Behind the Curtain of the Indy Eleven Front Office - Shelby Gilmore

Photo Credit: Indy Eleven

Imagine you've been at your job, in an official capacity, for about two months and you're set to take your first business trip with some of your co-workers. 

Imagine that every single person of those 24 to 25 coworkers rely on you to schedule their meals, accommodations, and travel arrangements. 

Now imagine that in that first business trip, nearly everything that you had planned for all those individuals goes sideways right before their big presentation.

That is exactly the life that Indy Eleven Manager of Team Administration, Shelby Gilmore, has been doing for six seasons (including this upcoming one). So I thought it would be good to pull back the curtain on a member of the Indy Eleven organization to allow Indy fans, and maybe other soccer fans, a chance to get a glimpse of what goes on behind the scenes of a lower division professional soccer team.

Shelby didn't find soccer when she was a kid. Like most kids who grow up in Indiana (specifically the west side of Indianapolis), Shelby played a lot of basketball, and like most kids in Indiana that play a lot of [insert sport here], Shelby didn't expect to be working in a sports-related profession. When Shelby headed off to college at IUPUI, she had intentions of getting a degree in Elementary Education. A profession that she quickly realized was not what she wanted to do. However, while lifeguarding at her local pool, she began talking to her manager who was in the Sports Management program at IUPUI, which peaked Shelby's interest. Despite having played sports her entire life, it had just never registered for her that there was a way to have a career in sports without being an athlete. With a newfound direction in life, Shelby majored in Sports Management in 2018 with a minor in Business from the Kelley School of Business. 

[sidenote from Shelby on her time as a lifeguard: "I was a lifeguard through college and got the opportunity to work some high profile events and guard for Olympians. I even got to see Katie Ledecky break a world record in person which was really cool."]

A degree in hand, Shelby first worked with our hockey-playing counterparts, landing an internship with the Indy Fuel in their Operations department. The one-semester internship turned into a full year gig though as she finished the season with the team. 

"I found I really enjoyed Operations and the skills I got to use, and they gave me a ton of great opportunities that pushed me and challenged me." 

While interning at the Fuel, Shelby was introduced to then Indy Eleven Game Operations Coordinator James Fields, who mentioned that Indy Eleven was looking for a Game Operations intern for the 2019 season. Shelby applied, interviewed with Andy Piggush and James, and landed a season-long internship with the team. 

"I worked hard during that season and was, again, given some opportunities to lead and challenge myself again. I don’t think I am tooting my own horn when I say I impressed Piggush and got very fortunate with some timing."

As the 2019 was coming to a close, the previous Team Administrator was leaving the club, opening the position for somebody else to grab. Another round of interviews, with an intimidating interview with all the coaches that included a question about The Office from goalkeeper coach Andy Swift (a question that she bombed), and a solid recommendation from Andy Piggush, and Indy Eleven had found their next Team Administrator.

Before we get more in detail about Shelby and her job with Indy Eleven, let's circle back to that first business trip in March 2020 to Memphis (a come from behind, 4-2 win for the Boys in Blue against a Tim Howard in goal 901 FC squad) as Shelby navigated her first road trip in her new position:

So the first [memory] that stands out is quite literally the first ever regular season match that I worked for, or worked with, for Indy Eleven. That was Memphis in 2020. Memphis is always a bus trip for us, just based off of the league protocols that we have to follow. Same with Pittsburgh. Getting down to Memphis was completely fine. No issue at all there.

However, match day comes around and it started off in the morning with Coach Rennie coming out and asking our equipment manager at the time where his runners were. I think he was going to use the hotel gym to go for a quick workout or whatever. Equipment manager goes to grab his runners out of the coaching bag only to realize that the bag got left in Indianapolis.

