When the Panthers take the field to play against a team, you may think that all of the stuff needed to get the guys ready to go happens magically. It doesn’t.

The guys behind the scenes don’t get credit for a win. They have no stats attached to their name. Their number doesn’t get announced on the PA system. But what they do to get the team on the field contributes greatly to the team performance.

Matthew Kock and Jack Bailey are the managers for this year’s varsity football team. They put in a very good amount of work making sure the team has all the tools needed to have their best performance possible.

Kock’s main job is to make sure the officials have the balls for the next play and that the balls are dry for the rainy games. He’s a straight hustler. On every field goal, Cookie is behind the field goal ready to catch the ball. Kock enjoys hustling. “I enjoy taking the ball from a group of kids in the horseshoe.”

Jack Bailey does team film, unlike what ehsports.com provides, which is live streaming is for the fans. Bailey helps the team review what they did right and what they did wrong. Bailey works in the horseshoe endzone in the middle of the field goal post. Bailey, who is his third year as a manager says his favorite memory was “when we were at UC playing against Moeller, it was fun stepping onto the field at Nippert and looking around.”

The bus rides are always interesting for the players but for the managers it can be entertaining. Bus rides are hard to enjoy when you have a football game to play. For Bailey they aren’t bad, until you have to go to Cleveland.

These guys are both seniors this year, next year will begin a new era in football managers, the Bailey and Kock era will end but their contributions to the team won’t be soon forgotten. They put team above themselves.