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AEMA Certification

Announcing Helmet Tracker’s 2019 AEMA Certification Exam Scholarship

February 28, 2019 By Jeff Zogg

For the third consecutive year, Helmet Tracker is offering its AEMA Certification Exam Scholarship to Equipment Managers.

We have one applicant so far (see below).

The scholarship reimburses the cost of taking the exam and the study book to one Equipment Manager who passes the test in the 18 months prior to July 1, 2019. Most will take the test at the AEMA Convention in Indianapolis in early June.

Benefits of Certification

Sam Trusner, Office Manager for the Athletic Equipment Managers Association, says the certification provides benefits to both the Equipment Manager who holds certification and the college sports program which hires certified Equipment Managers.

“The AEMA Certification program offers Equipment Managers the opportunity to attain a new level of professionalism,” Sam said. “No longer is the Equipment Manager the ‘towels and jocks’ guy. Equipment Managers are responsible for the proper fitting of protective equipment, maintenance of this equipment, accurate accountability for all athletic gear, and other important duties.”

The school athletic department benefits, too.

“As the importance of liability becomes a concern for Athletic Directors at every level, it is important for them to seek individuals truly qualified for these positions. Many schools, and professional teams, are now requiring this Certification as part of their job requirements,” Sam said.

There are usually three times during the year the test is offered. The first is in Raleigh, North Carolina early in the year, then at the AEMA Convention, then when NFL Equipment Managers gather in the summer.

Not everyone passes. However, 14 people took the test in Raleigh and all 14 passed!

The AEMA Certification Exam is offered two or three times per year.


Scholarship Qualification

To qualify for the Helmet Tracker scholarship, start with the online application here. Applicants must simply be:

  • a current member of good standing with the AEMA
  • prepared and registered to take the certification (or have passed it within 18 months of July 1, 2019)
  • the subject of a published Helmet Tracker profile
  • the subject of a recommendation letter from an AEMA-certified Equipment Manager (or Supervisor).

The winning candidate will be chosen at random to have his/her test fee and book cost reimbursed upon successful passing of the AEMA certification test.

Harley Warren

Last year, Southern Mississippi Assistant Equipment Manager Harley Warren won the scholarship after passing the test at the AEMA Convention in Phoenix.

 “I like all of the behind the scene stuff – getting everything ready, working with uniform designs – I like all that,” Harley told us.

The prior year, Eddie Hardin, now Assistant Equipment Manager for the Birmingham Iron, won it.

Eddie Hardin

“Being certified has been a big step in my career as an equipment manager because with the certification I’m able to express that I can do my job to the best of my ability all while ensuring the safety of the players and staff come first,” Eddie told us. 

K-State GA Jumps In

Now comes Michael Schlitz, Equipment Graduate Assistant for Kansas State Football and our first scholarship applicant this year.

“I was hired in July last year and help to oversee our 11 student managers,” he said. “I make sure the crew sets up the practice fields and make sure everything, including them, works properly.”

Spring practice begins in less than two weeks at K-State.

Michael grew up just north of Des Moines, Iowa and rooted for the Hawkeyes until he graduated from Ankeny High School, went to community college and ended up a Cyclone at Iowa State.

“I wanted to be involved with football in some way and a buddy from high school was on the staff at Iowa State and he got me the contact information,” Michael remembers. “ I was with the Cyclones for the football season in 2014 and for spring 2015, then stepped away to get grades up. After I graduated I was fortunate to get an internship with Arizona Cardinals in 2017 training camp.”

“Being around football is the number one thing I love.”

Now he studies Academic Advising at K-State when he’s not in the equipment room.

“I am proud to have been able to get know, work with and teach Michael,” said Al Cerbe, Head Football Equipment Manager for the Wildcats. “Michael has a very open and humble work ethic where he comes to work each day willing to do whatever is needing to be done and in any way.  I believe being able to adapt and learn different things in multiple situations is an important equipment managers’ skill that Michael has shown throughout his time here with us at Kansas State. “

“He is more passionate than ever to continue to grow as a manager both within the equipment room and classroom as well.  Michael is pointing his focus towards June and his AEMA Certification Exam in Indianapolis,” Al wrote us.

While studying for the exam, Michael keeps in mind his future.

“Hopefully I will be able to land as an assistant working with football – I want to stay in this,” Michael said. “I love the hands on stuff about it. I have no problem getting my hands dirty. Being around football is the number one thing I love.”