So, obviously with it being a 7-hour trip and we just found out that information at like 11:00 AM, it wasn't really going to work out that we were going to get all the stuff that we needed in time for kickoff. Because of that, the equipment manager and myself went out around Memphis and we kind of bought everything that we needed for the coaches when it comes to their boots, their gear, whatnot. Specifically for that trip too, our one assistant coach, Juan Guerra was leaving from Memphis to go to Tampa for a coaching course so we had to go out and buy all of the toiletries that he needed, because that was all still in Indianapolis as well.

While we are running around Memphis trying to find all this stuff for the coaches, I get a call from the hotel and they tell me that they cannot do our pre-match meal, which throughout the entire weekend (breakfasts, dinners, everything), the pre-match meal is the most important meal that we have during the weekend. And with me being brand new, I didn't have everything memorized or know that this was super important, so I called our assistant coaches that were on the trip at that time, Juan and Swifty [Goalkeeper Coach Andy Swift] and was like, "the hotel said they can't do the pre-game meal." Only with their reaction did I realize how bad the situation was. So Juan and Swifty kind of helped me figure out we can go to this restaurant and get the things that we need, so we were able to kind of work that out.

But overall I just have a distinct memory of being in an Uber in Memphis, driving around and being like if this is how every game is, I don't think I'm going to be able to make it. This is insane. This is everything that I'm dealing with on the very first trip and very first regular season game that I've ever worked.

Worried and concerned, but seemingly undeterred from her new profession, Shelby has learned from those early difficulties and is now preparing for her 6th season with the team. With preseason just around the corner, Shelby has found that this time of year is still the most intense part of her job. "Preseason is the craziest part of the season as players start getting into town, getting them settled, and helping take care of all the logistics involved with that." Indy Eleven are returning a good core group of players this year, but have already added to the roster and will likely be adding more. For Shelby, it's important that all the new players to Indy feel welcome. "I want players to know that the Indy Eleven staff cares about them, Indy Eleven wants them to succeed as individuals. Sometimes I am a player’s first contact with the club, and I want to set the standard for what they can expect from us."

Preseason may be crazy, but Shelby describes the offseason as magical. "Offseason is the best and most magical part of my year. The first two weeks are us coordinating with players who are moving on to new teams or getting [returning] Indy Eleven players back home [for the offseason break]. We do full cleanouts of the apartments, including moving furniture. Normally, once we get to Thanksgiving, things start to die down. Things then pick back up at the start of the year as we prep for preseason."

Game Beckons: Obviously, there's a lot that goes into your job to keep you busy (not counting your magical offseason), but how do you spend your time when you're not ushering around soccer players and coaches? Rumor is that you're a big Taylor Swift fan.
Shelby: Outside of work I enjoy watching reality tv competitions (Survivor being my favorite, which I hope to be on one day). I really like watching "popular" TV shows/movies too and keeping up with the discourse around said shows/movies. I also really enjoy reading, but I find the best time to fit that in is actually when we are flying. Nothing like a good book to distract you from the fact that you’re thousands of feet in the air in a metal tube (can you tell I don’t like flying?). I have a cat named Chelsea (no, not after the team) who I love with all my heart. I am a HUGE Taylor Swift fan. Got to see her twice during the Eras Tour and have seen her 5 times total (just to prove I’m not a bandwagon fan). I also love listening to Megan Thee Stallion and have recently got into Doechii, but overall I would classify myself as a basic pop girlie when it comes to my music preferences. 

Game Beckons: What does your day-to-day look like during the season?
Shelby: One of the things I like most about my job is that not every day is the same. Sure, I have "norms" and processes, but my weekly schedule is normally dictated by what our match and/or travel schedule looks like. 

    I try to get to the building by about 8:30 a.m. and check in with the coaches about anything pertinent. Depending on my workload, I’ll either stay in the building during training and get some work done or I'll go out and watch. However, ever since I broke my wrist in March 2023 out at training, my time out at trainings has decreased a good amount. I go and pick up our post-training lunch and try to get that to the building and setup by 11:30 a.m. for the guys. I do a check of our breakfast lounge once the building has cleared out of players and assist Sean Jackson [Equipment Manager] with the cleaning of the facility (although he takes on a significant role when it comes to this task). 

