Liberty Directors Of Operations Contribute To Making Team Travel A Success

Imagine planning a trip to the beach for yourself. What mode of transportation will you use to get there? Where will you stay? What’s your budget for food? Not too hard to plan, right?

Now imagine, what if you had to plan a weekend trip for 160 people going to a state 800 miles away? You have to leave on Thursday and return on Sunday. Hotel accommodations and food must be appropriate for athletes to be at
peak performance.  

Few individuals that follow Liberty sports truly appreciate the level of effort required to transport teams to each and every away game. Whether it is arranging transportation, lodging or food, the task requires an army to make it happen.

The role of coordinating the different facets of travel for teams falls to the directors of operations. These individuals, each one responsible for one or more sports programs, ensure that every aspect of team travel runs smoothly without hiccups. Not only does this entail transportation for players and team staff, but the directors of operation also manage the transport of any team equipment. 

Directors of operations’ daily jobs involve a lot of moving parts. As the staff plan and organize trips, they must also be able to adapt on a moment’s notice to troubleshoot any issues. 

“The entire job of doing director of operations, doing team travel logistics, you’re always encountering issues and problems,” Caroline Smith, Liberty’s director of operations for men’s tennis, women’s soccer and field hockey, said. “You can plan as much as you can for a trip to go a certain way, but every single day, there’s always going to be things that you have to shift gears and adjust to and figure out how you make it work.”

One challenge that staff faces in regards to team travel is championships. While it may be possible to book flights and hotel rooms far in advance for seasonal games, doing so for championships presents the additional issue of uncertainty regarding how far a team may advance in the tournament. This was especially true for field hockey, whose stellar play last season resulted in the Lady Flames reaching the national championship game.

While many people would see these situations as burdens, Liberty’s staff chooses to enjoy the fast pace of the job. 

“It’s kind of a thrilling thing as a (director of operations) because you kind of love those moments of when you have two days to plan a trip,” Smith said. “It’s chaotic, it’s crazy. But it’s a lot of fun.”

For each trip, staff must analyze whether the teams will fly or ride the bus. Each mode of transportation provides its own advantages and disadvantages. 

Buses allow teams additional room for luggage, but they are not always practical for longer trips because of the additional time required for travel. Buses also ensure that teams already have transportation provided for their stays. 

“The benefit of driving is that when you get there, you have a bus that can chauffeur you around, take you to get meals, take you from the hotel to get from the practice field to the stadium,” Clay Copeland, director of operations for men’s soccer, men’s golf, and swimming and diving, said.

Instead of riding the bus, teams may need to travel via plane. This ensures quicker arrival time, but it requires more cost for the university, also restricting the amount of luggage that can be transported. 

Luggage plays an enormous role in the logistics of transporting teams, particularly those that require large amounts of equipment for games. Football serves as an example of this. In order to ensure that the football team has everything that it needs for a game, Liberty sends an 18-wheeler truck several days in advance with equipment.

“You’ve got to check those lists 17 times because the last thing you want to do is show up to the game, and Malik’s shoulder pads are sitting in Lynchburg,” CJ Holden, who handles team travel for football, said. 

Outside of just transportation, planning must be done to ensure that the team has meals for the duration of the trip. This already complicated task was further worsened by COVID-19. 

“The hardest part of COVID, in my opinion, is meals because we used to be able to show up to restaurant, (and) they could seat 50 people,” Brad Gillmore, director of operations for volleyball, women’s tennis and women’s lacrosse, said. “But now I have a restaurant that won’t even take 20 because they are operating at 25% capacity or 50% capacity. So, we did a lot more to-go meals, which is a lot more of having faith in the restaurants having everything you need at the specific time.”

During the offseason, staff continue to work in preparation for the following seasons. This may even include traveling to those sites months before the teams arrive to verify that teams will have everything they need the
following semester. 

Another thing they must think about is handling recruiting visits. 

Despite all of the planning that goes into making each trip a success, sometimes new issues still arise. One example of this was when the bus for the volleyball team lost a tire while returning from a contest against Kennesaw State. Through teamwork and cooperation, Liberty’s staff worked to ensure that everyone on the bus made it back to Lynchburg safely by making sure that the bus was in a safe location and sending someone to fix the tire.

“It’s just a lot of communication between a lot of different people all the time, but we have such a great support system here at Liberty that it makes it easier to handle when issues like that arise,” Gillmore said.

Another important aspect of being a director of operations is serving the team. This includes being a source of encouragement and helping the players and staff with anything else they need. 

Through a willingness to adapt and constantly communicate with every staff member, directors of operations do the behind the scenes work that ensures the success of Liberty’s athletics programs. 

Shields is the asst. sports editor. Follow him on Twitter