Oklahoma State University Athletics
Behind The Scenes At The Fiesta Bowl
December 31, 2011 | Cowboy Football
Dec. 31, 2011
Scottsdale, Arizona has been turned into Stillwater, Oklahoma West this week, at least when it comes to Oklahoma State football.
Embarking on an eight-day journey with over 200 members of the Cowboy football family is no easy task, especially when you're trying to basically recreate the West End Zone of Boone Pickens Stadium at a pair of different venues - The Scottsdale Plaza Resort and Scottsdale Community College.
But that task has been accomplished this week, thanks to the tireless efforts of countless people who you won't read about in the Fiesta Bowl game recap but who are vital to the success of Cowboy football.
Jeff Naple and Zack Ramsey are the OSU football video coordinators, and along with their staff of six students (who dub themselves "the craziest video crew in college football"), their week has been filled just as it would be were the Cowboys home in Stillwater preparing for their next opponent - by filming practice and organizing that video, along with creating scouting video on Stanford.
Among the necessities to bring to Arizona for the video crew were two trunks packed with projectors and video screens for nine meeting rooms, 15 grease boards and easels for those boards, 15 laptops for coaches and video camera equipment.
During practice, the video crew utilizes four cameras run by the students, with the other two students charged with running video to Naple and Ramsey to input into their computers.
Once all the practice footage has been edited and uploaded, it's loaded onto jump drives for the OSU coaches to put on their laptops.
"It's really no different for the coaches - for them, it runs the same as if we were at home," Naple said.
When OSU's athletic training staff prepares for an eight-day trip away from their training room at Boone Pickens Stadium, "It becomes `What do we really need to make sure we have and then what are our luxuries?'" says Kevin Blaske, OSU's head football athletic trainer. "You have to adapt because you can't take everything, but you have to take exactly what you need. Make sure you have all your emergency stuff and usually you're pretty good."
Blaske said although obviously some machines cannot be moved from Stillwater, there are still plenty of necessary items he and his staff, which includes three full-timers, one graduate assistant, seven students, a general med doctor and orthopedist, must bring along.
"You just add on to what you already pack for away games, plus five-six days of practice," Blaske said. "When you're fortunate enough to do it year after year, you know what you need and it's a lot easier."
There are several other aspects of football life that must be accounted for. A temporary football office has been set up at the team hotel, complete with computers and office equipment necessary for the coaches' assistants to help the trip run smoothly.
Also at the hotel is a huge tent that has been converted into a makeshift weight room for Coach Rob Glass and his strength and conditioning staff.
So how exactly does all this stuff fall into place?
That task is left to the OSU football equipment staff, led by Wes Edwards, Matt Davis, Justin Williams and their staff of 12 students, along with two truck drivers and an Oklahoma Highway Patrolman.
Edwards and his staff filled two 18-wheel rigs with among other things, office supplies, luggage for staff and players, weights, practice dummies and field equipment, not to mention the usual gear required for the Cowboy players. Those trucks left Stillwater on Dec. 23 at 7 p.m. and arrived in Scottsdale at 6 p.m. on the 24th.
Most of the football-related equipment is packed on the equipment truck in August so it's already prepared for the bowl game. Davis estimates for example that for an average road game, the Cowboys take 650 pairs of different styles of cleats. For a bowl game, the staff packs extra cleats, dri-fits, etc.
"From the equipment end, if it was just a regular road game, we could have left 20 minutes after practice," Davis said. "We're almost already pre-packed for a bowl game on the equipment side."
But it's more of a challenge for the staff when you include all the extra things necessary for a week-long stay away from home, which also requires a second equipment truck to be added to the equation.
"What we try to do for the players and the coaches is make them as comfortable as we can," Edwards said.
And the Cowboy equipment staff has succeeded in that goal for six-straight bowl appearances.
"We're pretty intricate with our checklists about double- and triple-checking stuff so we've been fortunate to pretty much have everything covered," Edwards said.
The OSU equipment staff has set up shop in the football locker and equipment rooms at Scottsdale CC, with SCC's Jim DeNoia and his staff making sure the Cowboys feel right at home.
With the Fiesta Bowl game against Stanford drawing near, the equipment staff's final big challenge will be preparing the Cowboy locker room at University of Phoenix Stadium for the game against Stanford.
The staff would usually complete that task the day before the game, but with the Arizona-Seattle NFL game at the stadium on Sunday, they won't tackle that job until Monday morning.
The crew will arrive at least six hours prior to Monday's 6:30 p.m. kickoff to set up the lockers of each player and coach, as well as do their final checks of equipment such as shoulder pads, straps, screw-in cleats and helmet hardware.
