The Man Who Keeps Our Sports Teams Clean
Equipment Attendant Troy Holloway Runs the Athletics Laundry Room, Washing Uniforms and Practice Clothes
With 35 athletic programs, St. Lawrence University has plenty of team uniforms — uniforms that SLU athletes dawn in competition at least once a week during their seasons.
Unlike high school athletics, SLU athletes have the luxury of getting their unforms washed on their behalf. Troy Holloway, an equipment attendant in the athletics department, sees that those uniforms are ready to go for their next round of competition. He manages the athletics laundry room, which is located in the basement of Augsbury.
Holloway is originally from Massena, but now resides in Waddington with his family, which he said is “number one” in his life. When his daughter was growing up, he used to start work at 4:00 p.m., which meant he didn’t get to see her as much as he would have liked.
He said that he’s always been an early bird, so when he had the chance to come in early in the morning, freeing up time for family after work and school in the afternoon, he jumped on it. Now, he’s always up at 5:00 a.m. to head to SLU.
Besides just cleaning the uniforms, SLU athletics also launders clothes that student athletes wear to practice. “Not every school does laundry for their athletes,” said Holloway. “We’re one of the few that actually do all the teams laundry.”
Holloway said that washing everything became policy after SLU had a staph infection outbreak in the early 2000s.
Every student athlete at SLU has something called a laundry loop, a numbered cloth band that clips through the arm and leg holes of shirts, shorts and undergarments. Holloway said that sometimes students put non-athletic clothes on them to try and avoid doing laundry.
What those students don’t realize is that the washers and dryers SLU athletics use are industrially graded, which means they’re not designed to wash and dry nicer clothing items. “I’ve had dress shirts, I’ve had jeans, non-Saint Lawrence sweatshirts, just a personal sweatshirt,” said Holloway. “Those dryers get pretty hot, and me personally, I don’t like drying my own personal clothes on high heat.”
Another issue that comes up is students overloading their loops, or putting too many clothing items on at once. “It’s at their own risk, I have heard stories people whose loops get messed up or they break during the middle of the [laundry] cycle or something like that,” said Holloway.
He said that anytime that happens, personal items get added into a lost and found bucket just outside of the laundry room. “When it comes off your loop, it goes in that bucket and then you have to search through the bucket to find your stuff,” Holloway explained. “Would you be surprised that a lot of them don’t?”
When it comes to game uniforms, Holloway said that some are harder to clean than others. “Baseball and softball are the toughest, especially if they play two games back to back, they can get pretty grassy and clay” he said. “And those are white uniforms, so I’m like, how am I gonna get that clean, but I spend a couple hours on it, do what I can, and hope for the best.”
On the opposite end, sports like basketball, squash and track & field are a bit easier to get clean. “They don’t get dirty, they just get sweaty,” he said. “Just gotta wash them and hang them up and you’re good to go.”
Holloway grew up playing baseball and wrestling, so naturally he enjoys hearing all about how SLU athletes are doing, but doesn’t always get to. “Sadly, I don’t have as much time to sit down and get to know them like I did in the past,” he said. “Everybody used to come in to get their uniforms, so we’d be able to shoot the breeze with them, get to know them,” he said. “I don’t get to do that as much now. Some of the teams like to put their uniforms in their locker rooms instead.”
When most people think of SLU athletics, they think of the athletes themselves, whether watching them compete in person or looking at them in pictures. What they don’t always see is Holloway, whose work literally shows up to every athletics event, keeping SLU’s athletes looking good and playing good.