As the helmet and pad engourged players sourround me in confusion and frustration yelling WATER WATER I often wonder where the satisfactory in this job dissapears to. I am a Football Manager, aka a Water Girl, this job consists of unrecognized commitment and hard work that I put into it. For many people, Friday night games is remembered as friends, social activities, and occasionally watching the scoreboard from the stands. As for me, Friday nights mean staying at school until 5:15 for freshmen and sophomore football practice and then immediately overflow coolers with ice and water and carry them back and forth many times from my car to the field. We then rapidly fill up water bottles to give to the players, they drink as though they haven’t drunk in days. This is not a one day a week basis. The three other managers and I have many hours of managing building up as we come to practice five times a week from 3:15 to 6:30 after school. As if this is not enough, we also work countless hours of games every week, a consistent schedule of freshman A games every Tuesday, freshmen B games every Wednesday, sophomore games on Thursday, Varsity games on Friday and of course Junior varsity games at ten o’clock on a hopingly nice day.
Although this job seems extremely unsatisfying, there are a couple advantages to doing this job. Apart from the obvious point of spending countless hours with football players on the sidelines, the managers also have one of the best views at every game. Hoping not to get trampled, the managers stand in front of the players awaiting the grabs and yells of football players thirsting for water. Managing is also a good social activity. Apart from getting to know the players, we also get to know the coaches, trainer, and each other. I have made a few best friends doing this job and love spending this time with them every day.
Standing on the sidelines of the Varsity Friday night games, is a once in a lifetime opportunity. We see and hear things other people cannot witness. As the coaches are sprinting back in forth on the ever so clean and perfectly laid out turf, the players rush in and out of the game constantly. With the noise of the eagerly excited crowd behind them, the scoreboard is a constant reminder of how the game will turn out. "WATER WATER!", the coaches yell as a group of players is jumbled together in a huddle on the field, as the managers quickly run to them with wet, cold and heavy water bottles, the water is gone in the blink of an eye. Refill time, a never ending cycle. Half time, as the players and coaches reflect on the game so far, the coach pauses, thinks a minute, looks at the players, says a few words and walks out the locker room doors full of hope.
The game ends, sometimes quietly with regret in the air and tired and angry fans, coaches and players, and sometimes with joy and laughter from the whole school, we end our duties for the night. In the unfortunate case of an away game, all the players, managers, and coaches get on the smelly bus. This bus ride is an overwhelming smell of sweaty pads and helmets and tired and worn out players, and dead silence in the air following a loss. As the players reflect on the game, I look ahead to the practices and games to come the next week.