The background action is seemingly unruly asseveral male athletes loudly bombard the room, taking helmets, shoulder pads and searching for other gear before practice.
In the foreground a slender man covers his neatly trimmed white hair with a baseball cap. He is deep in concentration as he examines the equipment’s buckles and straps and checks for cracks and possible dangers that would bring harm to the players. Born with a hole in his heart and told he could not play physically demanding sports, Sacramento City College’s equipment technician Dave Whittington has nonetheless been part of the athletic family for 20 years. Whittington underwent heart surgery when he was 5—a procedure that made him physically strong. Now, his love of sports is a theme throughout his life. He speaks fondly of the City College sports program and says, “A lot of our coaches are loyal.”
“I always loved football, always wanted to be around football,” remembers Whittington. “That’s what turned me into being a student equipment manager.” He personally fits shoulder pads and helmets to each player doing his part to keep the Panther football team safe. Though he takes care of all sports-related equipment, Whittington tends mostly to football because there is so much equipment compared to other sports. Football entails many pieces of individually fitted items: shoulder pads, kneepads, helmets, cleats, etc. Each piece needs to be maintained to prevent player injury.
Whittington’s colleagues praised his skills. “Dave Whittington is the best equipment manager in California,” said athletic trainer Mary Lund, who has worked beside him for 14 years. “He is extremely professional.” After earning an AA degree in communications, the middle son of five children graduated with a BA in the field from Sacramento State. When the opportunity arose, he did some public announcement work, assisting the local cable channel with its broadcasting of the Yuba College games and worked as equipment manager at the college.
His attention to detail earned Whittington a job as equipment manager for the Sacramento Kings when he was 24, a job he says was great while being young. He worked with the team from 1985-89. Eventually, however, he decided to change his path slightly.
“When working at a professional level you are on call,” Whittington says with a smile. “I wanted to get back to the college life.”
Now, Whittington says, he believes being on the college campus keeps him young and contributes to his upbeat attitude of just getting to be part of Sacramento City College.
http://greyandgrey.com/spanish/prensa/ best price levitra December is the month of enjoyment and merrymaking. buy levitra professional For me personally, it is usually family first before business. There is generic cheap viagra a glass ceiling and there is sexual discrimination and there is prejudice against women. This problem arises only in generic viagra canadian the men and hence a person needs to be counseled initial to see and have definitive objective to achieve, otherwise the therapist and also the test during a single setting nice, If you’d rather work for 2 weeks and handle the category in [*fr1] hour chunks that is nice too! The only thing you wish to fret about. Whittington says he loves seeing a student excel in the classroom and on the playing field. He follows up with questions to students about their test results, joking that he knows all of the instructors on campus. His motto: “Though they are athletes, they are students, too.”
Whether it’s women’s basketball or soccer, football or baseball, the mild-mannered role model tries to build the confidence of even the most-unsure athlete on and off the field.
He says he enjoys seeing what the players accomplish after they leave the campus.
Whittington refers to Jamie Nieto (2012 Olympic high jumper) and Ryan Mattheus (pitcher for the Washington Nationals) as just two of several athletes to have attended City College and gone on to have their abilities catch the media’s eye. The blued-eyed man now in his 50s says he loves to chat with former student athletes when they come to visit.
“We’ve had some outstanding individuals come through here,” says Whittington. “Too many to name. They all have performed well.”
“It gets crazy a little bit, sometimes,” said coworker David Jackson, referring to game night. “We have 14 sports. He’s [Whittington] very calm. I like working with him.
One of his most memorable City College football games was won under the guidance of Coach Mike Clemons against Merced College on that school’s campus. “The game was down 21-0. We came back and beat them at double overtime,” Whittington recalls.
“I really consider myself to be one of the luckiest people around,” Whittington says, “I’m in a job where I enjoy it.”
