Constantly preventing and handling injuries and helping athletes recover, CBU’s athletic training team is a key component of the success the athletes achieve.
The athletic training program has three main goals to help the athletes perform well in their sports.
“Our first goal is we try and prevent injuries for our athletes,” said Collin Gustafson, athletic trainer in charge of men and women’s swim and dive. “Following that, we do acute emergency care for injuries so we have to get on the field in competitions. Then our third (goal) is rehabilitation of injury once they have these acute injuries we are also trained to bring them from that injury.”
The trainers don’t only help athletes rehabilitate from injuries, they help them prevent on their own.
“They tell me not only what’s wrong (with my body) and fix it, but they also tell me what I have to do to keep it from happening again,” said Mathias Scarano, freshman industrial and systems engineering major and freestyle swimmer on the men’s swim and dive team.
During the season, athletes visit the athletic trainers routinely.
“I like to go two or three times a week for some massage, take an ice bath or use the recovery boots,” said Simon Bedard, junior business administration major and runner on the men’s track and cross country team.
Tough practice and competition schedules leave athletes fatigued. Trainers help them recover.
“It’s good for recovery,” Bedard said. “After big workouts and long runs, my muscle are really sore and I feel good after I take an ice bath.”
Athletic trainers are required to be CPR and first aid trained. Gustafson said they are capable of handling any type of injury or emergency from heart attacks to fractures.
“We are equipped to handle all life-threatening emergencies, but of course we always contact 911 and activate EMS to support us,” Gustafson said.
To be an athletic trainer, aspiring trainers have to graduate from a school accredited by the Commission on Accreditation of Athletic Training Education and pass the Board of Certification Exam for the state-wide certification. In 2022, all athletic trainers programs in the United States will be required to complete a masters program.
