England Women kitman details job challenge due to "massive" growth in game
England Women's kit man Kevin Fenner admitted the scale of his role has grown exponentially in recent years.
Fenner, a former RAF engineer who lives in Telford, has looked after the Lionesses' logistical operations since the 2015/16 season.
In the time since, with the significant growth of the women's game in this country and worldwide, his duties have multiplied tenfold.
Fenner visited Telford College's Wellington campus to speak to sport students about opportunities in football and detailed the huge operations challenge his work brings - none more so than this summer, when England head to Portugal for the European Championship in a bid to defend the crown they won in 2022.
“The Lionesses role has grown massively since those early years," Fenner said.
"My first trip with the senior team would barely fill one van, whereas now we are touching five tonnes of equipment for a normal international window – both by road and plane.
“Investment and support for the game is growing year on year. We will take in the region of eight to 10 tonnes of equipment to the Euros in Portugal this summer, much of which will go out ahead of the team to make sure it’s all ready for their arrival.
“That’s everything from match kit to medical equipment, sports science and analysis equipment. Balls, bibs and cones to medical scanners, physiotherapy equipment and cameras for video analysis – it can be a huge logistical task.”
He is not the only senior England kitman with a Telford connection. Pat Frost, 'Kitman Pat', has been in charge of England men's kit and equipment for a number of years and has been involved in memorable runs deep into tournaments.
Fenner has a background in operational planning and training with the Royal Air Force, including several years at RAF Cosford. He admitted his role came about in a rather unorthodox way. He said: “I got my job, strangely as it sounds, through Twitter. I followed a few kit men and got talking to one of them, and it sort of went from there, working my way up the ladder.
“I didn’t really want to make the presentation about me – it was more a case of showing the students that there are so many more roles available in football than just on the playing or coaching side.
“My role is all about prep - sorting out what’s required to be sent out to a venue, doing customs paperwork. It’s very much a logistics job really.”
Level three sport student Liam Downing said: “It was amazing to hear how many people are involved behind the scenes in internationals. It’s not just the week or two of a game, it’s everything that has to be sorted for weeks beforehand.”
Fellow student Ethan Wynn added: “Everyone wants to be a professional footballer if they can, but Kevin showed us that there are multiple jobs available in the sport if that doesn’t work out.”
Sports lecturer Jason Jones said: “It’s really important for our students to get an understanding of all the work that goes on behind the scenes – yes, most of them want to be footballers, but this showed them how many different jobs there are in just one team.
“The variety of jobs out there in sport is incredible, and it’s only getting bigger.”