    The start of my week is finalizing logistics for whatever game we have at the weekend. Wednesdays are our off day but I almost always have some work that I do from home on this day. Thursdays vary depending on if we have a home or away match that weekend. If it’s a home match, these are my long days as I have to go to Sam’s Club, then downtown to the opposing team hotel, and swing by Carroll Stadium to drop off everything we need for matchday. If it’s an away match, this is my final prep day where I’m working with the coaches to ensure their 18-man roster matches the 18 I have on the flight manifest, and basically triple checking any and everything to ensure I have as much memorized as possible so I know how each day is "supposed" to go. Fridays are either travel days or my easiest day of the week, Saturday is match day, and then Sunday is either an off day or travel day. 

Game Beckons: Now that you mentioned it, describe your game days (home versus away). What time does the day start for you and when does it normally end, what are your responsibilities, do you always/never travel with the team, etc?
Shelby: I always say that home and away games are two different beasts.

Game Beckons: Let's start with the home games at Carroll Stadium.
Shelby: As for home matches, it’s much much easier leading up to match day [than away days], but are significantly longer day of. Before match day, I do my Sam’s Club run to get our match day needs. I then have to drop off cases of water and Gatorade to the hotel where the opposing team is staying and drop the rest of those cases off at Carroll. 

    I normally arrive at Carroll between 12-1 p.m. depending on setup needs of any given match. I am responsible for the full setup of the opposing team locker rooms and referee locker rooms, and then I assist with specific aspects of Indy Eleven’s locker rooms setup. Lucky for us, [editor: you may not read it, but that was sarcasm] Carroll has two sets of locker rooms we utilize for each team [editor note: the main locker rooms for each team are in the Natatorium (think of typical locker rooms with showers, bathrooms, etc.; and then the smaller, less complete locker rooms under the grandstand of Carroll Stadium], so we have double the amount of setup we need to accomplish on match days. We have a minimum standards list that we must follow so I double check that list to ensure I haven’t forgot anything to avoid a fine. I try to have my full setup done by 4:30/5 p.m. since that is when our players start to roll in. I am also responsible for welcoming in the opposing team (both for early locker room setup and the team bus) and ensure they get to the locker rooms and have everything they need. I do 5-, 3-, and 1-minute warnings pre-match (and halftime) for all three parties and then assist with the procession. During the game, I have much less responsibility since we have more staff present and really I am just on red card watch because it is my responsibility to escort the suspended player back to their locker room. I normally grab the opposing team’s post-match meal, as well as ours, and get those setup at the Natatorium locker rooms. Then we wait for all three parties to vacate their locker rooms so we can do a full tear down. Since Carroll is a shared stadium, we do not have the luxury of keeping items in those spaces. I’m normally leaving the stadium between 10:45-11:15 p.m. depending on how quickly the locker rooms are vacated.

Game Beckons: And now the away games?
Shelby: 2024 was the first year I traveled to every single game with the team, but I have traveled with the team plenty before that and was even our acting Kitman on the road for the latter half of the 2023 season. 

    Away games require way more planning and effort leading up to match day. Making sure we have all dressing players on our flight manifest, coordinating with our contact at the airport to make sure they have all our flight info and travel roster, ensuring the bus is going to be there when we land, double checking with the hotel that our meals are scheduled to be served at the right time, finalizing the rooming list, etc. The day of an away match though is pretty chill with my biggest responsibilities being to make sure our pre-match meal is on time, the bus arrives on time to get the team, and making sure our post-match meal is delivered to the stadium on time.

