As teams change seasons, AT majors must trasition
As the seasons begin to change from fall to winter, so do the sports that go along with them. The Waynesburg University athletic trainers must then take on a whole new role with the different sports and athletes.
“The transition is tough,” said Erin Leaver, assistant athletic trainer. “Your schedule begins to overlap with two sports, and it becomes challenging to balance both.”
This is Leaver’s first year at Waynesburg University; she worked at Washington and Jefferson College last year while working toward her master’s degree at California University of Pennsylvania. Leaver worked with the women’s soccer team in the fall, and she is currently working with the wrestling team for the winter.
“She has been a really good influence on the students by helping all of us,” said Jacob Shultz, senior athletic training major. “She shows what the program should look like from a professional standpoint, along with other aspects.”
Besides the scheduling being difficult, Leaver mentioned that building trust with the athletes is also challenging. The benefit of working with a small Division III school is that the athletes can be known on a personal level.
“D-III is definitely a better experience than any other level,” said Leaver. “With the smaller schools you get to work with the athletes one-on-one, unlike Division I or II.”
Along with the athletes changing, the trainers get different students as well. When a new season of different sports is beginning to start, athletic training students change preceptors, or head athletic trainers.
“The transition from fall to winter sports is challenging because we change the athletes and preceptors,” said Joshua Hennigh, sophomore athletic training major. “Some preceptors do things different ways, so you have learn how they like to do things. You are also changing your schedule that you have been used to for basically the whole semester, so getting used to the new practice times takes a while.”
Time commitment is a big factor in athletic training. Not all of the students work with the different teams in action during the winter.
Some of these students work clinicals; they help in the athletic training room with a staff member and deal with various tasks. Some of these are physical therapy, while others can be just taping an athlete before practice.
The jobs vary for students based on the information and techniques they have learned. Leaver added some students are only capable of taping an athlete while others can do more in-depth procedures.
“The academic program is very strong,” said Leaver. “The students are prepared for the out of classroom experiences. [Program Director] Drue Stapleton gets them ready for the different sports and it makes working with the students a lot easier.”
Having a good academic and hands-on athletic training program at Waynesburg helps to make the transition from fall sports to winter sports a little smoother.