Finally.....some down-time....before the craziness begins again!

Time just seems to be flying by and with lots going on in my life, it has been hard to find time to blog. It seems like we haven't been home much these past few weeks and up until this week, work has been taking up a lot of my time. It is now much s-l-o-w-e-r here since the football team lost their game Saturday to VA Tech.

Most of the coaches are on the road for the next few weeks visiting different high schools and trying to recruit the best players for our future teams. They will all be back on Friday for practice on Saturday and Sunday. Then, off again next Monday to do more recruiting! My job here has definitely opened my eyes to "the real life of a college football coach" and it isn't very pretty in my opinion. Of course, they all have really nice salaries but I am pretty sure that the time they have away from their wives and children isn't made up by the paychecks that they receive. It makes me wonder sometimes, "why would anyone want to be a football coach?"

Well, the advantage to them being on the road this week is that I (and the rest of the admin staff) get a little down-time this week before we prepare for the Bowl game, which will be played at the end of December. Right now, we don't know which Bowl game we are going to be playing in, but we will know on Sunday night when the announcement is made. It appears right now that we are heading to Florida (either to Jacksonville or to Orlando) but we won't be 100% sure until Sunday.

Once the official announcement comes, the admin staff in the office, including myself, will be busy over the next two weeks preparing manuals, memos, travel arrangements, itineraries, rosters, hotel information, and lots of other stuff. We will be traveling to the selected destination 5-6 days before the actual game. The entire travel party will include over 100 people encompassing coaches, staff, spouses and children. In addition to the 22 of us that work in the football office everyday, staff from many other departments within Athletics will be traveling including those from Administration, Sports Medicine/Team Physicians, Weight Room, Equipment Room, Video Operations, Media Relations, Team Security, Ticket Office, and the VAF (Virginia Athletics Foundation). And, of course, there are over 100 players that will be traveling also. It's amazing the amount of preparation that goes into a College Bowl game!

The one downside to going to one of these games is that they are always played the last week of December which is smack dab in the middle of the holiday season! Often people have to miss Christmas and/or New Year's with their families because of the game. Hopefully that won't happen to us this year, but as it stands now, if we are chosen for the Champs Sports Bowl in Orlando (which is played on Dec. 28th), we will be leaving Charlottesville on December 23rd and therefore spending Christmas Eve and Christmas Day in Florida! 80 degree weather for Christmas is not my idea of fun (neither is missing time with mine or Keith's families) but, I guess that is what might have to happen. Right now, we just have to wait and see!