    

Shelby and Josh Frankham
Photo Credit: Indy Eleven

    Josh [Frankham, Athletic Trainer] and Sean [Equipment Manager, AKA "Kitman"] are the ones that go to the stadium for locker room setup, so I normally help roll bags out to the car and keep communicating with them about any needs/issues I can take care of at the hotel. I normally set up, or help set up, the meeting room for film and then make sure we get everyone on the bus. That is, more times than most, the most stressful part of my match day; making sure that the driver has the correct route and stadium drop-off point, and then checking for traffic/crashes that could make us late to the stadium, all while communicating with my counterpart for the opposing team to ensure they have our estimated time of arrival. Being a woman in a male locker room, there isn’t a ton that I can do in there until we head out for warmups. Then after that I am responsible for giving the same 5- , 3-, and 1-minute warnings to ensure we get out of the locker room on time to ensure we don't get fined. Same thing for halftime. During the game, I really kind of just get to enjoy the game, but am also ready to help wherever needed with filling water bottles, gear needs, and being ready to run to the locker room to get anything anyone forgot. I take care of the post-match meal about halfway through the second half and get that all setup for our guys. Then I wait until the locker room is good for me to go in and help do a final clean up of the space.

    On our travel days back to Indy, I head to the airport an hour earlier than the team to get boarding passes and bag tags printed. Depending on the airline and the airport, sometimes they let me do this and sometimes they don’t. Then it’s just getting everyone through security and checking our flights to make sure that everything is running on time until we get back to Indy.  

Game Beckons: How far ahead can you plan ahead for the team's travels?

Shelby: Once the schedule comes out, I send that to the bus company to cover all our bus trips for the year and I’m able to do that in January. Similar thing with our flights, we are able to book those in January. We work with a third-party company to look at different options for our flights [editor: from a separate interview that Shelby did with Game Time Gals, the third-party company is Sportscorp Travel and the hotel third-party company is Sports Travel Management. Both companies work with USL Championship to help all the teams in the league.]. I then put those into an Excel file and present that to Coach and we work together to come up with our preferred options and work with the company to get our air travel booked. Then just have to stay on top of any schedule changes that the airline makes to our itinerary.

    The league has a minimum standard that Team Admins should be reaching out to the hotel and bus company in market at least two weeks prior to the team’s arrival into market. I follow that but try to reach out sooner if possible depending on our schedule. 

    I like to spend the week leading up to an away match finalizing the smaller details like the meals at the hotel, getting bus driver info, looking at driving routes we will be taking at the travel time for each of those, and then sharing as much info as possible with the rest of the tech staff. In short, we are able to finalize a lot of our travel by the start of preseason and the rest is taken care of about two weeks before we arrive in market. 

Game Beckons: There was a game this past season where travel back to Indy went askew and rumors were that it looked like the team was going to be split into different groups on their way back. How did you get through it & what gives you the confidence you're going to get it all worked out?

Shelby: I first want to remind everyone who’s reading this that our team and every team in the USL Championship flies commercial. So we are always working with the logistical nightmares that sometimes brings, and that when the shit hits the fan it’s very unlikely that we find a flight with 24/25 open seats to fit our full team (and that is often the biggest obstacle we are working around). Luckily, (knock on wood) I have never had to split the team up in a significant manner like that. We have had to put some guys individually on different itineraries than the team but that is much easier to manage. 

    In those instances, you’re really just praying that the airline desk worker that you are working with is in a decent mood and willing to talk through options. I’ve also done enough flying now with the team to know that we are always going to have better luck if we get stuck/delayed in a bigger airport. We also have the benefit of flying with a big group because most airlines are going to work as hard as they can to get us on a new flight vs rebooking us because it costs the airline more money to rebook us and give us vouchers than getting us to our destination on our original flight/day. 

    First step is to figure out from the airline worker what other flight options we have and the number of seats available on each of those flights. Then I go through and make “priority list” of who will get on the first flight vs the last. We have a number of different variables that we work through when creating that list. 

    I think my confidence with these type of situations truly comes from my experience. And knowing that, at the end of the day, as long as we all get back to Indy on Sunday (assuming we had a Saturday match) then that’s a success in my book. I also know that the players and coaches seeing how hard I work (really even if it's just me running around like a chicken with her head cut off) in those moments to gather as many options as possible and properly communicating those options helps me in the long run. 