When he’s not wrestling the equipment or the student managers in shape, Michael is pursuing his dream of attending games in all the Major League Baseball stadiums.

“We’ve got 11, so we’ve got some more to go.”

Meet Helmet Tracker Equipment Manager Scholarship Candidate Harley Warren

April 7, 2018 By Jeff Zogg

Athletic Equipment Manager at Southern Mississippi
Harley Warren spreads the Golden Eagle spirit as Assistant Athletic Equipment Manager at Southern Mississippi.

Harley Warren’s card says he is the Assistant Athletic Equipment Manager at Southern Mississippi, but he serves as a Golden Eagles ambassador wherever he goes.

Helmet Bowl I

Harley sent Helmet Tracker an updated Golden Eagle helmet design at least a half dozen times during the 2017 inaugural Helmet Bowl I season. He led the team and others to vote Southern Mississippi to an early lead in the Conference USA championship.

“This is the perfect year for us. It is the first year in six years we’ve changed our helmets a bunch. The fans love seeing the different looks, and we get the votes!” he told us in November.

The Golden Eagles were poised to make a deep run in the National Championship bracket and didn’t disappoint. They demolished the Southern Connecticut Owls in the first round, then handily dismissed the Southeastern Savage Storm. For the South Region championship, they faced a Kennesaw State Owl helmet that suddenly had a powerful following and lost just two steps away from the championship. Harley says that won’t happen again.

“I loved the National Championship bracket,” he said. “We’ll be even more active for the next one!”

Equipment Manager – Dream Job

Harley long admits his admiration for the Golden Eagles program and calls working there his dream job. His first job, being a teacher, wasn’t suited for him and he quickly altered his route and found success.

Southern Mississippi football Helmet

He got his start in the equipment room when a coach discovered a young desire in Harley and his twin brother Michael to walk the sidelines, call the plays. He suggested the duo start in the equipment room.

They both enrolled at Mississippi Gulf Coach Community College and began learning the ropes of the Equipment Manager. Michael now teaches in a nearby middle school and coaches football, soccer, and track.

Harley, meanwhile, transferred to Southern Miss and began to build his career.

“My Dad was always a football fan, and we grew up going to Southern Miss games all the time. He was a big Brett Farve fan.”

He worked as a student equipment manager and earned a degree in sports coaching/education with a history minor. “It didn’t take me long to figure out I didn’t want to teach.”

After an internship with the New Orleans Voodoo in the Arena League, then with the NFL Saints, he was offered a graduate assistant spot at Southern Miss and took it.

“Then I got hired full time. I was finally getting paid!” Harley said. “I like all of the behind the scene stuff – getting everything ready, working with uniform designs – I like all that.”

New “Hobby”

Southern Mississippi football Helmet

A little less than a year ago, Harley and his wife welcomed their first child into the family, a daughter.

“I suppose that’s my hobby now—being at home, being a dad.”

When not at home, he enjoys being in the equipment room and serving as an Equipment Manager. Someday, he says, he may end up in coaching, but even if that happens, working in the equipment room gives him special insight and knowledge.

“Even in high school, the coaches need to be knowledgeable about this stuff, and my work here would allow me to bring something else to the table other guys may not.”

Equipment Manager Certification

Harley knows that the Athletic Equipment Management Association certification is important for his career and plans to take the exam in June at the AEMA Convention in Phoenix, Arizona.

He has the support of his family—both at home and at work.

“Harley has worked for us as a student starting in 2011 and progressed through a GA and now the Assistant, he has always demonstrated a love for equipment managing,” writes Patrick Stewart, the Golden Eagles’ Assistant Athletic Director of Equipment Operations. “He has good relations with coaches, and staff and completes his projects in a timely manner.”

Stewart is in his 24th year at Southern Mississippi.Southern Mississippi Helmet

“I feel like Harley will be a good candidate to continue in this position for a very long time with his even temper and laid back way of everyday life.”

AEMA Scholarship

Harley now joins the candidates for Helmet Tracker’s AEMA Scholarship. The scholarship reimburses the winning candidate the exam and exam book fee.

Many colleges and universities require AEMA certification for Equipment Managers, others prefer it. Some foot the bill for the exam, and others leave that to the individual.

Last year, Michael Dryer at the University of Nevada won the scholarship. However, Damien Garnett, Assistant Athletic Director of Equipment at Nevada, asked Helmet Tracker to pass it on as the Wolfpack had paid for Michael’s exam. We did, and Eddie Hardin, now the Assistant to the Director of Equipment Operations at Tennessee State University, received the reimbursement.

