The athletic training room is where students can go to recover after an injury. Rachel Flanders and Mary Stein are the two professional athletic trainers who work in the Dixon Center to ensure the safety of all the athletes.
Joey Dalfo, junior exercise science major, said “Mary and Rachael are always ready to help with whatever athletic problems you come to them with.” Flanders has been an athletic trainer since January 2011 and has been at Cabrini since April of 2011. Stein has been an athletic trainer since August of 2007 and she has been at Cabrini since February of 2010.
Due to the amount of student-athletes at Cabrini, the training room can get hectic with players coming in and out for treatment. “The best time of day for athletes to come visit is between noon and 2:30 p.m. because that is when we have downtime before practices and games that are scheduled,” Flanders said.
However there are specific purposes the training room holds. “Student athletes should come to athletic center after an injury because if there is something that has been nagging them for a while it is important that they come see us to get it taken care of,” Stein said. “Sometimes athletes can also come in and ask questions about nutrition and ways to stay healthy.”
They have around 300 students come through their doors and they interact with 75 percent of the student athlete population throughout one year. Flanders and Stein also have many challenges that they have to deal with throughout the day including scheduling, telling a player that that they cannot compete for a particular reason. Flanders has a special insight because she was a collegiate athlete for four years, having competed on the West Chester University varsity swim team. Having this experience gives her some insight into what is going through the athletes’ head if they get injured. They help injured athletes frequently and when they see someone go down on the field they usually try to help them stay calm. “They look to us for a sense of reassurance to see if everything is alright,” Flanders said.
For Stein and Flanders it is difficult to balance work and a personal life. The summer is especially challenging because they do different things throughout the year and usually work nights and weekends. It’s also hard for them because their schedules change all the time. Time management, sympathy and empathy are important traits that you need to have as an athletic trainer. Stein said, “I hate when things are not organized” They have to complete a lot of insurance paperwork before an athlete goes out to play.
Stein was brought up around sports and she knew that she wanted a career in healthcare. She worked with an athletic trainer when she was injured. Flanders knew she had wanted to do something involving sports, and did not realize until her senior year of high school that she had wanted to be an athletic trainer. “Being in a small close knit community such as Cabrini, we know the athletes on a personal level,” Flanders said. “And we have a relationship with them where you can level and talk to them.”
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