Fooball equipment crew gets Rebels ready for training camp

Football season seems so far away on this 100-degree afternoon, when it seems like summer has no end.

An open parking space is easy to find Tuesday, two female athletes make use of an otherwise empty Rebel Park, and few UNLV football players are to be found.

But a sense of urgency fills the bottom floor of the Lied Athletic Complex, where for all intents and purposes, football season has begun.

With UNLV's players reporting Sunday and training camp opening Tuesday, those who operate behind the scenes know this week is their crunch time to get everything in place before the pads begin to pop.

"We shut the locker room down," said equipment director Paul "Pooch" Pucciarelli, entering his 27th year at UNLV.

Though Pucciarelli apologizes for any clutter in the laundry area, the truth is the various items -- cleats, workout T-shirts, jerseys -- are organized, in place and numbered.

Pucciarelli makes sure even each bath towel has the number belonging to that particular player, to prevent the spread of germs.

Across the hall in the locker room, several managers assemble the helmets -- attaching the chin straps, jaw straps and face masks -- that arrived last month.

Each assembled helmet is placed in the designated locker, where already each player's travel and personal-items bags sit. The custom-made knee braces for each offensive and defensive linemen also hang in their respective lockers.

Next week, the twin washing machines that each hold up to 125 pounds of clothes will start running. UNLV does 12 loads of laundry during two-a-days, and when the industrial-sized washing machines and dryers are running at the same time, it feels like a minor earthquake.

When training camp moves to Ely beginning Aug. 14, the Rebels use the laundry room at the nearby maximum-security prison.

UNLV keeps on hand about 240 game and practice helmets, 130 shoulder pads and 65 pairs of knee braces. The braces cost about $10,000 per year, but as assistant equipment director Rocky Rutledge points out, "If we prevent one surgery, we make money. We haven't had a major knee injury on a lineman since we started doing it."

Offensive linemen began wearing the braces about six years ago, but the defensive coaches were slow to come around to the idea that their linemen also should don braces. Then tackle Isaako Aaitui tore an anterior cruciate ligament last spring, and suddenly the idea of defensive linemen wearing braces became accepted.

Until John Robinson arrived as UNLV's coach following the 1998 season, the Rebels didn't have separate practice and game helmets. He autographed every helmet, and UNLV provided a document of authenticity for each one.

Sales of the headgear gave the athletic department enough money to buy separate helmets for the following season, a practice that has continued.

Robinson would practice early in the morning and at night to avoid the August heat, but in 2006 his successor, Mike Sanford, began taking the team four hours north to the higher altitude and cooler climate in Ely.

The cost to feed players, coaches and staff is between $6,000 and $7,000 per day in Las Vegas, but it's cheaper in Ely. Most meals are buffet style, and the lunch and dinner courses constantly change.

While the team practices in Las Vegas next week, the returning players who have off-campus housing will be able to live at their respective valley homes, which saves UNLV about $13,000 in housing costs. Newcomers and those without off-campus housing will live in dorms.

The trip to Ely will cost about $30,000 in housing. UNLV worked out reasonable hotel rates to make the trip more economically feasible.

"It's good for (them), too," said Terry Cottle, associate athletic director for football operations. "They see the big picture."

Contact reporter Mark Anderson at manderson@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2914. Follow him on Twitter: @markanderson65.