When you go to a sporting event you focus your attention on the court or field. It’s the players and coaches that you came to watch, they’re the ones who get their names and photos in the paper and on television.
But what about the people behind the scenes? The people who set up before a game and clean up afterward, who volunteer in the concessions stand, who hand out water or move the chains, just to name a few.
Here’s a look at some of the people in the background who do the grunt work to make sure everything runs smoothly.
The Vikings chain gang
For the past seven summers, Andy Nye has worked the chains at Snohomish County Vikings football games. In recent years, Nye, an Eastern Washington grad, has made the five-hour drive from Cheney for home games and a few away games.
Nye, 25, and his brother Rick, 31, stepsons of coach Wes Fischer, work the chains with Sebastian Tanner-Young, 16, a student at Cascade High School in Everett. Rick has been doing it for four years and Tanner-Young for the last three.
“It turns into more a passion than a job,” Andy Nye said of volunteering to do the chains.
The primary job of the chain gang in football is to keep up with the first down mark on the sidelines and what down it is. The 10-yard chains stretch from the line of scrimmage to the first down yard-line. When a team is close, the chain gang has to come out to the field to measure.
Andy admitted he doesn’t know a lot about football, and Rick never played beyond middle school other than playing flag football with Underdog Sports. But they’ve learned how to work with the officials and do their job, a vital part of running a football game.
Every crew of officials is different to work with and if the chain gang hasn’t worked with a particular crew before they’ll often be on a short leash. Still, Rick said one referee told them they were one of the best chain crews.
They’ve learned a few things about the game, being right on top of the action.
“It’s nice to be down there,” Rick said. “You get a different view than being in the stands.”
They get to hear coaches talk to players and sometimes if things aren’t going well, the frustrations boil over.
“It’s completely uncensored,” Rick said.
Since they’re with the home team and run the chains on the opposing team’s sideline, sometimes trash talk ensues.
“Sometimes they give us a little grief and sometimes we give it back,” Andy said.
One time an opposing player tried to take stuff out of Andy’s pockets during the game, he recalled.
“If a play’s coming our way, we’re taught to drop the chains,” Rick said. “Got taken out a couple years ago. In retrospect, it was fun.”
Adapting to the weather is another part of the job. The Northwest Football League’s season takes place during the hot summer months, and it can be a few degrees warmer on the field than in the stands.
The chain gang also doesn’t get to take a break except for the half and after the final horn.
“We don’t get time to get water, we can’t move,” Rick said.
The chain gang also does more than run the chains.
They arrive on 3 p.m. on game days, three hours before kickoff, to unload the team’s trailer and hand out jerseys, pants and socks. They also help tear down the concession stand after games and clean the locker rooms. It’s usually about 10 or 10:30 p.m. before they leave the stadium.
“Our job on a Saturday is to make it easy on Wes so he can focus on the game,” Andy said.
Brian Borger, Shoreline Stadium custodian
Since 2000, Brian Borger has been the Shoreline Stadium custodian. He grew up in the area and graduated from Mountlake Terrace High School in 1970.
“Local yokel, as it were,” he quipped.
A professional gardener, as he describes himself, Borger used to drive semi trucks. He got out of the business and started working for the Shoreline School District in 1992 because he didn’t want to get in an accident with the increasing traffic in the Seattle area.
Almost any time there’s an event at Shoreline Stadium, you can find Borger making his way through the crowd talking to people, picking up litter or down on the field driving his golf cart.
Usually the messes he cleans up are small, but sometimes they are big.
The stadium is open to the public 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and one time someone left a big surprise on the track for him to clean up.
“Someone took a TV to the top of the grandstand and dropped it,” he said.
When he picks up litter, Borger makes sure to do it front of the young people, so they’ll be less likely to throw stuff on the ground.
“It makes a remarkable impact in how much litter I have to contend with,” he said.
The mustachioed Borger, who wears his brown hair in pony tail, wears leather arm bands while working. His hands gets nicks, scars and bites from blackberry bushes, broken glass and nails.
Borger and his helpers clean the restrooms too, something that happens when the crowds are gone.
“People are aware it happens but don’t see it being done,” he said. “The magic elf.”
Borger also pressure washes nearly every inch of the stadium.
“Top to bottom, north to south, east to west,” he said.
At a track meet, Borger sets out the hurdles and picks them up after the races are over.
For football game days, he arrives at 1 p.m. to set up the field.
Borger also runs security during events and can be seen with a walkie-talkie at all times. About 10 to 12 people work security during a football game.
