Jim Swing
Assistant Sports Editor
When men’s basketball head coach Shaka Smart and Director of Basketball Operations Kyle Getter first began working together, it was 2002 and Smart was Director of Basketball Operations at the University of Dayton. Smart bought occasional lunches for Getter, a graduate assistant learning the tricks of the trade.
Eight years later, Getter has traveled in the footsteps of his mentor, fulfilling multiple duties, including the ever-so-important role of formulating travel arrangements for the VCU Rams. In his second year as Director of Basketball Operations at VCU, Getter assembles team travel, lodging, practice scheduling and meals for games on the road. Beginning as early as August before the upcoming season, Getter begins by laying out potential hotel options that best accommodate players and coaches alike.
“It’s like traveling by yourself, but you have 26 people in your travel party,” Getter said. “We go out and map out the whole year, kind of what we’re wanting to spend throughout the year.”
While searching for the most suitable hotel that best accommodates the team, tax-payers money is also taken into consideration for budgeting.
“We’re using state money, tax-payers money so we really try to watch what we spend,” Getter said. “So this year we’re staying in some different places than we did last year because the rates change.”
When deciding whether to drive or fly to a destination, time becomes a crucial piece to the traveling puzzle. In the 2010-2011 season, the Rams will travel the airways for trips to such places as Birmingham, Ala.; Atlanta, Ga.; Boston, Mass.; and recently to Tampa Bay, Fla.
“Typically if it’s a five or six-hour trip, we’ll bus,” Getter said. “Anything outside of that we typically try to fly because of the time factor.”
Aside from transportation and lodging, perhaps one of the most essential parts to any road trip is team meals. Getter alongside athletic trainer Eddie Benion and strength and conditioning coach Daniel Roose strategize specific team meals along the lines of proper foods for the athletes to consume before and after games.
After a complimentary breakfast buffet, pre-game meals take place four hours prior to tip-off, proving to be the most vital.
“We talk about what these guys should be eating and then kind of formulate a menu from there,” Getter said. “And also we want to get stuff that these guys like to eat, so they will be actually eating.”
While planning for road trips may begin months before the start of the regular season, a recent trip to New York City for the semifinals of the Dick’s Sporting Goods NIT Tip-Off arrived after a 90-69 win over Wake Forest, leaving one week for an already prepared Getter to put plans in the making.
“We were confident that we would be going, so we put some ‘feeler’ plans out there to say that this might be happening,” Getter said. “We had just a short amount of time.”
The stress of planning a trip to an away game for an entire college basketball organization can be trying at times, Getter said. Whether it’s having a meal prepared on time or a bus ready for shuttle, Getter said all his hard work pays dividends towards the master plan –winning.
“The guys sometime laugh at me because I’m always running around,” Getter said. “On the road we want to do everything we can to get a competitive advantage in terms of winning the game, and if there is no hiccups in terms of our travel experience, then I think that adds to our competitive advantage.”
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