From 5 a.m. Monday to 10 pm. Friday, an athletic trainer’s job is still not finished. While they aren’t the ones the crowd is at the game to see, they still help to keep the game going.
Senior Vivian De La Rosa experiences this first hand. After leaving soccer and joining the trainers last year, De La Rosa is still getting accustomed to what all comes with athletic training.
“I was doing soccer my sophomore year, but I was so done with soccer, yet I still wanted to be involved,” De La Rosa said. “One of my friends was an athletic trainer and I was like, oh that seems cool.’ So I applied and went through with tryouts and I made it. Although, It ended up being different than my expectations because I thought it’d be more of like a job, duty, kind of thing, but it’s more like you get there and do what you are told to do. It’s definitely different from what I thought when I applied.”
Athletic trainers put in long hours to help athletes stay healthy, not only on game days, but throughout the week. While this is important for the players, all of the hours dedicated to their passion is often overlooked since they aren’t the ones performing. Although, De La Rosa doesn’t have a problem with this as she finds a different joy in working behind everything.
“It’s kind of funny being behind the scenes. You get to see the football players do their own thing,” De La Rosa said. “It’s exciting to see us win, and see the excitement on the field. It’s way different than when I was in the stands because it’s more lively and I didn’t know much when I was in the stands, but now that I know what’s going on and who everyone is it’s a lot easier to enjoy.”
While De La Rosa enjoys being the one on the sidelines, there are things that go on on the sidelines that almost drove her away at times.
“The dynamic for training for softball last year compared to football this year is super different, maybe it’s because we were training all girls in softball in comparison to football, so we would all get along with each other, but this year with football the dynamic is on and off,” De La Rosa said. “Things can get pretty hectic and it can be hard to focus on the task at hand, which is taking care of the players.”
The trainers received punishment following the ongoing assumption from the coaches who believe the trainers became distracting to the players. Whether involved or not, this altered how they were able to complete their job.
“Trainers lost the privilege of going out to the field 4th period because we became a distraction. This makes it a little harder to do our job and it gets boring because we aren’t even with the athletes,” De La Rosa said.
While this was a concern for football season, De La Rosa is now moving into training for her winter sport, basketball. While football involved all of the trainers due to the multitude of players, winter sports only take one trainer per sport. De La Rosa praises this change following the drama-filled football season, so she can get back to doing what she loves and continuing her passion as an athletic trainer.
“I prefer when we train for sports individually because I have more responsibility, but for myself and to get my job done,” De La Rosa said. I’m more focused on myself and not everyone else. Not having to worry about other people makes it easier and more efficient for me to get my job done.”
