Athletic Training Room: worth the visit

On a normal day at Rose, if one looks around campus he or she is bound to find someone, if not multiple people, with plastic bags of ice Saran wrapped to various body parts. Where is all of this ice coming from? It is coming from the RHIT Athletic Training Room.

The Athletic Training Room is located in the lower level of the SRC. Rose has three certified athletic trainers on staff: Scott Keller, Kristen Cole, and Jim Nave. The Athletic Training room is open to varsity athletes Monday through Friday from 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. and from 1:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m.

The athletic trainers treat just about every imaginable injury. Trainer Kristen Cole states, “The most common injury we see is knee sprains. The second most is ankle sprains.” When asked what teams seem to have the most injuries, she replied, “Full contact sports, such as football and soccer, suffer the most acute injuries.” Of course, the best way to get over an injury is to not be hurt at all. “Be smart with physical activity. Make sure you get a proper warm-up and wear protective devices suggested for the sport.”

Rose is currently allowing students from ISU who are majoring in athletic training to come here to work on clinicals. Currently, ISU student Amanda Carroll is working in such a clinical. When asked how she became interested in athletic training, Carroll replied, “I was injured as an athlete in high school, so I had to visit the athletic trainer at my high school quite frequently.”

The ISU athletic training program seems quite rigorous. “We have clinical classes and educational classes. For your senior year, you are required to perform 300 hours of clinicals. In our clinical classes we go over tasks we learned in classes to make sure we can perform will in our clinicals.”

One may ask what one should do if he or she gets hurt but is not a varsity athlete. Cole explained, “If a non-varsity athlete is injured, he or she should go to the Student Health Center for an evaluation. The athlete may be treated by the athletic training staff if he or she is referred by the SHC [Student Health Center].

Being quite a klutz myself, I have spent innumerable hours in the Athletic Training Room and I have had nothing but positive experiences. The staff is friendly and professional. The facility is very nice. If you are hurt and debating on whether to see someone about it, I would suggest trying to get a referral to see the athletic training staff.