If you’ve looked at the sidelines during a Northwood athletic event during the past few years, you may have noticed spots of light blue in the sea of green and gold. These spots of blue are students at UNC-Chapel Hill (UNC) spending their time learning about athletic training.
As a part of UNC’s major to become an athletic trainer, students need to spend a certain amount of hours working with a high school athletics team to learn the ins and outs of helping athletes. The students have a course called Clinical Experience, and they receive credit for helping out high school teams. They assist with diagnosing players, getting water ready and more.
Heather Fowler is a junior at UNC and has been the student on staff this football season to help evaluate and treat injuries. She says working at a high school has given her a chance to practice her clinical skills and has made her more confident while working with players.
“As a part of our athletic training program we’re required to do a full semester at a local high school,” Fowler said. “I had heard great things about Ms. Harpham, so I asked to be assigned to Northwood.”
Jackie Harpham is the head athletic trainer at Northwood. She helps treat injuries of players from all sports and makes sure they are properly hydrated. Harpham was connected to the program when she got her master’s degree at UNC.
Over the past few years, Harpham has had one to two UNC students in the first semester and two to three students in the second semester. These students are at practice every day with the teams and lift the load off of Harpham’s shoulders.
“They help me immensely,” Harpham said. “Being one athletic trainer in a high school is nearly impossible by myself, but they give me an extra set of eyes and hands to help out injured players the best we can.”
The trainers stay for one semester, and they get to know many students at Northwood during that period. Harpham has a program where Northwood students can be trainers for teams alongside the UNC students, and they can learn from each other.
“It’s been a great experience getting closer to the trainers over the years,” senior Jordan Gorry said. “I want to go into athletic training in college, and talking to them about the programs and what you have to do has been super helpful.”
The students spend most of their time helping injured players get back to full strength when Harpham is busy. They set up plans to follow and help the injured players stretch so they can get back on the field as soon as possible.
“They spent a lot of time with me,” junior football player Nate Little said. “I had a season-ending injury and had to do a lot of rehab, and they stuck with me to create workouts and stretch the best I could to let me come back at 100 percent.”
UNC students spend a lot of extra time at Northwood, learning more about themselves and what it takes to be an athletic trainer.
“I’ve really enjoyed my time here at Northwood,” Fowler said. “I’m going to miss it a lot.”
– By Jonathan Robbins
