SUPER BOWL: Local group to work security at Super Bowl LVII

Feb. 5—As he traveled home from watching Notre Dame play Oklahoma State in the 2022 Fiesta Bowl, Charlie Dries had an idea.

A criminal sergeant for the Schuylkill County Sheriff's Office, Dries is part of a group of local law enforcement officers that work for Apex Security at Philadelphia Eagles home games and other events at Lincoln Financial Field.

With Apex Security holding the contract for Sunday's Super Bowl LVII at the same State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona, as the Fiesta Bowl, Dries wondered what it would be like to work at a Super Bowl.

He never imagined his idea would turn into a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

Dries is one of five individuals — Jon J. Bowman, Scott Kramer, Joe "Bub" Connors and Scott Taylor are the others — who will serve as security officers at Sunday's Super Bowl LVII game between the Philadelphia Eagles and Kansas City Chiefs.

Just being at a Super Bowl is a dream for most football fans.

Getting to work the Super Bowl that features the fan favorite Eagles and Chiefs, with former Eagles coach Andy Reid and Mount Carmel graduate Brett Veach as the general manager ... priceless.

"We're in the third quarter and we're thinking ... Wow," Dries said Wednesday when the group gathered at the Citizens Fire Company in Palo Alto, where Dries in an assistant fire chief. "When the clock struck zero, we were like, 'There's no way this could be happening.' We just couldn't believe it.

"Never did we ever think the Eagles would be in the Super Bowl and we'd be working it."

Added Krater: "It's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. To see the Eagles and Andy Reid and Brett Veach, that's the icing on top of the cake."

The local group has to pay their own way (lodging, airfare, etc.) to the Super Bowl, which is where Dries' idea formed. His cousin, Stephanie Garland, is a Realtor in Gilbert, Arizona, roughly 20 minutes from Scottsdale and 45 minutes from the stadium and is providing the group a place to stay.

The group departs Tuesday morning from Newark International Airport and will remain in Arizona through Wednesday, Feb. 15, working various NFL events leading up to the Super Bowl before Sunday's game between the Eagles and Chiefs.

"We went down to a preseason game and I said, 'Jon, we got the contract to this year's Super Bowl. Let's do it,' " said Dries, 41, of Pottsville. "I called my cousin. She came home for my party over the summer and I said, 'These are the guys that are going to come (to the Super Bowl), do you mind? She said, 'No, the more the merrier.' "

Bowman, Connors, Dries, Krater and Taylor are part of a group of about 13 or 14 Schuylkill County law enforcement officers who have worked security at Philadelphia Eagles home games over the past 16 years.

The late Joe Lipsett and the late Keith Berezwick were in that group, along with Bowman's brother, Matthew, Dave Wapinsky, Barron Line, Roy Manbeck and Logan Jacoby, among others.

The connection between Schuylkill County and the Eagles started when Bowman, who was the Port Carbon Borough police chief for 26 1/2 years, was tired of trying to get Eagles' playoff tickets and attended an Eagles' training camp at Lehigh University in 2007.

"I went down to training camp at Lehigh and I saw a guy with a CSC shirt on," Bowman said. "I went over and gave him one of my business cards from Port Carbon police and said, 'Hey, are you hiring?'

"He said, 'You'd be good for our Apex group.' I didn't know what that was or what I was getting paid until I got my first paycheck. It continued on from there."

Now the captain of operations at the Schuylkill County Prison, Bowman is in his 16th season with Apex Security and is a supervisor. He's in charge of the Apex group called "Tac 13" that mans the upper-deck section of Lincoln Financial Field in the end zone along Interstate 95.

"The stadium is broken into different Tacs. I have a group that is assigned from Section 209 to Section 217," said Bowman, 57, who lives in Norwegian Twp. "Under Apex, that's called Tac 13. I generally have 10 agents working in that section.

"When you look at it from a whole, it's like a beehive with everybody going off and doing their thing. There's over 3,000 people that work game day doing different things.

"Everybody works together to make sure 69,000-plus people are having a good day. There's a lot of behind-the-scenes stuff that goes on."

Krater, the communications director at the Schuylkill County Communications Center, came on board after, during a supervisors meeting, Apex officials said they needed a dispatcher and asked if anybody knew one that would be willing to work.

Now in his 11th season with Apex, Krater works in a command post located in Pepsi Plaza under Lincoln Financial Field with a contingent of people that includes personnel from Apex, concession vendor Aramark, Philadelphia Police Department, Philadelphia Fire Department, security firm CSC, Wells Fargo Parking Authority, Pennsylvania State Police and several Philadelphia Eagles employees.

Unlike his Schuylkill County co-workers, the 62-year-old Port Carbon resident doesn't get to see the game live, only through cameras and television network feeds.

"Any type of situation that would require a response comes from the command post," Krater said. "For example, we get a report of a fight. We send our people, CSC sends their people and we go from there."

Dries began working for Apex Security in 2014, with Taylor and Connors starting in 2016.

Dries, Taylor and Connors begin their day working in the L Parking Lot on the Darien Street side of the stadium, standing at the entrance to the lot, making sure incoming vehicles have the right credentials to park there and checking vehicles for illegal devices. They then move to their assigned location in Tac 13 once the parking lot fills up.

The group arrives roughly five hours before kickoff and remains at the stadium until one hour after the game is over.

Taylor, 52, of Frackville, is a criminal captain with the Schuylkill County Sheriff's Office. Connors, who turns 64 today, is a retired prison guard after working 22 1/2 years at the Schuylkill County Prison.

"To become an Apex agent, you have to have some type of background in law enforcement or dispatch," Taylor said. "They do a formal interview process, do background checks."

Taylor, Connors and Berezwick worked Super Bowl LIV in Miami in 2020 between the Chiefs and 49ers.

"We didn't work inside the venue, but we worked all the events for the NFL Players Association, all the red-carpet stuff, the suit-and-tie events up to Super Bowl Sunday."

The local group is among 22 Apex agents from the Philadelphia branch that will work the Super Bowl. They will begin working Wednesday, providing security at NFL Players Association events and other Super Bowl-related parties. They have not been told what assignments they will be doing at the Super Bowl.

"We were just going out to work a Super Bowl to say we worked a Super Bowl," Bowman said. "We had no idea the season would go in the direction it did. Here we are.

"I'm excited. This is the game of all games, and to be able to work it, and being an Eagles fan, it's like the stars are all in perfect alignment for this idea Charlie hatched. And now we're getting to go to the Super Bowl."

Contact the writer: Lboyer@republicanherald.com; 570-628-6026; @pubsportsboss on Twitter