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Poplar Bluff football team manager was back on sideline after being named homecoming queen
Addison Kirkman has been a fixture on the sideline at Poplar Bluff football games the last few seasons, serving as a team manager.
So after the senior was named homecoming queen Friday night, there she was in a full-length dress wearing her tiara while handing out water bottles during a timeout.
“I took all my pictures and did all that and I was like, alright I’m bored and just came over,” Kirkman said. “I’m used to being in the middle of all the action now.”
Kirkman said she nearly fell at one point, getting her foot caught in her dress, but managed well enough.
“It was really cool,” Mules coach David Sievers said. “The kids were all out there when she got announced homecoming queen, gave her a big hoorah.”
During any other week, Kirkman takes care of switching out the game ball, helps with water during breaks and in the past helped with filming. She’s one of a handful of managers that help the team every day at practice while the full crew starts working two hours before kickoff on game days.
This year the crew consists of Kirkman, Lydian Sanders, Koryenna Williams, Lizzie Grissom, Zoe Freeman, Willow Luke, Destiny Jackson and Kilah Adams.
“It’s nice because we’ve never had real good strong managers that stick with us,” Sievers said. “They all do a good job. It’s good having them around.”
Assistant coach Jeff Mannon, who takes care of the video for the team, recruits students to help film and work the sideline. The team needs camera operators behind the end zone, atop Mules Stadium and in the coach’s booth while on the sideline two or three managers keep up on the demand for water or help with anything a coach, trainer or player might need.
“You just got to be ready to jump because they may need something,” Kirkman said.
As a freshman, Kirkman didn’t know much about football when she came to a scrimmage with a friend, who was a manager at the time. She was asked to help with filming and ended up operating the end zone camera that season.
“Coming into high school I didn’t even know that there was four downs in football,” she said. “I’ve learned a ton. I’ve kind of learned what some of the terminology is and even learned some of their plays.
“When they yell stuff I’m like what does that mean and they tell me.”
Kirkman, who is on the swim team, said she was nervous the first game she was in charge of switching out the game ball. Prior to each game she gets with quarterback Kannon Carr and kicker Chandler Beaton to find the ball that will work best for them, adding that it changes every game.
Following graduation, Kirkman plans on attending Ole Miss and would like to continue to be a manager there.
“It’s just a lot of fun,” Kirkman said. “The coaches create a good environment for us and just kind of mixing it up with the guys is fun.”