Passion to play a sport drives students to become athletes. But passion for the entirety of the sport drives students to be a part of the team off the field, in a different capacity.

As a team manager for football, senior economics major Dan Stinson has been with the team for three years. A high school football player who said he knew playing was not an option in college, Stinson wanted to pursue his passion of the sport in some way, even if it meant folding at least 3,000 towels, he said.

“I wanted to keep that dream alive,” Stinson said. “Whether the equipment field was a place that I could go to make it at the next level or even in the NFL or bigger college-level. That’s a career path that I wanted to take.”

Now the most senior member of the student managers, Stinson has added responsibility from his usual duties of setting up for practice, game day operation and, of course, laundry duty.

“I’m definitely responsible for kind of teaching [the newer managers] the ways,” Stinson said. “With the new people that come in, they may not know how practice operates or how a game operates. They come to me because I have experience. I kind of guide them through what needs to happen.”

Unlike Stinson, Jared Ridge works alone as team manager for volleyball.

Now in his second year with the team, the senior accountancy major has gotten accustomed to his position with the team, but admits he did not know what to expect the first season.

“It was a little crazy…kind of fun though,” Ridge said. “[Head coach Ray Gooden] threw me this laptop and this software program and said [to] figure it out.”

Most of Ridge’s job is taken up by scouting the opposing teams, keeping track of statistics and putting together video of the team for Gooden to watch. Though Ridge described his duties modestly, Gooden was a bit more blunt in his analysis of the job.

“Jared’s job is to help me look like I know what I’m doing,” Gooden said. “He does a lot of behind-the-scenes work to help put me in a spot to be successful. He’s been an integral part for me because he’s been able to help me help our team become prepared as quickly and as often we need to. We’re very appreciative to have him with us.”

Though both are behind-the-scenes members of the team, they still participate in many of the same activities as players, including traveling across the country.

For Stinson, traveling is the most fun because he gets to go to big stadiums and cities. But Ridge finds the traveling a little wearing, since he often misses Friday classes and returns late on Saturday nights.

Overall, however, both men agree they have great passion for their respective sports.

“Volleyball is my life,” Ridge said. “I coach it, I play it, I manage it, so I just love being around volleyball.”