordinate ahead of time with the other teams manager(s) and/or Director of Operations to use their laundry facilities. This trip, Charleston has been great to work with in allowing us to use their facilities. I am very grateful of their generosity.
Doing laundry in Charleston |
On gameday we wake up around 9:30
and have breakfast catered at the hotel. Hotel meals are always hit or
miss—sometimes they’re very good and other times they were clearly just heated
up in the microwave. This year, though, our Director of Operations, Rob
Summers, has really come through with some quality meals.
A few hours after breakfast we head
to the arena for shootaround. This is our chance to get acclimated to the gym.
It is a very light, hour-long practice. It usually involves a simple shooting
drill or two and then a run-through of our own sets as well as how to defend
the opponent’s sets. Every once in a while I get placed on the scout team (running
the opponent’s plays) and get to release my inner Jerrelle Benimon or Marcus
Thornton. You ask me, I get buckets. You ask the players, I get locked up. You
can decide who you want to believe.
Post-shootaround is the time to
chill and get in game mode. Save for pregame meal four hours before tip it’s a
relaxing time. This is usually a prime time to squeeze in a quick snooze. And
then two hours before gametime we leave for the gym. We typically go home right
after the game so we must be all packed up by this point. I have to be sure I’m
ready to go before the bus is ready to leave so that I have time to get all the
bags onto the bus.
Mixed in with all the free time we
have is usually a workout in the hotel gym with Dimitrije Cabarkapa. We like to
put in a hard workout together.
My pregame routine includes passing
out the jerseys, setting up the bench and making sure everything is running
smoothly until it’s time to rock & roll.
After we get the win, it is my duty
to make sure everything is put back the way it was before. I collect all the
players dirty clothes in the laundry bags and clean up the bench and locker
room. Especially on road trips, I take pride in making sure the locker room and
bench are cleaner or as clean as when we showed up. People take note of that
and associate it with JMU. I’m usually the last one on the bus after I cleaned
everything up and then its all zzzz’s until we get to Harrisonburg early the
next morning and have to get up and go to class.
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