Mara Alfrey

I started my career in college as a student manager for our football team, which was an on-campus job that introduced me to this field. After doing that for a couple years, I was hired full-time after graduation as an equipment manager for the football team at the University of Colorado, where I've been working for 4 years now. My main responsibilities include setting up the field for practice, helping coaches run drills throughout football practice, doing players' laundry every day to ensure everything is ready for the next practice, setting up the locker room for game days, and packing for road games. My most notable professional achievement is seeing everything we worked for come together on game days so that the football team is able to play a game. Seeing all the players wearing what they need to wear, the coaches wearing what they're wearing on the sideline, and everything that we do to just make that game be able to play is our biggest accomplishment. I was an athlete growing up, and especially as a woman, I think it's really empowering to be in the sports field, particularly in a male-dominated sport like football. I wanted to continue being around other athletes in a different way, which is what drew me to this career.