By Josh Staloch
Contributing Writer
GREEN BAY – Shane Schick has been an equipment assistant with the Green Bay Packers for 24 seasons now.
His responsibilities with the organization are numerous and crucial to what happens behind the scenes on gameday.
He was with the team for its most recent Super Bowl win; he’s seen coaching changes and the switch from a once-in-a-generation quarterback to another once-in-a-generation quarterback.
He’s got a lot of great stories to tell, but the one that puts the biggest smile on his face is how, at the start of the 2022 season, his daughter, Alexis, joined the crew as the team’s referee assistant.
The start
In the late 1990s, via his job in the healthcare industry, Shane got to know Assistant Equipment Manager Tom Bakken. Schick and Bakken’s wife were working together as she got her start in the world of insurance and through that relationship, Shane became close with Tom.
Schick said that one Saturday Tom called him and said, “Hey, I’ve got 100 pairs of cleats here that need to be laced up and spikes put into them for minicamp. Would you be interested in coming in to help out with that?”
“So I came in, helped Tom lace up a bunch of cleats and then Red (Equipment Manager Gordon “Red” Batty) came up to me and asked what I was doing the next day,” Schick said. “He asked if I could come back and help get some helmets ready, put decals on them, attach face masks and things like that. And at the end of the day, he asked me if I’d like to make it a more permanent/part-time kind of thing. I said I’d love that and so, 24 years later, here I am.”
Along comes Alexis
Shane still works for United Health and between his two jobs, can easily put in 90 hours a week during the football season.
It cuts into family time.
Before the start of the 2022 campaign, a position with the game operations crew had become available and so Shane asked Alexis, who at this point had already spent a lot of time around the Packers growing up, if she’d be interested in coming aboard.
“So, Red knew that I was spending a lot of time away from my family and he thought, ‘How great would it be if we brought someone else from the family into the fold?’ He had met Lexi before as she had helped out with events occasionally in the past like the rookie photo shoot that takes place every season after the draft. All of the gear for new players gets shipped to our house and Lexi has been a big help in getting everything organized and distributed. This past offseason, it took her a good week to put a box together for each rookie containing their Green and Gold gear so it could be shipped to California so the players could be photographed for their rookie trading cards.”
Batty took note of Alexis’ work ethic and knew she’d be perfect for assisting with referees on the field during games.
Shane didn’t have to advocate bringing his daughter aboard.
She did enough on her own to prove herself worthy of the job and Batty knew she’d be a great fit.
Hitting the ground running
Alexis, a Bay Port graduate, also wants to get into the medical field but on the clinical side, possibly in radiology.
Her experience with the Packers so far has enhanced her work ethic and drive to succeed as she has no problem arriving five hours before the game and spending a good two hours afterward on cleanup.
One of her most exciting moments this season was working with Sara Thomas, the NFL’s first female official, hired in 2015, when her crew was in town for a Week 10 game against the Cowboys.
Alexis said she took extra special care of Thomas when her crew was in town and that Thomas was quick to return the favor, frequently asking Lexi how she was doing or if there was anything she needed help with.
“I really loved that experience,” Schick said. “She was the nicest lady and I think she did a wonderful job.”
Speaking of a wonderful job, it’s worth noting that Lexi’s position as referee assistant is unique as the Packers are the only NFL team to staff a person whose sole job is to tend to officials during games.
At the start of the season, she’s armed with fresh water and clean towels.
By Christmas, she’s equipped with hot chocolate and hand warmers, all of which are greatly appreciated by officiating teams at Lambeau Field.
A third Schick
Shane could likely write a book full of his best stories with the Packers, but one of his best tales is how his job with the Packers saw him miss the birth of his youngest daughter, Breeleigh.
“So, getting Lexi here has meant the world to me. When Breeleigh was born, I was in New Orleans with the team, this was back in 2008 for a Monday Night game,” Shane said with a pained look on his face, noting that the birth of his second child was supposed to happen a couple of weeks after this game against the Saints. “After we set up, I walked out onto the field and called my wife and she said she was doing fine. We can’t have our cell phones on during the game so I turned it off and put it in my backpack. So the game gets done, and it’s a flurry of activity to get things packed up and ready to leave. We get on the plane, fly back to Green Bay, land at 4 a.m. and start to get things unloaded. Now, had I turned on my phone when we landed…I probably could have just made it to the hospital on time. Baby was born at 4:40 in the morning.”
Needless to say, Shane credits his wife, Ann, for being tremendously patient over the years as he traveled all over the country for the job.
“So, to have family here now, with me, it means everything to me,” he said. “I’ve been flying solo for 23 years and now to have Lexi along is just unbelievable. I love this job. It’s changed my life, I really see how many things I’m blessed with.”
Lexi echoes her father’s sentiments on the job.
“I really love it,” she said. “I was a little bit shy at first but it didn’t take me long to get comfortable. It wasn’t overwhelming, everybody here has been very good to me.”
And, in light of events surrounding her birth, Breeleigh – who has helped out with rookie photo shoot duties just like her big sister did before officially joining the team – will no doubt be in line for a gameday position some day soon.