Eagles' training camp: It's the Birds' East Coast offense

For the past 8 years, on scorching days much like this one, Hatfield has assumed the arduous task of overseeing the transport of all things football - and some that aren't - from the team's headquarters in South Philadelphia up to Lehigh University, the site of Eagles training camp since 1996.

"We'll take probably a quarter of the weight room, all of the training room and most of the equipment out of here at NovaCare and out of the [Lincoln Financial] stadium," Hatfield said. "We've been at this for about a week and about 21 trucks have already been packed and sent up, plus a couple of tractor trailers that went up with all the field stuff on it."

With the first batch of players expected to report Tuesday, Hatfield and his team of assistants along with a 20-man crew from New Jersey-based moving company Transtar Moving Systems are working overtime to ensure that hundreds of bins containing balls, shoes, socks, pads, video equipment, playbooks, and various workout machines find their rightful place and are ready and waiting for those who need it.

"Hey, fact is it's my responsibility to make sure these guys have what they need all season," Hatfield said. "It's a job I take a lot of pride in, and I don't need much praise."

In fact, Hatfield mentioned that not hearing the complaints of players, coaches and members of the front office is all the reassurance he needs to know everything's all right.

Hatfield's end of the process starts at the NovaCare Complex, but once it all arrives, assistants Greg Delimitros and Kenny Slough oversee the unpacking and placement of all equipment and materials.

Some of it requires more people to move than others. The university possesses its own extensive weight room that the players use, but there are still specialty pieces of equipment that strength and conditioning coaches demand. According to assistant strength coach Jay Merlino, 17 pieces of specialized Nautilus, Cybex and various leg and shoulder press machines make the trip. That enables Merlino, strength coach Mike Wolf and others to focus on strengthening problem areas that arise due to the rigors of camp. He also noted that some of the pieces are brought up just due to the sheer size and weight of some of the players themselves.

"Mike [Wolf] will design a plan that we'll implement at Lehigh's weight room," Merlino said. "Within that plan we'll select which pieces of equipment we feel necessary to bring with us because we look at problem areas; things that are high risk where heavy contact takes place in the shoulders, neck and back."

The machines - many of which weigh more than the men moving it - are meticulously moved from the massive weight room of the NovaCare facility and into trucks under the watchful eye of Hatfield.

Starting Monday, Eagles fans will flood the hills at Lehigh to catch a glimpse of their favorite player prepare for the upcoming season. However, fans usually fail to realize that without Hatfield and the rest of the crew coordinating this leviathan task of lugging headquarters 60 miles to the north for almost 4 weeks, the real fun can't begin.

"They [the general public] don't really know the back side of it," said Hatfield. "It's definitely a lot [of work] and it takes, in a relatively short amount of time a lot of good people to go out and move the whole thing." *