Kenny Pleimann spent two seasons as the assistant director of equipment for the Fighting Illini football program from 2022-23. He assisted with the management of all aspects of the program’s equipment needs, including ordering, fitting, maintenance, laundering and inventory.

Pleimann helped Illinois to an 8-5 record in 2022 and its first January bowl game (ReliaQuest Bowl) in 15 years. The Illini were ranked in the AP Top 25 for five straight weeks, reaching as high as No. 14, and were ranked in the College Football Playoff rankings for the first time in school history.
 
Pleimann came to Illinois following two seasons as the associate head equipment manager for the football program at Colorado State during the 2020 and 2021 seasons. Prior to his stint with the Rams, Pleimann spent the 2019 season as a football equipment intern at Florida Atlantic. 
 
As a student at McKendree University in Lebanon, Ill. Pleimann began building towards his career as an athletics equipment manager, eventually earning a spot as the Bearcats’ head student equipment manager.
 
During his time at McKendree, Pleimann also worked as an equipment intern for the St. Louis Rams from August 2014 through January 2016, when the franchise relocated to Los Angeles.
 
From June to December 2015, Pleimann was as a student equipment manager for the football program at the University of Louisiana, Lafayette, and during the summer of 2018, he served as an Olympic sport equipment manager at the University of Kansas.
 
Pleimann, a native of Valley Park, Missouri, completed his undergraduate degree in sport management from McKendree in December 2018.