Kylie Drunasky | Student Life Editor
September 30, 2025
Football season brings an added element of excitement to Friday nights for SCHS students. School pride is exceptionally strong on these nights, with the stands full of students cheering on their team in the student section. However, what most do not see are the behind-the-scenes layers that keep the game running smoothly.
The team managers play a massive part in handling the chaos that comes with a Friday night home football game. They are high school students themselves with a passion for the game, or for organization and making sure everything is operating seamlessly. The coaches and the players are important figures in the program, but this group of four girls are the backbone, dedicating their time to setting up technology and filming.
They agree to devote just as much of their time as the players do. They go to “every practice and every game, home or away” explained junior Adelaide Kipper, who is one of the managers. During practices, they film the team using drones and sideline cameras. They have the extremely important responsibility of controlling the scoreboard, and, perhaps even more important, selecting the music the team listens to during warm ups.
Their list of tasks doubles on game days. “Getting there at 5pm,” Charlotte Belli, a junior team manager, described the hectic routine that starts with “immediately setting up which can take up to 30 minutes” after grabbing the equipment from the coaches room. With their wristbands, they have access to both the stands and the field. They must follow a precise and disciplined routine of “running test clips across the field” to make sure nothing goes wrong.
Any small error can have a large effect, as the coaches rely on the broadcasting through their cameras. They know just how critical it is for the coaches and their players as “they get a live film that is connected to their own tablets.”
Away games can be unpredictable and constantly challenge the managers to adapt to a new setting. Their routine may change in order to set up tech and cameras at each of the end zones. Kipper remarked how some schools do not have sufficient set up areas causing them to revert to “running up to 5 extension cords from the field to the top of the bleachers.”
The team managers are still needed outside of practice and games. During fifth period, they restock snacks, including muscle milk and protein bars, and take care of the non-entertaining jobs. They tackle paper work, often having to organize thousands of papers in alphabetical order, and sort clothing into sizes.
They go where the team goes, and plan to travel to the upcoming league game in Las Vegas, skipping two days of school. Without them, the team would be missing their highlight clips and would be unable to review set plays. They would be missing their regular supply of snacks as well. The team managers have to handle unexpected moments, “which happens almost every game,” claimed Charlotte Belli. Some incidents cannot be fixed and require a Walmart run in the middle of the game. They expressed their appreciation for Coach Ryder, who “supports them and has even gone to the store in the middle of a game twice.” Despite the unanticipated chaos, the team managers remain secure.
Although they may not be as well known as the football team or the roaring crowd. The team managers remain essential for the game to keep going.
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