    Airports are also like this weird space where I lose all capability of being able to be embarrassed or hesitant. For this exact instance that you are speaking of, I actually ended up chatting with a pilot who was from Indy and knew the team. He was able to find out what the mechanical issue was, told me what it was, and that we would have an answer on a delay/cancellation within the next 20 minutes, and gave his candid opinion that he thought everything was going to be fine. That helped me manage how much I needed to worry and start planning for the worst. 

Photo Credit: Indy Eleven

Game Beckons: How often do things go smoothly versus badly?

Shelby: The times where things go badly always stand out more, so it feels like it happens more often than when a trip goes smoothly. I would say 8/10 times, things go as smooth as they can. The experience I have gained though has given me enough insight to know what to do in different situations when things do get crazy. I think 2021 and 2023 were the worst, where it felt like every other trip something "major" happened (cancelled flight, significant delay, bus issues, etc.) There’s also a few locations where we have never had great luck. El Paso being a perfect example. 

 

El Paso, specifically, has never given us a ton of luck, which just makes me super excited to travel there this year [more sarcasm...]. Weirdly enough, though, El Paso, once you get into the city, it's one of the best cities that we travel to, in my personal opinion. But unfortunately the air travel there and back has never been super lucky for us. In 2021, this is my first ever flight that I was taking with the team and also, kind of the first flight that I had ever done personally, within like 10 years. I didn't fly much growing up, so this first flight, I'm checking the flight number just to make sure that everything is scheduled and on time right before I'm leaving Grand Park to head towards the airport, and when I look up our flight it says that it's canceled, and I was like, well that's weird. Why? Why does it say that? So I check again. I check like three other websites. They all say cancelled, but I haven't heard anything from our air travel agent. I shoot her over a text and I'm like, "hey, is this correct? What's going on?" And she calls me and says "yeah, it looks like it's canceled, we're going to have to figure out something." And so, we spent the next probably 2 hours figuring out what flights we could get on and, ultimately, we got in at 11:00 p.m. El Paso time, which was 1:00 a.m. Indy time, which made for a very long match day. The next day we got back fine, that trip. 

But then in 2023, everything getting there was completely fine. But when we were on our way back is when we got stuck in the airport for 12 hours. We got everybody checked in and, unfortunately, with flying commercial we have to arrive on time no matter what. We pretty much knew before the team even showed up that we were delayed a little bit, but at that point it was kind of too late to make the logistical changes that we needed to make. So we get everyone to the airport, we get through security and whatnot, and the flight just continues to keep getting delayed and delayed and delayed. It's about every hour that they're pushing it back another hour because of the mechanical issue they were dealing with at DFW. We had been there for long enough that we had to get everybody vouchers, but because they couldn't send vouchers out to everybody individually because it was a group, under one name to an extent. So all the vouchers got sent to me, then I had to divvy them up between everybody. It was a whole thing there. Also, I don't know if you've ever been to El Paso [editor: I have actually.], El Paso has like 4 gates, no [electrical] outlets anywhere, and they have about 3 different options in terms of the food you can eat at the airport. So not a super ideal situation for us to get stuck there for, again, 12 hours.

 

Finally, we see that the flight is taking off from Dallas to El Paso. In the meantime of all of that, we've missed our connector at this point. I'm now working with the El Paso kind of head person with American. And so we get confirmation that DFW is going to hold a flight for us, so we already knew basically that once we got on this plane in El Paso, when we landed in DFW, it was going to be getting off the plane, sprinting to the next gate, and then they would be holding the flight for us, which was huge. Oftentimes we aren't able to kind of confirm that. So knowing that helped kind of ease a lot of stress. So then we see that the flight is finally taken off from Dallas. It's on its way to El Paso.

 

And I'm not joking when I say it felt like the cruelest joke that's ever been played on us as a team.

