How do you become a student trainer?

So basically, you come into the trainers, you talk to Russ, Aaron, Joe; they’re all real trainers here, and you ask them for a form, or you can go online to the website. Look up on Google: Barrington Athletic Training. Go onto the website and there’s a tab that says student trainer. You print it, fill it out, give it to them. They’ll review it-it’s basically just to see if they like you and if they like you, you’ll be able to make it, so it’s pretty sweet.

What kind of training do you go through?

We learn basic tape-jobs which are really big because of all the congestion here, especially with all the sports going on; football, volleyball, and everything. There’s a lot of just congestion so it will help with taping ankles, wrists, and anything really. Then we’ll also do, like, we’ll clean up, help hook people up to the stim machines. You know, get water out. Like tennis, we have to bring water and walkie-talkies out there. If there’s soccer, we’ve got to bring water and walkie-talkies out to the field. That’s basically most of what we do.

Why did you choose to become a trainer?

Well, for me, Madi Rosen, another trainer, she was a really big inspiration of why I wanted to do it. Because she’s just really cool and I thought it was sweet how she could tape an ankle and I couldn’t. And also I got hurt this year, for football, so I’m not playing anymore this year, so I was like I could help the team out and other people if I was a trainer so I could tape [and] I could help out that way. I did it just so I could help out and also I want to do something in physical therapy, maybe something in that field for college. So, that’s also my reason to do it.

What opportunities could it create for you in the future?

From what I know from talking to colleges, just having volunteer stuff is really important, because this is all volunteer work. I guess if you’re interested in the field of, I don’t know, nursing or pediatric surgeon, I don’t know what it would be. It just gives you the feel of working with patients and other things like that, it’s just really good hands-on experience.

Are you planning on pursuing a career in the medical field?

Yes, well, not like medical field, I’m not trying to be a surgeon. I don’t have that type of GPA, but definitely something with helping people through recoveries and therapy. Especially because I’ve had so many injuries, I think it’d just be so cool to help people get back from them because people have helped me out in the past and I really look up to them.

What’s your favorite part of being a trainer?

For sure, just like getting really close with Russ, Aaron, Joe- they’re all awesome people. Also, just getting to be around athletes, and you get to be really close with them, so that’s pretty sweet. And because we’ll spend a lot of time with each other because when you get to the point where they let you come to games. You’ll get to be on the field with them and that’s really fun because they’re just a bunch of goofballs, and they’re all just really fun to be around.

What exactly do you do during the games?

Hopefully, we do nothing, but if there’s say an injury, like, I know in Filly Football two years ago, a girl like broke her neck, like you’d get some experience. One of the other student trainers, Dom -he wants to go into nursing- it’s like that experience of being with a patient who are in distress, so you get that first-hand experience of how to react. Like what you should say [and] not say, because, well, Russ is going through everything and he’s showing us, he’s also teaching you, without taking away his care for the patient, as well as teaching you what to do, what to say, what not to say, and how to just stay calm in stressful situations.