Equipment Manager

From "How Stuff Works" on Football Equipment Managers:

The role of equipment manager has become an extremely important one for every NFL team. The equipment manager has two big areas of responsibility:

• Protecting the players - First and foremost, an equipment manager's job is to fit each player on the team with a customized array of equipment that will provide maximum protection against injury.
• Managing the logistics - The equipment manager must handle the tons of equipment the team uses on a daily basis, keep all of it repaired and in stock and move it around for all of the road games.

These twin responsibilities have made equipment management both a science and an incredibly demanding role on any NFL team.

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Now lets edit this to apply to my family:

The role of DAD has become an extremely important one for every Donovan daughter. The Dad has two big areas of responsibility:

• Protecting the family - First and foremost, the dad's job is to provide each daughter in the family with a customized array of opportunities that will provide maximum protection against the challenges of life.
• Managing the logistics - The dad must handle the tons of equipment the daughters use on a daily basis, keep all of it repaired and in stock and move it around for all of the road games.

These twin responsibilities have made fatherhood both a science and an incredibly demanding role in any family.

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For as long as I can remember, my sister, mom and I have always referred to my dad as "Equipment Manger." On the morning of a soccer game, my sister and I would have our soccer bags packed, water jugs filled, and scrambled eggs and toast already made up on the breakfast table. When the family was trying to get out of the house to catch a flight, Dad would set multiple alarms on his watch to make sure we were right on schedule. He'd have the tickets printed and filed in a travel folio. The bags would be perfectly stacked tetris style in the back of the Dono-van.

Take all this at face value, and you may draw the conclusion that we were spoiled little brats and our dad did everything for us (which actually...is a true statement). But I'd like to take this a little bit further to give you a little insight into the character of the most amazing dad there ever was.

My dad is the definition of selfless. He daily makes personal sacrifices so that his family can be happy. He arrives at the office at 5:30am so that he can leave by 4pm and pick Kelly and I up from soccer practice. He passed over multiple opportunities for prestigious promotions because he didn't want to uproot our family during those formative middle school years. He worked hard...man did he work hard...to be the best lumber salesman anyone has ever seen so that my sister and I could have the opportunity to pick our college based on the right fit - not the right price tag.

More than all this, he NEVER, not once, asked for anything in return. I'm not exaggerating. Ask my sister or my mom. He loves loving us. He legitimately felt joy when I scored a goal. You would think that he ran a personal best 400m in the state qualifying track meet because he was so happy watching me cross that finish line 2 seconds faster than I had ever run before. No one would have guessed that he wasn't in Boston when the Red Sox finally won the world series because you could hear his cries of joy from coast to coast. My sister and I were extensions of him. When we laughed, he laughed. When we cried, he cried. When we succeeded, he succeeded. No matter where Kelly and I are be it Boston, Eugene, or the next room over, whether we're 3 years old or 30, we can always talk to my dad and know that he'll instantly react, triage, advise, and execute the way a trustworthy Equipment Manager would.

I love you Dad! Happy Father's Day!

New Year's Eve with the best date ever.

Jack Jr and Jack Sr (aka the original awesome dad) 

Supporting the Red Sox at Safeco (we won the game).

"The Rarr"

Jack's cedar plank grilled salmon is legend...wait for it...dary!

Mary Ann's - the local BC bar. It may have been 2005, but we partied like 1975!



 And like a champ, Dad rallied for tailgaiting the next morning in the mods with Mr. Bourque and Mr. Pierson...two other top notch dads!

Equipment Manager does a final bag check before sending me away to his alma mater. Notice how many carry-on's I have. Clearly this pic was taken pre 9/11 (by about 2 weeks).



Mom makes the most amazing Christmas lasagna. Usually the lasagna wins, but this particular Christmas, Dad and Kelly were determined to finish. Please note Kelly's unbuttoned jeans and the closest thing you'll ever see to a pot belly on Dad.

The Perfect Proposal

Many of you have probably seen Isaac Lamb's lip dub proposal by now. If not, here's a link to the video. I guarantee it'll put a smile on your face.

http://youtu.be/BKtNtsrs6go

I'm extremely excited about this video because Isaac is a fellow Jesuit High School alum. He graduated a couple years ahead of me, so I only knew him from afar. Seeing this video, however, brought me right back to high school.

Freshman year, Spring 1997. My girlfriends and I were sitting at a round table in the cafeteria. We were no doubt gossiping about the freshmen in our class who had been asked to the junior/senior prom aka the popular kids aka not us. All the sudden, we hear a chorus of male voices...

"You never close your eyes anymore when I kiss your lips.
And there's no tenderness like before in your fingertips.
You're trying hard not to show it, baby.
But baby, baby I know it.

You've lost that lovin feelin
Whoa that lovin feelin
You've lost that lovin feelin
Now it's gone, gone, gone, whoa-oh-oh-oh"

By now, we and the rest of the cafeteria had located the origin of the song. Alex, the male half of one of those "staple" high school couples, had gathered his buddies to serenade his girlfriend, Adrienne, in the middle of the cafeteria. After the boys finished their tune, Alex got on one knee and asked, "Adrienne, will you go to prom with me?" The whole prepubescent audience waited with baited breath. "Of course!" Applause erupt!

Shortly after, the girls and the boys were called into an assembly. The boys were in one gym, the girls were in another. I don't remember what the girls' assembly was about, but I definitely remember what the boys were told. The administration instructed the boys that they were forbidded to ask girls to dances in a public manner because it was sexual harassment. In other words, by asking a girl out in public forces her to say 'yes' and is therefore against the law.

In the words of Amy Poehler and Seth Meyers, really?

Luckily, as is the case when "the man" tells students that they can't do something, the boys at my school completely rebelled. It became their mission to ask girls to dances in the most creative, over-the-top way as possible without getting caught by adminstration. And let me tell you, this led to some of my favorite memories in high school.

High school is a time when teenagers go through the most dramatic changes in an extremely short period of time. Changing hormones, changing bodies, changing goals and aspirations, changing morals. I absolutely believe that it's the role of our educators to help gently guide teenagers through this transition. Key word there: gently. Yes, it's important to teach our young men how to treat a lady. But is it not also a life skill to teach young women how to say, "no" despite the circumstances under which they were asked? Part of what I learned in high school was how to interact with boys - a skill that has not only helped me socially, but also professionally.

I applaud you Isaac, for taking the time to show the world how much your fiance means to you!