A Behind the Scenes Look at Lumberjack Football
8/26/2008 12:00:00 AM | Football
Aug. 26, 2008
NACOGDOCHES, Texas - - When the purple smoke clears and the Lumberjacks appear on the turf at Homer Bryce Stadium on Saturday to take on Langston, they will be joined by numerous screaming fans, cheerleaders and band members eager with the anticipation of another fall football season.
But the team will also be joined by another group of Lumberjacks on the sidelines; a group that time after time sacrifices public glories of victory for the private satisfaction of being part of a team and helping keep athletes on the field, playing at their highest levels.
SFA's managers and athletic trainers are routinely found roaming the athletic fieldhouse and facilities long before athletes ever pull into the parking lot, taping up the players or reattaching facemasks to helmets, but to them it is all worth it to see the team succeed.
"You do it for the players, and to see them do well," head equipment manager Greg Payne said. "That's where the reward is."
Payne has been at SFA for 29 years and oversees all issues involving equipment with the assistance of only four students - Cameron Poe, Matt Eierdam, Jay Savana and Jake Fears. The five-person team sets up all equipment on the sideline for SFA and is also in charge of making road games a "home away from home" experience.
Payne says that it is the preparatory work that is the hard part, as their game week begins on Mondays with the pairing of uniforms. Normally, the game day itself starts at 8 a.m. when the Lumberjacks are at home.
"Game days are the easy part," Payne says. "We just have to have everything set up by Saturday, so once Saturday hits it runs itself in many regards."
As for road games, the crew is in charge of packing up all equipment and transporting it to wherever the `Jacks are playing that week. Once there, they unpack and set up a locker room situation that resembles SFA's home quarters as closely as possible.
"Road games are like moving an army across the country," Payne says.
Athletic trainers also bring a small army of their own, with Assistant Athletic Director for Sports Medicine Sandy Miller directing nearly 40 students and employees. A member of the NATA and SWATA Halls of Fame, he has been heading up SFA's athletic training offices for 27 years and has seen dramatic growth in the program, including the construction of SFA's current athletic training facilities.
Over the years he has witnessed not only football players go on to the pros, but a number of his former pupils going on to work in the NFL, WNBA and various NCAA locations along with numerous students working in the high school ranks.
"The best part of this job is definitely seeing the people you work with and teach go on and succeed," Miller said. "It's great when they graduate and go carry a good life, and then we get to see it when they come back and see us."
It's a job that rarely allows a day off as each sport at SFA is assigned its own athletic trainer, with Miller directly supervising the football team. However, he gets plenty of help, especially on game days, in keeping up with all 86 Lumberjacks on the roster. Anywhere from eight to 10 students will man the Homer Bryce sidelines for home games, including the visiting side.
Game days normally start at approximately 8 a.m. with taping and other pregame duties, and going home is not normally an option until at least an hour after the final whistle blows with normal protocol calling for treatments the very next day.
But, it's not just the hours, but sometimes the obligations of the trainers often exceed the immediate job description.
For example, assistant athletic trainer Loree McCary works with the SFA Ladyjack basketball team, coordinating travel plans and meals while the team is on the road, in addition to her everyday responsibilities as an athletic trainer. But even while maintaining those obligations, she serves as the department's Senior Women's Administrator which includes such things as overseeing SFA's lettering policy.
But even in fields where duty often goes without recognition, both Payne and Miller received a long-deserved gesture of appreciation last season when each was inducted into the SFA Letterman's Hall of Fame. Ironically though, the ceremony was at halftime of SFA's game versus Western Illinois, allowing only a short window of applause and gratitude before the second-half whistle beckoned them right back to work.
-SFA-
