Dead Week Part 4: AD's and Trainers

Dion Clisso/PrepsKC

By Dion Clisso PrepsKC Managing Editor
Posted: August 5, 2011 - 12:39 PM



The dead period is designed to give everyone around a football program a break. Some much needed time away from the sport to get ready for the upcoming season.

That means that the coaches, assistant coaches and players aren’t around the school the week leading up to the opening of practice. The dead period doesn’t mean the same thing for support staff and athletic directors.

While the teams are away, the athletic directors are busy getting ready for the start of practice for not only football but for every other fall sport not to mention an entire school year.

Blue Springs South Activities Director Mark Bubalo is a former coach himself. He knows what is needed to get ready for a season and those tasks are only multiplied running an entire athletic department at a big school like South.

“We’ve got administrative things we have to get done before starts on Monday the eighth,” Bubalo said. “I’m using the week to get ready for my parent meeting on Sunday the seventh. I have a MSHSAA meetings in Columbia.”

Even in the paperless world we live in today there is still a mountain of paperwork that needs to be completed and organized. Another factor is making sure the facilities are ready for practice and ultimately games that start to roll around at the end of August.

“We are also doing some work getting ready for the season,” Bubalo said. “It’s a good time to work on the stadium when no one is there using it. It’s a good time for us to get things ready facility wise. One thing for us is the new floor surface in our locker room has to be scrubbed. We use that dead week to get them ready for football, cross country and soccer and that takes several days to get that done.

“It’s a good time for us to get things done because there isn’t anybody here.”

One of the rooms that gets cleaned at South is the trainer’s room. The trainers also get the week off which means players are on their own for treatment of injuries and making sure they stay hydrated.

South’s trainer Patty Dinges said her biggest hope is the athletes are taking care of themselves and taking the proper steps to get ready for two-a-days during the dead period.

“We try to tell them to stay hydrated and get ready but sometimes that is like leading a horse to water,” Dinges said. “It is good for the kids though. It gives them a break and I think everyone comes back refreshed.”

Dion Clisso is the Managing Editor of PrepsKC. To reach him send e-mail to dion@prepskc.com.