“I’m always a short leash away,” he said. “Invariably there’s at least three problems a night. If there’s a problem I can fix it.”
Sometimes fans come out of the stands and try to do crazy things. One time a guy went down to the track and tried to steal Borger’s golf cart. The guy ditched it near the parking lot and tried to drive away but security caught him before he could flee.
“I no longer leave the key in it,” Borger said.
Borger is charge of the ice machine as well. He gets ice for the water coolers for football and other sports teams and for athletes who have an injury.
After a football game there’s usually several carts of trash to haul away.
“The clean-up afterwards is OK,” he said. “There is no real hard part of this job compared to what I’ve done in the private sector.”
Summer is one of the more enjoyable times of the year, when the main events are the Club Northwest All-Comers track and field meets on Wednesday nights. It can get cold in the winter when soccer is played on a frosty field. The Greater Seattle Soccer League plays at the stadium Monday, Wednesdays and Sundays throughout the year.
“Soccer never ends. Soccer is all-year ‘round,” Borger said.
Borger said the best part of the job is talking to students when they’ve come back after being away to college. Some of the students he’s seen grow up since kindergarten.
“Dealing with children,” he said when asked why he enjoys his job. “I love watching them grow.”
Water distributors at Run of the Mill
A bit past the midpoint of the 5-kilometer Run of the Mill, volunteers were on hand to give out water to the 1,700 runners and walkers participating in the race.
Twenty-five minutes into the race, they ran out of cups to hand out.
No problem.
The three handing out water, Bailey Chouinard, 15, a Jackson High School student who swims with West Coast Aquatics, Brandon Moss, 20, of Bothell, also of West Coast Aquatics, and Dr. Bill Bacon of Edmonds who works at Mill Creek Family Practice Clinic, had to get creative.
They took the jugs of water that were left and poured the water into the waiting mouths of joggers and walkers like a mother bird feeding her young.
“Want a shower?” Chouinard asked.
“It’s like you have to improvise, do what you can,” Bacon’s wife Tamara said as she watched.
Bill Bacon served a dual purpose at the station, providing medical attention for sprained ankles and handing out sunscreen for the second year in a row.
The Bacons, Chouinard and Moss arrived at 6:30 a.m. to set up the station and haul out the water for the race, which started at 9 a.m. They wrapped up about 10 a.m.
“It’s fun,” Bill Bacon said. “It’s a way to give back a little bit to the community.”
The Mill Creek Little League concessions people
What would a ballpark be without concessions? At the state Little League majors tournament at Freedom Field in Mill Creek, volunteers from the Mill Creek Little League surround the grill, dishing up hot dogs, polish sausages, burgers and nachos.
The woman heading up the operation is Sherri Robbins, who has an 11-year old son in the league.
“She is the queen of the concessions,” volunteer Cara Schrieber said. “She has put this all together.”
Volunteers arrive around 3 p.m. to set up, with games beginning an hour or so later on most days. There are about 15 volunteers total and 10 to 12 people work each shift until 9 p.m. or later. On days when the action started in the morning, volunteers arrived as soon as the park opened at 8 a.m.
Organizers started planning for the state tournament in September, but the majority of volunteers didn’t commit until a week-and-a-half before the tournament started, in part because of uncertainty of vacations.
“We also had a great response from people who read about it in the newspaper,” said parent Kris Mahlum, who helped coordinate the volunteer effort. “They like to watch baseball. Today it’s been so awesome. People from all over the state, plus our own community, came to watch.”
Most of the volunteers have a son in Little League, but Sally Hughes was one of several to help out, even though her children are too old now.
On the first day of the state tournament, Friday, July 18, business was brisk at the stand. About 80 hamburgers at $4 apiece were sold in the first four hours.
The league bought 15 cases of hamburgers with 50 burgers a case (750 total), 20 cases of hot dogs also at 50 hot dogs a case (1,000 total) and 20 cases of polish sausages at 50 a case (1,000 total). Oroweat donated the buns.
Also on sale at the stand are root beer floats, chips, candy, apple slices, pop and water.
Hauling in ice for coolers and ice chests is probably one of the biggest problems, Robbins said.
Business was slow during the regular season this year because of the weather, but picked up during when tournament time hit, Mahlum said.
In 2007, the concessions stand took in $16,000 in total sales, according to league officials. The net proceeds go back to the league.
Overhead includes $7,000 paid to the city of Mill Creek to rent the concession, plus food costs.
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