Behind the Scenes - Fall Camp Part I

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In a two-part series, GoJacks.com visited with the operations staff, athletic trainers, coaches and players to get a behind the scenes look at the new fall camp. Part one features Marc Davis, assistant athletic director for football operations; Olanda James, football operations assistant, and associate athletic trainer Brett Penning.

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Moments after C.J. Roths scored the game-winning touchdown on a 3-yard run in the final minutes of the South Dakota State football spring game, the staff started planning for fall camp, which began at the end of July. This time, instead of starting in August with the traditional two-a-days, the Jacks reported to camp on July 26 to try to ensure more safety measures according to the new NCAA rules.

Fall camp is a non-traditional part of the season. For the freshmen it's the time for them to get to know their teammates and coaching staff and for the coaches to get to know the freshmen a little more, as well. It's getting a final look at the team before the season starts and to decide what players will get into the rotation right.

What fans don't see are the people behind the scenes that help camp run smoothly every day.

Marc Davis is the assistant athletic director of football operations. He rejoined the staff in the spring of 2017 after a stint at Florida International from 2014-16. Davis has a wide variety of duties here that include serving as the program's liaison to admissions and housing and coordinating special events throughout the year. He also helps organize the team travel as well as help with the budgets and community service events.

"With fall camp longer this year, it's not as intense for us some days," Davis said. " So when we have down time we start to work on travel plans for road games in the future."

Olanda James is the football operations assistant and works with Davis to plan road games, book hotels and makes sure things run smoothly.

"One day its work, work, work and then stop and there isn't anything for a couple hours," James said. "Then work, work, and work again. As much as we want to have a schedule there really isn't one."

A typical day consists of going to Hy-Vee to buy breakfast for about 130-140 people, cleaning up, checking email, scheduling and attending meetings and starting to plan the future road games travel information, working on projects and going to practice at about 3:30.

"Myself and coach O are the DJs for practice," Davis said. "We go up there and work for a couple of hours, then come back down to order the food for the coaches meetings at night. After that we go shopping and set up for the next day."

Another area that plays a huge role in creating a successful football team is the athletic trainers. They make sure that the players are resting, getting ankles taped if need be and giving them workouts to prevent future injuries.

Brett Penning is the associate athletic trainer for the Jackrabbit athletics program, and the head football trainer. He joined the staff in August of 2016 after serving in similar roles with Washington State and Eastern Illinois in similar roles.

Before fall camp even starts, Penning figures out who will need newcomer physicals from the medical providers at Sanford Health. They also have players working out in Brookings throughout the summer to make sure all their medical needs are met and they are up to compliance with the sports medicine department.

Penning has the assistance of two graduate assistant athletic trainers to help make sure that they have all the necessary supplies and equipment ready to go.

"We make sure that enough Powerade is ordered, have first aid supplies and enough ice for ice tubs," Penning said. "Also, I help with the scheduling of the two graduate assistants and then the four to eight athletic training students, so we can appropriately schedule them to facilitate the care of the student-athletes."

A typical day during fall camp starts early in the morning as Penning and staff start treatments before the players have their morning meetings. Once the players go to meetings, they begin to setup for practice and get all of their supplies ready for practice.

"Getting guys in for treatment and rehab sessions early allows us to have an idea of what they are going to be able to do that day during practice," Penning said. "We can then do an assessment of them in the morning and have an idea of what we would like them to do for practice that day and advance them activity wise if they are safe to do so."

Once the afternoon hits, they will do all of the pre-practice taping and bracing and then during practice they are on watch for any injuries that may occur. Another duty of theirs is making sure the athletes and staff stays hydrated by using water pumpers and water coolers. They will also do any rehabilitation that is needed out on the field. Once practice is over, they do all of the necessary post-practice treatments and icing, as well as any injury evaluations that stemmed from the practice session.

Some of the modalities they use to aid in the recovery of the players are recovery pumps, foam rollers, stretch bands, ice tubs and game-ready devices such as ice and compression. They recommend everyone to use the cold tub especially after an intense workout or practice to help reduce the overall soreness as well as some of the post workout inflammatory effects.

This is the first year teams aren't allowed to have two-a-days, per NCAA rules, thus making fall camp a week longer, which means more time for recovery for the season.

"Since we are only completing one practice a day, we can now spend more time on recovery and prepare them better for practice. The guys also have more time throughout the day to complete some of the recovery methods," Penning said. "Instead of trying to work it into a small window where they have free time, they are able to space it through the day."