“I am grateful,” Eddie told us at the time. “It means a lot going from an intern to my first real job—having bills to pay!”

Harley will take the exam at the Athletic Equipment Managers Association convention in Phoenix.

Meet Equipment Manager Eddie Hardin

May 29, 2017 By Kellye

Just down the road from the Athletic Equipment Managers Association 2017 convention in Atlanta, Eddie Hardin puts his education and experience to work at Georgia State University.  “I am an assistant equipment manager for football and Olympic sports,” he tells Helmet Tracker. “It’s an internship, but I’m looking for full-time work as an equipment manager.”

At the convention, Eddie will take the next step as he sits for the AEMA Certification Exam. “I’ve been able to get experEddie Hardin Equipment Managerience at ordering, working with vendors, working with athletes, apparel, equipment and other needs.”

Football Equipment Room Beginnings

He began his career at the University of Alabama at Birmingham where he served as a student manager for four years. Along the way, he interned for the Atlanta Falcons and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Eddie played football at Sumiton Christian High School outside of Birmingham where he also ran cross country. He likes being close to home, so when it came time to further his education, he went to UAB down the road where he planned to walk onto the football team.

Financial situations derailed the plan, but lead him to apply to work with the team as a student manager.

“Being able to be part of the team, part of the team culture, is important to me. Even if it’s just to have a minimal impact, I sure enjoy being a part of something bigger than myself. I like being part of the team,” Eddie says.

His degree in Foreign Languages and Cultures was initially to help him get into law school and maybe launch a career in international law. But the economic impact of additional school loans for further study caused him to think long and hard about the trajectory of life.

“I just wasn’t comfortable as I thought about the financial trap that it could have been,” he says. “I found I enjoyed dealing with sports equipment rather than seeking after the so-called success of being a lawyer,” he says. “I wanted to do something I loved rather than chase after the potential of making a lot of money.”

He often thinks of that first game.

UAB played the University of Florida, and he was on the sidelines of this, a Southeastern Conference school. A powerhouse. It was surreal, and he was a part of it—even if it just mean scrubbing footballs, setting up the locker room, doing some laundry.  Then he learned to set up practice fields, game fields, maintain helmets and shoulder pads, do the laundry, pack trunks for game days, and everything else it takes to put a team on the field.

With a stop with the Bucs, he soon worked his way to graduation 2015 and an internship at Lafayette College in Easton, Pennsylvania.  He ended up with the Falcons as they began their 2016 march to the Super Bowl, then took the job at Georgia State.

“Edward was working with the Atlanta Falcons when I was looking for an intern after my Assistant Equipment Manager for Olympic Sports left the first week of football season,” writes Nicholas Vogt, Head Equipment Manager at Georgia State. “When his internship with the Falcons was up he came to Georgia State and was thrown right into the fire. He came to work mostly football, but we needed him to work with the Olympic Sports.,” Vogt writes.

“I could not have been happier to have him part of the Equipment Staff.”

Someday, Eddie hopes to have his own staff.

Dream Equipment Manager Job

“Ten years from now my dream job is to be a head equipment manager at UAB or, well, be an equipment manager for the Seattle Seahawks,” he says.

In the meantime, he studies for the exam, just a week away now, and picks up some extra cash driving for Uber. “I get to meet interesting people along the way. I do it because it helps to pay the bills and I get to meet different people and hear their stories.”

When he isn’t driving or working with the Panthers, he is hanging out with friends and family, and learning to play guitar. “I’m working my way into jazz.”

Eddie admits to shyness as a youngster, which lead to a certain amount of bullying and difficulty relating to people. It’s the job with the teams that he points to as a turning point.

“This job has helped me come out of my comfort zone and relate to people. It’s been good for my self-confidence.”

 

 

 

 

Meet Equipment Manager Alanna Widman

May 15, 2017 By Jeff Zogg

That wariness she notices from football players when they encounter their first female equipment manager dissipates quickly when they learn something about her.

“When they start talking to me they quickly realize I know football,” says Alanna Widman, who served with the Tiffin University Equipment team for four years. “That helps a lot.”

She grew up not far from the Tiffin campus, attended Calvert High School where she played softball for a time but found she liked the supporting role better.

“I realized I really didn’t like softball, so I decided to just help them,” she told Helmet Tracker. “I enjoyed that more than playing.”

Alanna liked being part of the team, being around the players, and around sports. She served the volleyball, basketball, and softball teams in high school, then went across town to Tiffin.

