Bombers equipment manager faces laundry list of tasks every day

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This article was published 19/06/2015 (3760 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Imagine you’re babysitting.

Ninety kids.

Each weighing an average of 250 pounds.

For three weeks.

The mind boggles, doesn’t it?

Welcome to Brad Fotty’s life.

The longtime Winnipeg Blue Bombers equipment manager is the man responsible for making sure all those overgrown kids have everything they need to get through the logistical nightmare that is a CFL training camp.

“The job basically doubles during training camp — 90 helmets, 90 shoulder pads, 90 shorts, 90 lockers,” said Fotty. “And now you’re trying to do all the matching — you might have 30 or 40 guys from last year’s team and the rest are new. So now you need to get everybody’s sizes correct.

“The first few days are the toughest. Everybody wants to make changes. They want different size T-shirts or shorts. And then they try a set of shoulder pads on the first day and they want a different one on Day 2. And then getting the helmets right and the face masks and chin straps.

“You’ve got to have a pretty big inventory to make it through. And if you don’t have the inventory, you’ve got to find someone to get it to you the next day.”

And you thought organizing your kid’s last birthday party was tough.

Then there’s the laundry — good lord, there’s the laundry!

“If it’s a sunny day, there’s a little less laundry. But if it’s raining, then you’ve got to double it because there’s more towels and more of everything else. And then as camp goes on, you’ve got more laundry because more guys are getting treatment.

“And then 90 guys means two bath towels each. Add it all up and it’s 20-30 loads of laundry a day. That’s four to five hours a day, every day, of washing and folding and putting it all back out. It’s a long process.”

Then there’s the wrinkles camp throws at Fotty every year. This year, Fotty not only had to do everything he does at camp every year, he also had to do it at two different locations because the Bombers were unable to use Investors Group Field due to the FIFA Women’s World Cup.

The Bombers used a field 200 metres up the road from IGF for practices; players and staff simply walked between the two facilities.

You know how you finally get the car packed and get on your way and the kids yell out they forgot something? Yeah, that — lots of that for Fotty this month.

“A guy forgets his chin strap and now instead of just running up the runway and grabbing another one, you’ve got to walk all the way back to the stadium,” he said.

Then, of course, when Fotty finally gets completes his 12-14 hour days at work, he gets to go home and manage logistics there for two more kids — his own.

“I do a lot of laundry at home too,” he said. “I’ll wash and fold there too but I don’t put it away because sometimes my wife doesn’t like (that) I put stuff away.

“You’ve got to do things a little differently when it’s kids instead of 90 grown men. But it’s very similar. You’re trying to think for these guys, too — OK, what did they forget? Did everyone remember their practice jersey? Did they remember their mouthguards? Did they remember their gloves?

“And I’m just as bad. I’m so busy trying to remember all this stuff for these guys and then I can’t find my wallet or my phone.”

paul.wiecek@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @PaulWiecek