 The plane is literally coming off the runway and heading towards our gate and like staring us straight in the face and all of a sudden I see the lady that's been working at the desk all day start talking to other people and I'm hearing her yell "oh, you need to run to this gate, run, run, run!" So then I'm like that's not good. Anytime someone that works at the airport is telling you to run, it's never a great sign. So I go up to the desk and I'm like, "hey, what's going on?" And she looks at me and she says, "we're going to have to cancel this flight." I looked at her and I was like "you've got to be joking me, right?" She's like, "no, and there's no other planes out of here today that's going to be able to fit all 23 of you on any airline. I'm like "right! super! Can you explain to me why that's the case?" And that's when she goes on to tell me that the crew that got on the flight in Dallas was unable to do the return flight because they were going to hit their FAA regulated number of hours that they're allowed to work in the day. It's one of the few times that I cried in the airport because I just genuinely could not believe that American Airlines kept us in the El Paso Airport for at least 12 hours, just for them to cancel the flight as soon as it's literally right in front of us. So then Josh Frankham and myself stay back at the airport. The hotel staff in El Paso was absolutely amazing. They sent kind of like party bus-type style vehicles to pick up the team and the bags so we didn't have to worry about getting Ubers. They were able to get us accommodated with rooms for an additional night, and then we also got very lucky that we were able to book a bus for the next morning because we had to leave the hotel at, I believe 3:30 in the morning the next morning to get on a flight at 5:00 a.m. to take us to, I think it was Phoenix, and then we got back to Indy that way.

So that's El Paso for you. Beautiful city. Just try to drive there if you need to.

Game Beckons: What is your favorite and least favorite things about your job?

Shelby: My favorite thing about my job is the relationship building I get to do every season. I have met some of the best people during my time with Indy Eleven (staff, players, and fans). It’s also presented me with opportunities to meet people from all over the world and learn about cultures I wouldn’t have if I wasn’t in this role. That’s another aspect of my job that I am super grateful for, all the opportunities I have had during my time with Indy Eleven. I’ve got to travel the country which I never thought I would be able to do. I’ve been face-to-face with some big names in soccer. Had the opportunity to go to some of the best soccer specific stadiums in the country. And made some life long friends along the way. 

    My least favorite part of my job is the lack of other women I get to work with on a regular basis. Sure we have a ton of women in our Front Office that I get to interact with on a daily basis, but 9 times out of 10, I am the only woman in the pre-match huddle and sometimes the only woman working for either team's Operations Department on matchdays. While it isn’t something I have direct control over, it is something I want to highlight because more women should be working in sports!! 

Game Beckons: One more horror story from the road?

Shelby: Sure.

So this one was us getting back to Indy from Charleston after the playoff game in 2023. Obviously, not the most ideal situation, nor an ideal result. A 5-0 loss never makes the next travel day any sort of fun. Everything's looking good, we get to the Charleston airport. Charleston Airport is really nice, a bit cramped at the ticketing area, but, ultimately, we get everyone through security. We're all waiting at the gate, then we board our flight. We're sitting there waiting, and then we get to the takeoff. I think that we were delayed maybe 20 minutes from pushing back from the gate and getting onto the runway, because I knew that we had a tight connection, and I can remember telling myself that as we're rolling out to the runway, "OK, as long as everything goes good, we have plenty of time. We'll be pushing it, but we'll get to the gate, no problem at all." And so we start, we get to the runway, pilot goes pedal to the metal to get us up to full speed and we're at maybe full speed for about 3-4 seconds, and then slams on the brakes.

 

He comes over the PA, and he's like, "I just need everyone to stay in their seat. We're going back to the gate. As soon as I can provide you an update, I'll do it." As I mentioned before, I don't like flying. In that moment, I was like, "cool, we're dying. We're dying on the Charleston runway after a 5-0 loss. This is going to be just a great way to go." But we start making our way back towards the gate and the pilot comes over and he's like, "hey, everyone, one of our engines is not putting out enough power. This plane is not going to be going anywhere, so I would recommend that as soon as you get off the plane, head to the desk and we will start kind of rebooking you on new flights." 

