Inside the busy lives of Chapman’s athletic trainers

Center, trainer Ashley Raciak. Despite their small staff size, Chapman’s athletic trainers manage to successfully treat a range of athletes by making themselves available at nearly all times. Photo courtesy of Larry Newman

There are 22 different athletic teams at Chapman. Hundreds of games are played over the course of a single semester. Hordes of student-athletes frequent Wilson Field, the Harold Hutton Sports Center and the Lastinger Athletics Complex – and yet, there are only four athletic trainers to provide assistance.

“It’s hard. We’re understaffed, which is not uncommon for Division III,” said head athletic trainer Pam Gibbons.

At any given moment, trainers are hopping between conducting injury prevention exercises, paperwork and helping players with post-surgery recovery. Their days can start covering practices at 6:30 a.m. and end in the afternoon, can begin around noon and go late into the night covering games, or anything in between.

“It’s not your typical 9 to 5 desk job,” said trainer Ashley Raciak. The training team emphasizes the concept of “triage” — helping those the most in need first — as well as giving priority to sports that are in season. They also focus on teaching athletes healthy habits and exercises that they should do at home as well as fixing problems.

However, they try to treat student athletes holistically, supporting them emotionally and developing strong personal relationships in concurrence with attending to their physical needs. They are incredibly hard workers with busy schedules — because they have to be. There are designated training room walk-in hours, often in the afternoon, but the trainers nonetheless make themselves available most of the day even when they aren’t officially “open.” If students email Gibbons that they aren’t able to come in during walk-in hours, she makes sure they are accommodated.

“You try to make sure that you give each individual kid attention, but also make them as self-sufficient as possible,” said trainer Emma Belson.

With a high student-to-trainer ratio, it can be difficult to make sure that everyone is getting the help they need.

“I would love to have more staff. Even one or two more people would really help,” Gibbons said.

Yet despite the workload, many National Collegiate Athletic Association Division III trainers choose DIII because of a desire to have more of a work-life balance. And all in all, Chapman’s trainers describe their work as extremely fulfilling. Raciak talked about working personally with members of the baseball team, helping key players like Brad Shimabuku return to games from back spasms during their 2019 national championship win. Belson talked about the emotional fulfillment of the work as well.

“My job is to make their lives easier,” Belson said. “Anytime that you can put someone back on a field and watch them be successful in a thing they love, that’s a big victory for me and for them.”