COLUMBUS, Ohio — It takes a lot of people to keep a top-ranked football program going year in and year out. But one group that makes sure everything is where it needs to be is the 12 student managers.
What You Need To Know
- The Ohio State Football student managers are responsible for many things behind the scenes, including laundry, setting up practice, and putting the Buckeye leaf stickers on the helmets
- The 12 student managers spend 7-8 hours around the team nearly every day, and even longer on game days
- While the position isn't paid, they say the experience and friendships they build are worth it
The day starts with laundry-15 loads to be exact to keep the Ohio State football team looking sharp.
For senior student manager Matt Hart, it’s become second nature.
“Been doing this for three years, so I pretty much know where all the bins are at this point," Hart said.
The 12 student managers are responsible for every piece of clothing the players wear during the week.
“Lift loop, Best Friday loop we throw in on Friday’s-those are two different things, practice loop, practice pants, practice jersey and game loop, game jersey game pants," Hart lists off all the articles of clothing he and the other student managers are responsible for.
For Hart, it’s about more than dirty laundry.
“Nothing really compares to game day atmosphere," Hart said. "Obviously doing like practice and laundry, not as fun as game days.”
But also the relationships he makes with his fellow managers and players. But this gig isn’t for everyone- it’s seven to eight hours nearly every day, and these guys are unpaid and still expected to go to keep up with their classes.
“We kind of try to think about reality sometimes," Hart said. "Like a lot of the people, we are students within classes. They have all this time to do work but like we don’t. We just have to manage it and do what we do.”
But the experiences and inside access is what make it all worth it. Like for senior Nolan Clouse- getting his hands on the brand new gray jerseys, or putting on the beloved Buckeye leaf stickers on the helmets each week.
“This is the fun part," Clouse said. "It’s really awesome to show that this is one of the things that show up on game day for us. So seeing that out on the field and on national television is really cool.”
Clouse and his fellow student managers are also in charge of setting up each practice- loading up trailers full of equipment and assisting during practice.
It’s not just one load these guys take around the practice fields- it’s two to three on heavy practice days of everything the players may need, even if the managers aren’t sure what it is.
“Bulgarian bags," Clouse said. "It’s what Tommy [Eichenberg] needs, I’m not really sure what they use them for.”
For Clouse, who says he wants to work in the NFL one day, he cherishes these long days, because he knows he worked hard to get here and will miss them when they’re gone.
“If you told me two or three years ago that I would be doing this, I would have thought you were crazy," Clouse said. "I never thought, my freshman year of college, that I would be doing this. But I guess here I am…I don’t want it to end because after this I get to graduate and who knows what happens, but it was a great time while it lasted for sure.”