I don't know how it always manages to happen this way, but when we get booked on our air travel, we almost always get thrown to the back of the plane. I don't really know why? That's just kind of always the situation that happens. So I already knew right then and there, well we're screwed because we're towards the back of the plane and all the flights that we could get players and staff out on earlier are probably going to get booked with everybody else that's on our flight. At that time, I can't remember which coach, but one of our coaches was kind of up towards the front, so I sent them a message and was just like, "hey, as soon as you get off the plane, get in line, I'll join you as soon as can. They message back saying "there are some flights open." "I know, but we need to see what the airlines are willing to do for us at this point." 

At some point between then and me getting off the plane, I'm not sure what kind of communication was or was not had, but by the time I made my way to the line to join the group, we had a small handful of guys that had already booked themselves on new flights. I think, unfortunately, with the result from the previous day, everybody just wanted to get home. We're essentially in offseason at that point. So the last thing they want to do is wait around, which I completely understand. It just made things a little bit more difficult to deal with as we're moving through the rest of the day. There were also a few guys that were honestly just a little spooked by that situation. I didn't realize it in the moment, but having an engine basically go down as we're getting ready to take off is very scary. So I don't blame them, but some of the guys just wanted to get in a rental car and drive. Because of this, because we had different guys on different airlines, and we had a small handful of guys, as well as two of our coaches, that wanted to drive home. It was a situation where we were just split. 

So I'm working with, at this point, the league because we have to notify them of when situations like this happen. They then had to get with the Players Association [PA] because we've never had a situation where guys have wanted to drive themselves home after a match, so we needed to make sure that that wasn't against CBA rules [Collective Bargaining Agreement] or PA guidelines or anything like that. So I'm working with a number of different people while also making sure that guys that are booked on this flight, have it paid for with this card, and what about the bags? What are we going to do with that? Then I had to make sure that our coaches were taken care of with the rental cars that we were booking. 

We had everybody get back to Indy that day, but we had three different rental cars. Two were filled with players and assistant coaches. Then that resulted in me and Josh Frankum getting to drive back from Charleston with all of the bags in our rental vehicle filled to the brim to the point where we couldn't see out our rear view mirror.

I think that gives you an idea of the crazy situations that I deal with in terms of travel.

Game Beckons: Anything else you would like fans to know about your job?

Shelby: I want fans to know that working in sports, and specifically in Team Operations, isn’t always as glamourous as it seems (especially in the lower divisions). However, as cliché as it sounds, the tech staff and coaches become a second family during the season and I feel so lucky that I have a such good group of people to surround myself and spend 10 months with. Each season feels like its own war with each match being its own battle, and I couldn’t ask for a better team to go to battle with week in and week out. There have been times where our staff is working 50+ days without a break, all so our Boys in Blue can be as prepared as possible to go 90 minutes at the weekend and walk off the pitch with 3 points. We go above and beyond for our guys, work ourselves to the bone, miss holidays with family, operate on such little sleep it should be illegal, all for the hopes of lifting a trophy with our team at the end of the year. Remember the behind-the-scenes people who help the team run as smoothly as possible, and give us a thank you (or buy us a coffee) every once in a while. 

    I also just want to take this time to thank you for allowing me to answer these questions. I think it's important that fans and, even the players honestly, get an inside look as to what I deal with on a regular basis. They see it, but they don't necessarily get to see all the details, the nitty gritty stuff. So yeah, thank you.

Thank you, Shelby! It was really great getting to know more about you and the role you play for Indy Eleven. I appreciate you taking the time to answer the questions. It was interesting to be able to get the stories from the road. I think it's important for fans to be able to find out more about happens off the field for a lower division soccer team in America. I'm looking forward to getting some of the off-record stories when preseason officially starts in a few weeks!