Behind the scenes with SIU equipment manager Matt Orbany

CARBONDALE, Ill. — It’s Athletic Equipment Managers Appreciation Week, and no one does it better than SIU’s Matt Orbany, who is in his fourth year leading the Salukis’ equipment operation.

StrongDawgs interview with Matt Orbany

SD: You're a Cleveland native and went to college at Mount Union in northeast Ohio. How did you get started in the equipment business?

MO: I originally wanted to be a coach. As a student coach at Mount Union, a DIII school, you had to help with the equipment. I remember it vividly — I was just folding laundry one day, and I called my mom and said, "Mom, I know what I want to do for the rest of my life. I don't want to coach, I want to work in equipment." As a student, I was the head equipment person at Mount Union. We had 150 players on the roster that I needed to provide for.

Orbany did an internship with the Cleveland Browns

SD: Tell me about your internship with the Browns.

MO: It was a summer internship, a great experience. You're the lowest of the low. My job was doing laundry every day, some of the longest hours ever, because it's during training camp. That's when Joe Thomas was still playing and we'd collect laundry, and oh my gosh, there's Joe Thomas, all these Browns players that you like to watch. They just want to be treated like regular people.

SD: Then you made the big jump from DIII to Virginia Tech as a graduate assistant. What were some of your experiences?

MO: I had no idea what everything entailed. You have all these resources, all these players, and it was really one of the greatest experiences of my life. We didn't have a full-time assistant at the time, so my boss, gave me duties of being the full-time assistant.

During COVID, my boss and then his boss, they both got COVID, and it was one of our first away games of the season at North Carolina. They texted me and said, “Hey, it's your show now.” That was one of the scariest things in my life, but was just an awesome experience.

As a GA at Virginia Tech during COVID, Orbany had to run an away-game operation.

SD: Talk about getting your first full-time job with Wyoming, which led to the opportunity to come to SIU in 2022.

MO: I was at Wyoming for a season as the assistant director of equipment, with oversight of Olympic sports and assisting with football. I was in charge of ordering for teams, learning the differences between Nike and Adidas and such.

SIU sounded like a great opportunity for me, but I started from scratch and it wasn't quite what I was expecting. I remember the first day, when all we had was one student. Since then, we’ve evolved and now have a staff of 10 football managers and 10 laundry managers. I also have a full-time assistant, which has been great.

This is my fourth football season, and every day brings new challenges and new experiences. There’s a lot of stress, but I love the grind, love coming to work.

SD: How has your job evolved over the years?

MO: Specifically with football, you're in charge of the safety and protection of the student-athletes. You have to have knowledge of every single piece of equipment and every athlete is different. For example, when you're talking helmets, right now 80 percent of our players are in a custom helmet, which means I scan their head and send it off to Riddell or Schutt, depending on the helmet style that they want. That helmet is built just for them. Things have gotten a lot more custom, which also means more expensive. Safety and protection is the number one priority.

With the portal era, the rosters are just changing so fast. Our footwear orders need to be in by October, and half the kids won't be on the team at that point. You have a specific budget, and 105 players that you have to account for, so it’s kind of just a guess, but we have a really good relationship with UnderArmour and BSN.

Expect the unexpected on game day.

SD: What goes into a football road trip?

MO: You start prepping on Sunday, call the opposing equipment manager to find out how they're set up, when we can get in to get set up, etc. We have a ton to pack, a checklist of all our different trunks that need to get loaded on the truck. Eddie Aldrich, our driver, usually leaves on Thursday, and then we'll meet up with him at the stadium on Friday, separate from the team.

On Saturday, we'll get there about six hours before kick to set-up all the gear, headsets, on-field stuff and just make sure everything's good to go. The busiest time for us is before a game, and then after. Definitely long days, but it's rewarding.

SD: What's the perfect game for you on a game day?

MO: I hold our staff to extremely high standards and they know that's what they signed up for when they work for me. After the game, we talk about it on the ride home, hey, what could we have done different and better? I wouldn't say there's a perfect game, there's always something that we could do better. We’re always prepared for something to happen, if a helmet breaks, or something goes wrong with our headsets, just expect the unexpected. All the hard work and prep that you do is rewarding, especially after wins.

Orbany describes himself as a "perfectionist."

SD: What is one of your favorite parts of the job?

MO: I love decal-ing helmets and just the time that goes into it, because I can have the time to myself, where I do our maintenance checks on our helmets, make sure everything's good before the game and make sure all the details are right. I'm a perfectionist, so it's a time where I can be artistic. When you see the helmets on TV, you want them to be in the most perfect condition. I don't like the deep scratches, so I’ll touch-up the paint, change the decals when they get scratched. Everybody sees the helmet and you want them to say, that's a good-looking helmet right there.