Castleton Spartan

Issue date: 12/6/06 Section: Sports

Media Credit: Janet Perron Zach Briggs gets his ankle wrapped by athletic trainer Megan Robitaille.

At the end of a narrow hallway next to Glenbrook gym, athletes who walk through the door into the athletic training room are greeted by a full body skeleton hanging on a pole, its feet dangling just above the floor.

Posters of muscles hang on the wall above a row of green tables with Spartans stitched into the sides. The counter opposite the mats is lined with jars full of gauze and cotton balls and a small metal container filled with sterile scissors. Behind the closed cupboards and drawers are pre-wrap, tape and other supplies to treat injured athletes.

"This will help you find out if you want to do it or not," said senior Derek Deyong of the 800 hours each athletic training major must complete in the athletic training room before graduation -- not to mention five clinical experiences with Castleton sports teams and an off campus experience as well.

"On campus you know everyone," Deyong said, adding that working off campus with the Rutland High School football team, "it was interesting too see how to build relationships" with athletes.

Deyong said football has the most injuries, but hockey has a lot as well. Deyong, in an Easton Hockey sweatshirt, shorts, sneakers and a baseball cap, spoke of how he played Castleton hockey for three years, but took this season off to stand on the sidelines to fulfill his athletic training requirements. Deyong said he has to be "watching the injuries and not watching the game" because players often don't tell the athletic trainer if they are injured out of fear of being benched.

Each home game has a certified athletic trainer and possibly a student trainer, but because hockey is such a contact sport, certified athletic trainer Josh Englebretson travels with the men's hockey team to away games. Englebretson is often found in his office in the training room and interacting with students and athletes. There were a few laughs among students junior Megan Robitaille and sophomore Hilary Delp about having to cough up 25 cents to Englebretson every time they call themselves trainers instead of athletic trainers. Englebretson said it is because they are not dog trainers or circus trainers -- but trainers for athletes.

Continued...

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