By now, we all know that the year 2020 has been different than any other year any of us has experienced. The pandemic and the events that have taken place this year have affected each and every one of us in some way. The same rings true for the Sun Devil Football Equipment Staff. Since the pandemic and resulting quarantine began, the football team and equipment staff have had to transition from Spring practice to the unknown. Operations as far as competition and practice are concerned ceased throughout Sun Devil Athletics. All the while, the equipment staff had to remain prepared as the 2020 football season was in flux.
Hope remained for an on-time start to the season, so the staff prepared for that. Then the Pac-12 decided upon a late start, so the staff prepared for that. Then the Pac-12 delayed or canceled the 2020 fall season indefinitely, so the staff reacted to that. Now, the Pac-12 has decided on a November 7th start for the 2020 football season, and the staff is now operating based on that decision as fall camp has begun and preparations for the first game at USC progress.
I was able to catch up with Sun Devil Football Equipment Manager Jerry Neilly, and ask him a few questions about his staff’s experience throughout this time. The following is his insight into how things have affected him and his staff during this strange time:
Cole Streeper: Arizona State University as a whole went completely remote immediately following Spring Break 9and for the rest of that semester). How did that affect your day-to-day operations?
Jerry Neilly: Yeah. We did not... (laughing). We sent home our 12 student managers and our GA (Graduate Assistant). Me and Eric (Bowman) split duties in the office so that we were properly socially distanced, but we still came in every day to make sure the daily in-house duties were being performed. We also had daily Zoom recruiting calls during recruiting periods where we would showcase our space via Zoom calls with recruits to show them the equipment room. Once things started to become more regular, we welcomed back our GA, and then after time, we slowly started bringing back more and more student managers. We tested regularly and kept our distance and masks on.
Cole Streeper: Throughout the summer, there was great uncertainty because of the pandemic itself and how it might affect the season. How did that affect your preparation for the season?
JN: We didn’t know how to handle it. We just kept our heads down and grinded because we were on a schedule and needed to make sure that if things DID go off on a normal schedule, we would be ready to go. We are pretty regimented here and have a pretty tight window to have everything ready for camp and for game one, so we didn’t have much leeway.
Cole Streeper: What are the sanitation procedures that you and your crew have to go through now that the team is practicing on the field?
JN: We sanitize everything. We use the same chemicals the NFL is using to disinfect all the space. We clean the helmets and shoulder pads daily, spray and wipe the locker spaces, spray and clean all of the field equipment after every practice and do the same with all the footballs we use at practice.
Cole Streeper: Are there any mandates from the Pac-12 as to what equipment managers should and should not do?
JN: Most of the procedures and guidelines we are adhering to are coming from the university itself. We have very good doctors working through all of this to make sure we are on top of or above every guideline needed to ensure we are at our highest level of protection.
Cole Streeper: What challenges have you encountered due to COVID-19 because your job requires you to be onsite?
JN: Just making sure everything is properly sanitized and socially distanced. We spread out the team into two locker rooms allowing space between each athlete to ensure we are adhering to proper distancing protocols. It’s crazy. You don’t realize how much stuff you touch on a daily basis until it's scrutinized, but we became very aware of human interaction and the things we handle daily.
Cole Streeper: Has the pandemic and its many economic factors affected your staffing or the support you have available to you?
JN: We were much more limited early on, but once we got proper protocols in place regarding testing for our staff, things have basically returned back to normal.
Cole Streeper: Follow up question, have those economic factors affected the amount of variety of uniform elements, particularly helmet colors?
JN: Not really. We planned our budget accordingly. We still have white and gold helmets and all of the amazing uniform variations we have had. We took long looks at what we needed and didn’t need fiscally and made many adjustments, but affecting the athlete experience is something we take very seriously and tried to make sure we’re doing the best we can to allow them the opportunities everyone else is getting in college football.
Cole Streeper: Are there any slowdowns these days of equipment delivery from adidas due to COVID-19?
JN: Yes. Dramatically. Plants were shut down across the country; factories were delayed in product manufacturing. Lots of issues, but they have been great partners communicating issues and figuring out alternatives to where there were problems. We are certainly not operating at 100 percent, but no one is at this point, and we are doing the best we can working together to make sure we kick off without a hitch on November 7th.
Cole Streeper: How does the pandemic affect the operations of road trips from the equipment standpoint?
JN: That is TBD. We are literally working through and adjusting and changing travel and game day procedures daily.
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It always takes more than coaches, practice, and a talented roster to field a team on gameday. There are always unseen contributions behind the scenes, and Jerry Neilly’s staff is a major part of the behind the scenes magic that makes this team go. Obviously, the Sun Devils look great on game day because of him, and I’m lucky enough to cover that on a weekly basis throughout each season, but there’s so much more.
Practice equipment, practice jerseys, radio/communication equipment, helmets, pads, cleats, uniforms, coaching staff apparel, getting players in and out of jerseys when there are duplicate numbers on special teams. The list goes on and on and on.
The fact is, this crew works miracles on a daily basis, especially on Saturdays. Now, with a pandemic in the picture, sanitation and safety is at the forefront, and as you see, Neilly and his team are meeting and often going above and beyond the safety standards required of them.
Uniforms, which is the primary thing that my articles cover, are well taken care of through Neilly’s communication with adidas. Things certainly are slower moving, but the November 7th season start provides both the equipment staff and adidas time to get everything squared away. Most equipment is in and ready to go, and it is expected that any pending shipments will arrive between the publishing of this article and the beginning of the season.
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