Briscoe, Grace Busy To Say The Least
By Mike Deak
InkFreeNews
WINONA LAKE – Two steps into Chad Briscoe’s athletic office at the Manahan Orthopaedic Capital Center on the campus of Grace College, a couple things stand out. The amount of product boxes to the left, stacked three high and creating a new makeshift wall, tower next to a whiteboard flanking his desk behind the wall. The boxes are full of Grace merchandise and athletic apparel, the whiteboard covered in notes rivaling that of Einstein’s chalkboard divulging the theory of relativity.
It shows a lot of movement in the athletic department, and, boy, is there a lot of movement this spring.
Unlike any athletic season in the college’s history, 17 sports are active at the same time. Everyone in the Grace arsenal will have at least one item this spring other than volleyball and cheer. Because COVID restrictions shortened the fall seasons, teams were granted a limited spring calendar. So Miller Park will have soccer and tennis back at it, at the same time as baseball and softball.
It’s not odd to have crossover schedules when a team reaches a national tournament, like basketball overlapping the spring, but to have the fall teams playing adds to quite a chaotic situation.
“We’ve tried to do our best to be proactive with everything, and COVID actually helped us adapt a little bit in the fall and winter to prepare for this, as odd as that sounds,” said Briscoe, seated just inches from that wall of boxes. “When we have baseball, softball, soccer and tennis all in the same facility, can we all find a way to make it work together rather than just look at it individually.”
Logistics immediately come to mind in such a scenario. While Briscoe ensures everyone will get to where they need to go, the challenge is always there in making sure there is enough transportation, drivers and support crew available, both home and away.
“We put this all into place that we aren’t allowing any overnight stays for our teams unless approved by our president (Bill Katip),” Briscoe said. “Teams knew when they modified their schedules, they could go wherever, but they had to be back home that night. Exceptions like baseball, softball, golf, they can go play a weekend somewhere and get in three or four games, or golf an invite.”
Just having the athletes ready to go can be a challenge. COVID did a number on the planning and associated routes to which teams had to be, both physically and mentally. That might be the toughest part of the season, offered Briscoe.
“Our strength and conditioning coach, Nathan Wadley, might be twice as busy as I am,” Briscoe said. “This is something we’ve never had to deal with before. Just making sure our teams are healthy has been a task onto itself. We feel we are achieving that, but to make sure they are taped and ready to go, that’s another thing. So kudos to Nathan and his staff for having us in the position to be competing in a climate like this.”
Staying Right In All The Chaos
Mental health has become one of the main talking points from the pandemic and ‘COVID fatigue’. Briscoe isn’t above that, not only having to manage a normal athletic department in its entirety, but also having to work from home in spells, take on extra rolls on campus and maintain his life away from the game as a husband and father to a family also growing up in the environment.
“I’m a very relational person and I feel the hugs and high fives are a big part of who I am. To have to step back and just wave or do air high fives, it’s very difficult, I don’t like it at all,” Briscoe said in a rare admission of frustration. “The Lord has graced us as being relational beings, we thrive on being with one another. I’ve tried to do those things in different ways, if anything, just to keep myself a little normal in all of this.”
One way he does that is with handwritten notes. Rather than a high five, a letter in the mail or a text message has come of it. Tedious? Yes. Necessary? Very.
Briscoe has taken on a handful of new roles, including PA announcer for basketball games. With Paul DeRenzo not always available for night games as the basketball calendar has sometimes changed on the fly, Briscoe at times had to settle into Paul’s chair and work on his pronunciations of “Markus Geldenhuys” and “Antwaan Cushingberry”.
“I talk with my coaches each year about how we can grow our department and our athletics, and I usually come up with a word. That word this year has been ‘flexibility’,” Briscoe said. “With all of the constant changes, we are going to have to be flexible. On the snap of a dime, we might have to change, then change again a day later. The coaches have done a wonderful job of carrying a little more in their backpacks.”
Athletic secretary Kelly Sharp, sports information director Josh Neuhart as well as the administrative assistants in the department, coaches included, have all had to shift roles to keep the ship moving in the right direction. Even if it means Sharp’s famous candy jar has now become corn rows of Krackles and Reese Cups on the counter top.
“Nobody said this would be easy, but we all agreed that flexibility was the key,” Briscoe said. “We all realize this won’t be perfect, but we’re trying to make it work.”