University of Minnesota Athletics
Gearing Up - Equipment Staff Prepping for Fall Camp
7/23/2008 12:00:00 AM | Football
Ryan Grooms, the Golden Gophers’ new Director of Football Equipment, isn’t getting much sleep these days. Grooms is putting in plenty of long hours, going through the massive amount of gear that is arriving at the Gibson-Nagurski Football Complex on a daily basis as Aug. 4 and the opening of camp rapidly approaches.
Grooms estimated that roughly 600 boxes of equipment will have been delivered at Gibson-Nagurski by the end of this week. Each item in every one of those boxes then needs to be removed, inventoried and packed back into its box. This week and next, Grooms will be working 12- to 14-hour days, making sure every one of those boxes has been processed.
“Tuesday, we had a shipment of 128 boxes come in,” Grooms said. “We have gone through every one of those boxes completely, emptied them out, counted and re-stuffed the boxes. (Wednesday), we had 98 boxes of shoes show up. Wednesday night we worked until 10 or 11 o’clock going through that stuff. We’re expecting another 150 to 200 boxes Thursday.
“Later in the week, we’re expecting another 200 boxes to show up and we’ve got to do the same process for all of those,” Grooms added. “We have individually taken every single piece of clothing out, torn the tags out, taken the stuffing paper out and re-folded them ourselves.”
In those 600-some boxes is an extremely large amount of individual apparel items, shoes, gloves and the like.
“We ordered roughly 1,100 pairs of shoes. As far as apparel goes ...” Grooms trailed off a bit. After some thought, he said the number of actual items he and his staff have unpacked and then re-packed would number in the tens of thousands.
“We have some size limitations with storage for all this stuff until we get it issued,” Grooms said. “So, we have to do it as quickly as possible.”
Fortunately for Grooms, he now has some help with the process. Adam Myers joined the Gopher staff about midway through July and has been of great assistance to Grooms.
“The biggest step we’ve worked through is getting Adam hired,” Grooms said. “He’s going to be awesome. I think we got the best guy in the country as an assistant. He’s been a huge help so far.”
In addition to all the preparation for fall camp, Grooms is also quickly trying to get up to speed on his new surroundings and his new responsibilities. This is his first position as a director.
“Anybody in the country who is coming into a new school, it is a learning curve,” Grooms said. “Not only am I coming into a new school, but I’m coming into a new position. I came from being an assistant. I’m getting swamped with paperwork. At the same time, I’m trying to learn to let go of some of my day-to-day operations that I’ve been used to. I’m letting Adam take charge of that stuff. That’s been a transition for me.”
Despite the long hours, Grooms is happy to be joining Minnesota at this time in the program’s history.
“It is pretty exciting being a part of the transition that’s taking place, with the new jerseys and new helmets, leading up to the new stadium,” Grooms said. “I think it is going to be a really sharp look. The color combinations we’ve got, I think are pretty unique. It’s exciting to see.”
Grooms said it is also enjoyable to see the student-athletes, especially the newcomers, getting excited about the new gear and new uniforms.
“They’re all coming by and asking if they can see their gear or see their jersey,” he said. “It is always fun to see their eyes light up like crazy. They’re pretty fired up when they get to see their name on the back of the jersey. They’re taking pictures with their phones and sending them back to their Mom. It’s fun to see that stuff. That’s one of the perks of the job, just to see that gratification the guys have for something little like that.”
As for anyone who might be worried about Grooms and Myers being sleep deprived, hold on to that concern for a couple more weeks. Once practice begins, there will be even less rest for the weary. The equipment room staff will be busy from early morning to late at night, keeping equipment in proper and safe condition, keeping practice gear clean and making sure the student-athletes have everything they need on the field.
“Once we get started with camp, we’ve probably got 17- or 18-hour days in front of us,” Grooms said. “It will probably be 6 a.m. to midnight or so for the better part of August.”
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