It all happened within a matter of minutes. Shortly after the U.S. women's national team qualified in October for the 2019 Women's World Cup, head equipment manager Ryan Dell hopped on a call with assistant equipment manager Jake Schoch to talk logistics.
How would they prepare and pack for nearly 100 people for one month in France? How would they make sure that the team is completely self-sufficient thousands of miles from its home base?
As they mulled over those questions, though, a revelation hit them both: They could use the team flights to slowly chip away at transporting more than 10,000 pounds worth of jerseys, soccer balls and gum (the players chew a lot of gum, it turns out).