[PHOTOSTORY 3: A DAY IN THE LIFE] Georgia Southern Football Camp Prep

 By: Mia Kologranic 

Maddi Cumpston, Director of On-Campus recruiting, enters the Ted Smith Family Football Center to start preparing for the Chad Lunsford Football Camp. The Ted Smith Family Football center is where you will find the offices of all football coaches and staff.

Maddi Cumpston thoroughly reads over emails and camp checklists to see what needs to be done for the day. The Chad Lunsford Football Camp will be hosted on July 5th, 2021 and it is open for all players in high school and at the collegiate level.

A three-computer-setup is necessary to keep up with all the tasks and emails that come her way. “My three computers are basically like my other brains,” said Cumpston. “It really helps make things easier.”

Snacks, beverages and directional signs arrive at her office ready to be organized and put out for camp the following day. These snacks and signs are only one of the many tasks on the prep list for camp.

Maddi Cumpston talks to Dom West, student recruiting assistant for Georgia Southern Football, about a task she needs help with. The student assistants were in charge of making lanyards, signs, and packets for the guests attending camp.

Maddi and Dom count the lanyards to know how many they have left for use. The blue lanyards will be given to guests and the white lanyards will be given to coaches and staff.

1. Josh Hansen, Georgia Southern’s video coordinator, shows Maddi his filming plan for the Chad Lunsford Football Camp. Hansen is in charge of filming plays, drills and games for the team. 

Hunter Scott, a member of GATALifestyle, designs a graphic of all the coaches’ twitter handles to be put out for guests of the camp to see. GATALifestyle is the name of Georgia Southern’s football recruiting media where fun videos, graphics, and pictures are posted for fans and future players to see.

Maddi looks over the finished graphic to either approve or make changes prior to posting the graphic for camp. She is also in charge of overseeing all the other content posted to GATALifestyle on a daily basis.

Maddi Cumpston, Danny Payne, Director of Player Personnel, and Ally Keirn, check out the freshly delivered shirts for the camp participants. They are expecting over 100 participants to come out and show off their skills.

Danny Payne and Dom West sort through the t-shirts by size and place them into different piles. Dividing the t-shirts up by size will make it an easier hand-out process for the next day.

Dom continues to look at the t-shirts and double check that they are all in the right pile. The blank square is where participants' assigned numbers will be written so that coaches and staff will be able to identify them while they are running around the field.

Kennedy Joerger, another student recruiting assistant, moves the box with extra t-shirts out of the way. The staff ordered extra shirts than needed because people can register at camp upon arrival if they didn’t register beforehand.

Maddi Cumpston meets employees from Jimmy John’s outside the facility to figure out where they should set up their catering tent for the camp. Other local businesses such as Southern Exchange and Sno in the Boro will also be set up while the camp is occurring.

Maddi and two Jimmy John’s employees, Ryan (left) and Dillon (right), begin assembling the tent in a shaded area around the stadium. “I’m excited to be apart of this process and to be around the Georgia Southern football atmosphere again,” said Dillion.

Kennedy Joerger shuffles through the signs she was tasked to make and double checks she has every one she needs. Kennedy said she’s excited for the camp to happen because this will be her second year working with the team and they did not get to do camps in 2020 due to COVID.

Kennedy finalizes some of the packets and lanyards for guest participants. The end of the day is near and it is less than 24 hours till camp time.

The participants’ shirts are all laid out and ready to be handed out to the eager players at check-in. The doors for the camp will open at 9:40am on June 5th, 2021.

Kennedy vacuums and adds some finishing touches to the locker room, which is where participants will come to do a selfie station during the camp. The selfie station will include the infamous GATA-chain and guitar for people to take fun pictures with.

The last blue Powerade is added to the stocked cooler before the big day. The coaches and staff are ready to have a good day at camp, especially since the last camp they did was held in 2019.