1. TO: PROFESSOR QUINN
FROM: JENNIFER SOLANICS
DATE: 03/16/2011
SUBJECT: ATHLETIC TRAINING
Recently I interviewed two professionals in the field of Athletic Training, both from the
University of Toledo. One was my own team’s Athletic Trainer, Robyn Hafner, who is a
Graduate Assistant here at the university. The other is the University of Toledo’s Assistant Head
Athletic Trainer, Brian Jones. I chose these two people so that I could see the difference between
different positions and learn about the experiences getting to each one. Since Mr. Jones is the
head of the Athletic Trainers here at the university, I used all of his information for the “Agency
Background” section, which refers to the University of Toledo as the agency.
Professional’s Background
There is a lot of things that need to be done in order to obtain a job as an Athletic
Training (also known as an ATC- Certified Athletic Trainer). First, like most jobs, you need a
college education. For Athletic Training, you need a bachelor’s of science degree in Athletic
Training. This is a four year degree. Most universities do offer this degree. Ms. Hafner received
her bachelor’s degree at Eastern Michigan University in Ypsilanti, Michigan. After you graduate
with a bachelor’s of science degree in Athletic Training, you need to take the Board of
Certification (BOC) exam. This is what certifies you and makes you an ATC, assuming you pass
it. All states have their own rules, but in order for Ms. Hafner to be able to work in Ohio she had
to apply for a state licensure. Based on this, I would assume that there is a required licensure for
each state, but they all may differ. For Ohio, she had to go through a process that included a

2. written exam, a background check and fingerprinting. The licensure needs to be renewed every
two years.
As I stated earlier, both of the people that I interviewed work here at the University of
Toledo so both of their work environments are the same, but still extremely different. Ms. Hafner
is Graduate Assistant, which means she is the head trainer for a team but it is attending the
University of Toledo to get her master’s degree in Athletic Training. She does not have her own
room for her office but instead she has her own desk that is in a room shared by all the Graduate
Assistant Athletic Trainers. On the other side, Mr. Jones has his own office in the front of the
training room, and even a name plaque! They both work in the training room where there is
numerous tables to attend to athletes with and many tools to help them in rehabilitation. There is
S.T.E.M. (which helps relieve pain by sending electrical impulses), an ice bath, a pool with a
treadmill in it and they have free access into the weight room along with many tools to assist in
rehabilitation such as tennis balls, bozo balls, body blades and more. When it comes to
rehabilitation with the student-athletes, Ms. Hafner has a lot more contact with her athletes
whereas Mr. Jones has his Graduate Assistants and other coaches help his students in
rehabilitation.
Here at the university, Ms. Hafner is in charge of softball and Mr. Jones is in charge of
basketball as their main sports. Obviously, Mr. Jones has to oversee everything that is going on
because of position. He just doesn’t have to attend every team’s practices. Being an Athletic
Trainer, they both have to attend every practice, conditioning and weights. They need to be there
to supervise at all times in case someone gets hurt. Based on this, and the fact that teams can
practice twenty hours a week and have people in rehabilitation, Athletic Trainers put in a lot of
hours. With Ms. Hafner, she has three students who are currently here majoring in Athletic

3. Training, and they have to attend every practice that they can make it to and all the home games.
Ms. Hafner will go to all the games, including the away games, and it is all paid for for her. The
dress code for them is also quite different. Because Mr. Jones has such a high position, he has to
wear a suit and tie while he sits with the team on the bench during games. On the other hand, Ms.
Hafner wears a polo given to her from the Athletic Training department and khaki bottoms. This
is also due to the fact that she is on a softball field where there is a lot of dirt. She receives a lot
of clothing from the department including numerous polos, coats and a huge parka as well as the
clothing and shoes she receives from the softball team.
An Athletic Trainer’s responsibilities are what many people imagine they would be.
Their responsibilities are prevention, assessment, treatment and rehabilitation of injuries and
illnesses that occur to athletes. Prevention refers to many things such as therapy and providing
ice bags or stretching. Assessment means properly finding out what is wrong and how to fix it
when an injury or illness occurs. Treatment and rehabilitation is a wide variety of things from
medicine to crèmes to weights. They are also responsible for making doctor’s appointments for
their athletes and being at every practice and game. They can sometimes have to cover for other
Athletic Trainer’s practices or events. With Ms. Hafner still attending school, she has to schedule
her classes around her team’s practice schedule which can be very difficult. She basically lives
the life of a student-athlete because of having extremely early classes or extremely late classes
and basically has no free time.
Ms. Hafner and Mr. Jones both love their work very much. Ms. Hafner has previously
worked with high school students in the sports of soccer, baseball, and football as well as youth
camps. She likes working with college athletes better because of the maturity, competitive spirit
and the dedication. Some of the positives that they both agreed on was being around sports and

4. helping athletes. Ms. Hafner also said that other positives were that she could further her
education and that she has great co-workers and boss. The only negative that they both seemed to
come up with was the long, long hours. They didn’t even complain about body odor!
II. Agency Background
According to the University of Toledo Sports Medicine website:
The primary goal of the Rocket Sports Medicine Department is to
provide the best quality care to each and every student-athlete. The
staff is trained to provide quick, accurate evaluations and expertise
with the aid of excellent facilities and resources.
This purpose is fulfilled by having numerous Athletic Trainers and assistants for every sport so
that enough care can be provided at all times. There is a head Athletic Trainer for each sport as
well as 35 students who assist them. Also, as a result of the merger between the University of
Toledo and the Medical College of Ohio in 2006, there has been a lot better health care services
provided for the student-athletes here at the University of Toledo.
The Sports Medicine Department has many locations on campus. There is an Athletic
Training room located in Larimer, Savage Arena, and the Scott Park Campus. Most of the sports
use only one of the three facilities. Football is the only sport that uses the Larimer facility, seeing
as they are the only team that practices there. They also use the Savage Arena training room for
rehabilitation when needed. The only other sports that use two training rooms are the baseball
team, soccer team and softball team. This is because their fields are located at the Scott Park
Campus but they practice in the winter at Savage and the weight room is there. The Sports
Medicine Department serves every student-athlete and their coaches. The Sports Medicine gets
funding from the university, donors, government, and occasionally fundraisers.

5. III. Comparison & Summary Impressions
Honestly, I didn’t really learn much more than I already knew. I’ve been to enough
basketball games and seen Mr. Jones enough to already know what he does and of course I know
what Ms. Hafner does because she is my Athletic Trainer. I have also been in rehabilitation with
her so I know what that process is like as well. I didn’t know how much she really enjoyed
working with us, so that was really nice to hear. It was also nice to know that someone thinks
that we have maturity.
What I learned most from this, was that being an Athletic Trainer takes a lot of work.
Along with everything that we do, they are constantly working out as well to stay in shape. I
mean, be honest, I wouldn’t want or trust an Athletic Trainer who was out of shape or extremely
overweight. I think that people do not give enough credit to Athletic Trainers. The techniques are
not as easy as everyone thinks and they have to memorize a lot of symptoms and signs and know
what to do on the spot. I don’t know if Athletic Training is for me, but it is definitely interesting.
I wish that one didn’t have to put so much time into it, but I guess that is how all jobs go.