For most people, preparing for a weekend business trip includes packing a bag and leaving a note on the bathroom mirror to remember one’s toothbrush. For Kelly Sharitt, it’s a little more complicated.
As the U football team’s equipment manager, he and his assistant Chris Hawkes are responsible for ensuring that each of the 71 players and 30 members of the coaching staff have everything they need for road games. Talk about your travel checklist.
“It’s a lot of logistics and a lot of planning and having the right stuff to pack the stuff in,” Sharitt said. “That’s what we do and as an equipment staff, that’s our time to shine is game day on the road. Making things a home away from home and making it ours.”
Despite the advances and increased affordability of airline travel, Utah still prefers to transport its equipment the old-fashioned way8212;a truck and an open highway.
Sharitt, who came to Utah from Louisiana Monroe earlier this year, cites increased security measures after Sept. 11, the physical bulk and weight of the equipment, and the dedication of Don Wehrli as the main reasons why Utah is likely to continue transporting its equipment by truck for years to come.
“(Wehrli) wouldn’t dream of letting us fly this thing,” Sharitt said. “That’s his deal and he does a great job with it. Even if it became a better deal for us, we wouldn’t want to change it8212;it’s too good of a relationship.”
Wehrli has been driving Utah’s equipment to road games for 15 years. With the exception of a landslide before a road game against San Diego State years ago, Sharitt said Wehrli has never been late, and even then, he still made his destination the night before the game.
“He takes a lot of pride in it,” Sharitt said.
For most road games, Sharitt and his crew will load the truck shortly after Thursday’s practice ends. Each player and coach is required to pack his own travel bag, but Sharitt and Hawkes do a full bag-by-bag inspection to ensure each player has his pads, cleats, helmet and the right color of shoes and uniform packed. For the coaches, the correct pair of predetermined slacks, polos and hats are also checked and rechecked.
Depending on the length of the trip, Wehrli typically hits the road between Thursday night and Friday morning to make it to his destination in time for Sharitt and his staff to arrive with the team the day before the game in order to unload the truck.
“We’ll hang up their jerseys just to make sure they’re all there, even though I’ve checked it like eight times just to make me sleep better at night,” Sharitt said.
For Michigan, the football team will be arriving in Ann Arbor, Mich., earlier than usual to use the day as a walk-through before the opening-season kickoff. To accommodate that deviation and the longer-than-usual trek to Michigan, the equipment was packed after Wednesday’s practice and Wehrli and one other driver set off for the scheduled 29 hour, 1,625-mile drive, shortly thereafter.
That doesn’t mean Utah went without practicing yesterday in preparation for one of their biggest season opening games. Players kept their helmets and cleats behind and will be taking them on the plane, adding to the chaos of transporting a group of 100 people more than halfway across the country.
Although Sharitt admits he’s had a few “Home Alone” experiences where he’s worried about leaving something at home, he knows FedEx delivers on Saturdays, and says his thorough checks and schedules should be enough to ensure the equipment gets to the proper place on time. That doesn’t keep him from knocking on his wooden desk before he can draw his next breath.
“Basically, I hope we didn’t forget anything, and if we did, I hope I remember it,” Sharitt said.
Once the gear has reached Michigan, Sharitt, Hawkes and two student volunteers will lay out all the gear and distribute it among the proper stalls in the visiting locker room. The equipment team goes so far as to distribute every jersey to every player’s locker. After every jersey has been accounted for, they pack and secure all the jerseys to prevent what happened last year in Virgina Tech at the Georgia Tech football game.
“They had jerseys stolen Friday night, Virginia Tech did,” Sharitt said. “The starting quarterback for Virginia Tech wore a Georgia Tech jersey for the game. So we don’t want anything like that to happen.”
Once the game is over, the gear is repacked into the truck and the process is reversed. The teams take soiled cloth items back on the plane so they don’t spend two days festering in the back of a truck.
For Sharitt and his crew, there is no such thing as a week off from the process. Even home games require Sharitt and his staff to load the truck and transfer everything from the team’s practice facilities to Rice-Eccles Stadium.
“Every game is a road game,” Sharitt said.
With national attention squarely on Utah in Ann Arbor this weekend, there’s no doubt that getting all the gear in the right spot at the right time is the first step in the winning process. After that, Sharitt can worry all he wants about whether he brought his toothbrush.
Tyler CobbScott Kelley helps Ute equipment manager, Kelly Sharitt, check each players bag for pads and cleats. The bags are then loaded into the truck that will take them to Michigan.
Tyler CobbDean Espinoza loads the coach?s radios onto equipment truck late Wednesday afternoon. After loading the truck Espinoza climbs into the cab and prepares to help long time driver Don Wehrli drive the truck to Ann Arbor.