Essential to Health Care: Wellesley's Athletic Trainers Reflect on a Year Like No Other

By Miles Roberts, Director of PERA Communications and New Media

The Athletic Training Room at Wellesley College can get loud. Athletic Trainers everywhere are likely familiar with the feeling. The buzz of student-athletes seeking treatment is a positive sign that practices are going strong and game days are just around the corner, even if it can leave the Athletic Training staff with the occasional headache.

"I'm not saying that I love it when it's loud," chuckled Niki Rybko, Wellesley's Director of Sports Medicine and Well-being since 2015. "But it's just so quiet now."

On March 11, 2020, the NBA's postponement of a game between the Oklahoma City Thunder and Utah Jazz set off a chain reaction of cancellations across the sports world in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Wellesley's last practice of the spring was a day later and the Athletic Training Room closed shortly after that.

The lacrosse team gathered on the turf for the final time and Rybko and Assistant Athletic Trainer Autumn Overhiser supplied a feast of soon to be expired cheese sticks and mandarin orange cups from Athletic Training's refuel station.

"That last practice is one of my favorite memories," said Overhiser, who has been an Assistant Athletic Trainer at Wellesley since 2019. "We knew everyone was getting sent home, but it was nice to be outside, nice to be together with lacrosse."

Athletic training is important work. Athletic Trainers are well educated, essential healthcare professionals committed to helping student-athletes prevent injuries, stay healthy, and stay active. Now, when the health and well-being of so many student-athletes was at an elevated risk, it wasn't safe to be together.

"We're always around people, trying to help people," said Rybko. "What was I supposed to do now?" 

All smiles during fall sports media day in 2019 (center/Frank Poulin Photography), Overhiser attends to a student-athlete on the first floor of the Keohane Sports Center, while Rybko provides treatment in the Athletic Training Room (Macy Lipkin '23).

Rybko and Overhiser spent the next couple of weeks trying to figure out what they could do. While hardly a departure from the norm in the Athletic Training Room, was there any way to make things really normal or as Rybko quipped, "normal-ish"? 

They hosted "Live Loitering" sessions for student-athletes on Zoom, a lighthearted departure from Wellesley's "No Loitering" Policy in the Athletic Training Room (which traditionally encourages student-athletes to move along once treated to cut down on the congestion and, of course, the noise), Rybko crafted online wellness and mindfulness activities for student-athletes, and Overhiser put together a series of injury prevention exercise videos for social media. 

"The thought was, 'take a beat' and let everything settle, but I immediately felt like I had to do something," said Overhiser.

However, just as using canned goods as exercise weights while her dog Dolly strolled through the scene might suggest, it was anything but normal, and it definitely lacked the community of the Athletic Training Room or a day at practice.

As the academic year was wrapping-up in May, different plans started to take shape (again). Businesses reopened in Massachusetts, the weather got warmer, people were outside, and it became clear that testing and contact tracing would be key to supporting the well-being of campus communities. Of course, Rybko and Overhiser found a new way to help.

"I wanted to make us as available as possible, to help the greater community," said Rybko. "So I told [Wellesley's Medical Director of Health Service] Dr. Jennifer Schwartz that's what we wanted to do, if we could."

They could, and as a result Rybko and Overhiser were asked to don personal protective equipment (PPE) and assist with testing. A new experience in patient care for both, to say the least.

"I was learning things at the time… and I had my own anxiety," said Overhiser. "The PPE was a new experience, but I also felt bad for the people walking up to us. That's got to be intimidating! And I'm thinking, how do you make people comfortable in this situation?"

Overhiser with her dog during an injury prevention video, while (center) Rybko gives a thumbs-up prior to a testing day in the Davis Parking Garage, and Overhiser uses the departments's new sprayer to sanitize the Athletic Training Room (Macy Lipkin '23).

Despite the PPE and plexiglass, something unexpected happened: the Athletic Training Room community started to grow again. Rybko and Overhiser met people at Wellesley that they wouldn't have on the bottom floor of the Keohane Sports Center. In turn, others on campus learned what they do for the Athletic Department and saw the essential role they play in health care on campus. 

"It took a pandemic, but it was nice to show others all of the things we can do," said Overhiser.

As the duo rapidly got acquainted with the "whirlwind" of testing, as Rybko recalls, the precautions necessitated by the COVID-19 pandemic again shifted their responsibilities, moving one-on-one appointments to telehealth and fall pre-participation physicals outdoors. As limiting as these were, they brought back interaction with student-athletes and coaches.

"The Athletic Training Room became more like a clinic," said Rybko. "COVID took away the connection and the community, but then we started doing what we are doing now, and we had the appointments, it just felt so good to do what we do, even in a different way."

Slowly that community has continued to come back. The return of juniors and seniors this spring has brought back a familiar energy and new optimism. 

"I hope we are on our way back to normal," said Rybko. "But who is to say what normal is? Life in the Athletic Training Room and Athletics will resemble what it used to look like, things are just going to look different... but we'll be able to do the same things."

Things have certainly looked different over the last year in Athletic Training but that hasn't slowed Rybko and Overhiser's passion for helping student-athletes to be happy, healthy, and successful.

"I just think the student-athletes and this department are going to be pumped to be together and do our thing," concluded Rybko.

Whatever things look like, here's hoping that familiar noise returns to the Athletic Training Room.

Supported by the National Athletic Trainers' Association (NATA) and Colleges, high schools, and athletic programs throughout the country, March is National Athletic Training Month. National Athletic Training Month is held every March to spread awareness about the important work of athletic trainers. The NATA is the professional membership association for certified athletic trainers and others who support the athletic training profession. Founded in 1950, the NATA has grown to more than 45,000 members worldwide today. To learn more, visit nata.org.