“Dad told me to find a job,” she said. “I got an email from the football department and they needed help.”

Laundry, Face Masks, and Nike

Soon she was learning more about football—and more.

“Some of her job duties include doing seven loads of laundry a day, setting up the fields with all the football equipment, filming practice, fixing helmet bladders, face masks, and chin straps, organizing the equipment room, inventory of all equipment, registration for camps, ordering of football gear through Nike, and much more,” writes Adam Neugebauer, Tiffin’s Offensive Coordinator and Head Equipment Manager.

“Alanna makes my job so much easier. I know that if I give her a task, the task will be done right away. Most times I do not even have to ask her to do something because she has the job done already.”

Neugebauer’s reliance on her spread to other staff and players.

“They never had a female in that position before, it was a learning experience for everyone,” she remembers. “I was the only female with the guys at practice. It was different. The atmosphere is different. What helped me is I know a lot about football—my Dad is a football coach.”

Players and Staff Trust Her

The players learned quickly to trust her, and to call on her for help. Soon, during games, players would start calling her name as they ran from the field with an equipment problem.

“This was my dream job even before I knew it was what I wanted,” Alanna says. “I want to do what I am doing now—in football.”

She’s always been around the game, around sports. She has two brothers and attended all their games. Then, she was part of it herself.

“Suddenly I had 150 brothers,” she said.

Alanna will take the Equipment Manager’s certification exam at the Athletic Equipment Managers Association national convention in Atlanta next month. She is a candidate for Helmet Tracker’s AEMA Scholarship.

She has graduated with a degree in Sports Recreation Management and is looking for a job in an Equipment Room. As far as being a female in a male dominated arena, she says it’s a non-issue.

“I’m just there to do the job I love,” she says. “I want to see the athletes excel in what they do.”

She follows the nearby Cleveland teams—the Indians, the Browns, and the Cavaliers, plus the Miami Dolphins.

Division I Dreams

“I want to work for a DI school in the Big 10 or another major conference, or at the NFL level,” she admits.

Neugebauer knows she will be an asset to any team she works with, and the other staff as well.

“Her drive and motivation is contagious. She makes others around her work even harder. Since she has been working for our football team, she has recruited and brought on five other managers,” he wrote.

When she isn’t working or looking for work in sports, she is hanging out with her family—and that usually involves sports as well.

“I’m okay with that because I love it.”

 

Meet Max Drexler-Grand Canyon U Equipment Manager

May 8, 2017 By Jeff Zogg

Max Drexler lives in a parallel universe. As the Grand Canyon University campus where he works undergoes transformation and growth for the future, so does Max.

“I moved to Arizona from Rochester, NY about a year ago,” Max says. “I have never been out this far west.”

Grand Canyon University

GCU, in Phoenix, plans to build or update 10 facilities in two years. During that time of growth, Max plans to earn his Masters of Business Administration (MBA) and land a job in sports.

“This place is blowing up quickly,” he said. “It’s a good place to be.”

AEMA Exam

Max was granted a graduate assistantship and a job at Grand Canyon University in January 2016. In June, he will take the Athletic Equipment Management Association’s certification exam. He is a candidate for Helmet Tracker’s AEMA certification exam Scholarship.

“We technically work 29 hours a week, but I am here 9 to 5 every day and on the weekends we are busy, too,” he said. His main focus is men’s soccer, women’s basketball, and men’s volleyball. He reports to Mark Wilty, Assistant Athletic Director—Equipment.

“I rely on Max to handle much of the day to day tasks that are crucial to our overall success,” Mark writes. “Recording inventory, inputting orders, handling embellishment, distributing gear, and handling team laundry are everyday duties that Max has mastered here at GCU.”

Update New York Link

Max played four years of soccer as a Spartan at Greece Olympia High School, then four years at SUNY (State University of New York) Brockport where he earned his sports management degree.

“At DIII we didn’t have an equipment staff, really. I didn’t experience it,” he said. “My goal now is to find an entry-level position in Athletics,” he says.

“I want to work in athletics, but I don’t necessarily know where yet. I like the equipment room, but I also like the business side of athletics as well.”

His studies and his work in the equipment room and on the field keeps him busy for now.

“Right now we are super busy with baseball and softball going, and with the construction, we are working with one washer and one dryer.”

“So, in the future, I will stay open to possibilities and keep grinding,” Max says. “I’ll take every opportunity I can.”

 

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(855) 435-6388
Sales@HelmetTracker.com

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