As high school sports come and go, athletic trainers don’t. They start their day early and end when the stadium lights shut off. They take care of every single athlete to the best of their ability in every single sport. And put in the extra work in school to become an AT. However, do some of them do too much? Do some of them not do enough? I have been through a fair share of ATs in my high school career, and I have various opinions.  

AT’s have multiple jobs. They provide tapes for athletes before every practice and game, watch every second of every game to make sure everyone is safe, fill water for teams, give exercises to athletes to help with their injuries, and more. Recently our athletic trainer has just returned from maternity leave and is back helping spring sports. Throughout this entire school year, we had a new AT almost every week. So, do some athletic trainers prevent athletes from returning to their sport because of their guidelines? Or is it absolutely necessary? I interviewed multiple athletes from the school to see what their thoughts on our athletic trainers are.  

The first interview I did was with senior lacrosse player Alexa Faber. She believes, “athletic trainers are a key part of athlete’s lives, supporting them every step of the way especially in the recovery process.” To follow up with another opinion, I interviewed junior Liam Bender and he says, “without the athletic trainers student athletes would have a lot more problems than just school.” 

The second interview I did was junior Evan Goss. He states that, “Without athletic trainers sports would not be the same. With AT’s students don’t have to worry about injuries and can focus on their sport and school.” 

Even though ATs bring more positives than negatives, I have had an amazing experience with an AT and I’m sure I am not alone. I had to get my ankle taped before practice because I rolled it the week before and the AT wrapped it so tight that I ended up with blisters on my heels.  

Everyone makes mistakes, and is everyone doing the best they possibly can. However, should guidelines be changed for athletic trainers? Because there are some AT’s who pride themselves on their job and others who barely do enough. But with AT’s life would be a whole lot worse for student athletes or a whole lot better.