As the former Chicago Bulls role, he assists the players with coach, Phil Jackson, once said, “The strength of the team is each individual member. The strength of each member is the team.” Many people believe that the Xavier football team only consists of the players and their coaches. However, they do not realize the effort and work that many people put in behind the scenes. The football team needs an equipment manager, athletic trainer, a statistics recorder and a game film recorder, among other positions. Often times, these people play a major role in making the football team operate smoothly. Junior Brogan Zahn notices all the hard work these people put into helping the team. “The backbone of our team are the people whose jobs go unnoticed, they are constantly doing a great job and are never expecting praise or gratitude for their work,” Zahn said. “Anytime we need help with an injury or with equipment someone is there to help us out… It really goes to show how important every single person is to the team, on and off the field.” Paid staff members at Xavier play a major role in making sure everything is ready for game day. James Weinike serves as the equipment manager and, in this role, he assists the players with any equipment issues during games, as well as with ordering and inventory of equipment. Misti Thompson also serves as the athletic trainer for the entire school, where she helps injured players at games and afterwards rehabilitates them to be able to return to playing. Multiple Xavier students assist these professionals in their work, including junior Lily Santel who assists Thompson as the athletic trainer. “I started freshman year because my brother did it too and he seemed to enjoy it and I wanted to learn more about injuries and anatomy for a possible future career. I had to learn how to wrap, tape, and clean. This has helped me understand a lot more about anatomy now,” Santel said. “It is also really awesome to be surrounded by a team who puts in a lot of effort and seeing how happy everyone gets when something is done correctly.” Just as Santel got involved with athletic training as she saw it related to a career path in the future, junior Jacob Sires is helping out with the football team for experience in another future career path. “I run the end zone camera for the varsity team, and It is my first year doing it. I’m hoping I can either keep doing it next year or maybe have a different role with the team,” Sires said. “It’s a small start towards my dream job, which is sports media. Obviously it’s nothing crazy that I’m doing now, but I love the idea of having a higher up position in that field later on, so it’s giving me sort of a starting point for that.” Xavier alumni are even helping out and giving back to the football program. Sean Murphy (X16) and Ryan Stulken (X16) have returned to help record statistics for the varsity team. Both played football all four years at Xavier and were excited with the opportunity to help the team. “This is my first year taking defensive stats for the team. I have always loved the Xavier football program and wanted to help in any way I could, so when the opportunity presented itself there was no way I could turn it down,” Murphy said. “I love being back and a part of the program that helped shape me into who I am today and brought me so many valuable lessons through the years. It’s the least I could do to give back to Coach Schulte and all the coaches who gave me so much along the way.” All of the people who help out with the Xavier football team take pride in doing their job and are not looking for gratitude or fame. At the next football game, look to try and spot one of these people, hard at work for something they care about.