The helmet, pads, uniform and cleats are standard. They have been the tools of the trade for Scott McKillop for years.

But a football player -- a Pitt linebacker -- pulling on black tights, clown feet, large four-fingered gloves and a food-shaped costume?

Hey, what are interns for if the Pirates can't call on them on nights the fifth-inning Pierogi Race is short a runner?

Occasionally filling in as a pierogi is just one of many duties McKillop has this summer as a Pirates academic intern.

"I do a lot of the things you would expect an intern to do, but I get to do a lot of other things, too," McKillop said.

McKillop, a marketing major on track to graduate next spring, started May 2. He works at home games and two days a week when the Pirates are on the road.

He heard about the internship from someone in the Pitt athletic department who knew someone who worked for the Pirates. But he landed the internship through good interviews, not because he was an athlete.

"He doesn't have that aura about him at all," said Chris Serkoch, who is the Pirates' manager of special events and McKillop's boss.

"He takes initiative. I didn't know he was a football player at first."

For home games, McKillop arrives several hours before game time to help with various office duties, pregame activities and in-game promotional functions.

That's when he's not keeping up with his offseason workout program at Pitt, where McKillop, a redshirt junior from Kiski Area High School, is expected to succeed 2007 Washington Redskins sixth-round draft pick H.B. Blades as Pitt's starting middle linebacker this fall.

And when he's not attending Monday summer school classes.

And when he is not working as a lifeguard at the Pittsburgh Field Club in Fox Chapel.

Pitt and coach Dave Wannstedt are fine with McKillop's internship because he makes time to attend the grueling offseason conditioning sessions, often at 6:30 a.m.

He will have to end his internship in early August so he can concentrate on training camp, but Serkoch said McKillop will have more than enough hours to meet the internship requirements.

Until then, as long as it is not Monday and the Pirates have a home game, McKillop is there.

It's a two-way process. The Pirates get some extra help, and McKillop gets to see how the team and games are marketed and promoted -- not the easiest of tasks considering the team's string of 14 losing seasons.

"They have to try a little harder," said McKillop, a longtime Pirates fan. "I like everything about it, though. I love working here."

One home game earlier this season, McKillop's early chores included filling several All-Star ballot stations around PNC Park.

Then he headed out to Federal Street to help set up for a Western-themed Lady Bucs Club pregame tailgate party and work the entrance, handing out cowboy-boot-shaped shot glasses and answering questions.

A storm blew in, so McKillop helped consolidate the event under a large tent.

Well before game time, he moved to the far side of the stadium to the 24-hour security entrance, where he helped greet fans who would be throwing out the first pitches and changing third base after the third inning.

Once they were comfortably settled in to a green room, McKillop joined others from his department for dinner in the media lounge.

When it was announced the start of the game would be delayed by rain, McKillop returned to the green room to share the news, then watched how those in the marketing department did some troubleshooting related to the delay.

As the tarps came off the field, McKillop helped escort the fans from the green room onto the field for pregame ceremonies.

In the second inning, he went to the press box to meet that game's tour group and show them around. This game, though, the group canceled its tour, so McKillop moved on to the task of escorting a fan to the tunnel near third base so the fan could change the third-base bag while the grounds crew did a little field maintenance.

From there, McKillop scurried to a hall on the far side of the park near the right-field tunnel where three others already were preparing for the Pierogi Race.

On this night, he morphed into Cheese Chester. At 6 feet 2, 245 pounds, he towered over the other Pierogies.

Not to reveal all the race secrets, but some things are predetermined.

McKillop checked to see if there were any skits with the Parrot mascot planned. He was told the only instructions were that a certain other pasta pocket was not supposed to win.

That left the door open for McKillop's Cheese Chester to win, but with the limited sight from inside the costumes, he was just concentrating on finishing without getting hurt.

"It's not worth it," McKillop said.

That would be a conversation with Wannstedt that would haunt McKillop forever.