By Liam Reilly
@liampreilly852
When an athlete goes down with an injury, fans start speculating. Questions like “How long are they out for?” or “How bad is it?” run through their minds. Eventually updates will be released to the public, and the player returns to the game. What’s often unseen is the athlete’s journey to getting back to being healthy and the unsung hero that’s there to help them along the way – the athletic trainer.
Senior Erin Kelaher is a member of the women’s swimming and diving team and a student in the athletic training program. Kelaher dealt with several injuries, leading her to question their causes and how she could better protect herself. After taking an anatomy class, Kelaher combined the development of her passion for learning how the body works and her experience as an athlete to pursue athletic training.
Kelaher has seen her fair share of athletes at their best and worst. Season-ending injuries can be heartbreaking and destructive towards a person’s identity. A season derailed by injury can lead to tough conversations, but athletic trainers act as a support system, and letting athletes know that she’s by their side is what drove Kelaher to pursue a career in the profession.
“The biggest thing is having them know that you’re in their corner no matter what and that you are going to do everything in your power to get them back to where they want to be,” Kelaher said. “I think the best thing that we do for athletes is listening to them and allowing them to understand that their feelings are normal and reasonable. Helping them cope in a positive and healthy way is the most important thing we can do to get them on the right track.”
Something that Kelaher wants people outside of AT to know is how much athletic trainers truly care about the athletes they work with.
“We take a lot of our athletes’ pain to heart, we build these really good relationships because we see them at their worst,” Kelaher said. “Some people may or may not think that we go home and we’re fine when a lot of the time I go home and research things on how I can make this person better. The fact that we take a lot of what we do to heart all the time, and it doesn’t stop when we leave the office.”
Kate Pagnamenta is also a senior in the athletic training program and is in the professional phase of the program. In this stage, Pagnamenta is doing graduate level coursework while gaining clinical experience. Pagnamenta believes everyone thinks of athletic training as simply taping and water duty, when there’s so much more to it.
“We see these athletes every day, so there’s almost this mentorship aspect that comes with it,” Pagnamenta said. “We see our athletes after they have a bad day at class or they get a really good exam grade, and we’re working with them to get back to sport with all the mental tasks that that takes. We’re getting to know them on a personal level, and not a lot of people know that there’s a big internship aspect that comes with the job.”
The athletic training program at Springfield College is directed by Jessica Barrett, an associate professor in the major. Barrett has been invested in athletic training since her days as a high school athlete, and she graduated from Springfield in 2005 with a bachelor’s degree in athletic training. Barrett spoke on how the program helps students impact the campus.
“Our students are able to have an impact, both in the classroom and in being active participants in leadership organizations and groups on campus,” Barrett said. “They’re also doing their internships here and contributing to the health and well-being of our student athletes and their peers.”