Quiet please, athletic trainers at work

Injuries are going to happen in the game of football and that is the reality of playing the sport. In the end, it is a matter of the severity of the injury and the rehabilitation time to get healthy and back on the field.

CUW has faced a countless number of injuries that have affected the team. Student-athletes have missed practices and at times games, but the worst of the injuries have season-ending results. The Falcons have faced their fair share of adversity since training camp in August and, thankfully, they have a strong athletic training staff; one that helps them tackle adversity when it hits throughout the season.

Angi Steffen serves as the Director of Sports Medicine, as well as the Head Athletic Trainer for the football program. She, along with a staff that features four other full-time athletic trainers, four graduate assistant athletic trainers and numerous athletic training students, helps make sure all the Falcon athletic programs are receiving the best care possible.

Steffen and her staff work with the football team on a daily basis and they have certainly been busy this season. The Falcons have been riddled with injuries and 13 players have gone down with season-ending injuries, which has forced to team to start 40 different players through seven games.

Now, those 13 season-ending injuries are just a fraction of the bruises, sprains and other setbacks the football program has dealt with throughout the past three months. No player makes it through a football season without some sort of setback, something that would require attention from the athletic trainers. Steffen and her staff make sure they balance how to treat the season-ending injuries versus the active players who require attention as well.

"We reserve our afternoon treatment sessions for the active roster," Steffen said when referring to the balance of handling all injuries. "That time is used to get the players ready for practice; perform evaluations, treatments, rehabilitation and other things."

Finding a balance and having a strong lead athletic trainer, such as Steffen, are two key things for the Falcons to stay as healthy as possible throughout the 2015 campaign. However, another important aspect not to be forgotten are those helping with the program. From the full-time staff to graduate assistants to athletic training students, the Falcons are fortunate to have a large staff of medical professionals working with all of their teams.

"Without our athletic training students, I would lose my mind and our student-athletes wouldn't receive the incredible care that they do," said Steffen. "The educational program at CUW is an invaluable asset to our student-athletes and athletic programs."

The athletic training program certainly is valuable to the athletic teams on campus, but it is just as valuable to the students who go through it. Not only do they receive a difficult academic workload, but they also gain incredible experience working with teams and coaches. Students who study at CUW earn experience that can help them land jobs down the road and they can also graduate from CUW with a Master's Degree in five years, which is unrivaled by most programs across the country.

"Experience and feedback are really what make our students grow and help us mentor them," said Steffen. "We have such a wide variety of athletic teams here at CUW that our staff and students get so much exposure to different sports and the different injuries that each presents."

Of course, the experience the athletic training staff receives can really only be beneficial when working in an athletic department that features a dependable model across all facets. Unfortunately, it is not always that case at all institutions; but athletic trainers, coaches, student-athletes and everyone involved must understand their role to make for one cohesive working unit.

"Our athletic department at CUW is something to be proud about," Steffen said. "There is no divide between the athletic department and the athletic training department. We understand what a coach's role is and they understand ours and that is the only way to run a successful program."

The Falcons certainly have many successful athletic teams; well in reality they have success because of the athletic training program and their ability to keep student-athletes healthy and playing day-in and day-out. The on-field success for many of the CUW teams can't be overlooked. What, unfortunately is often overlooked is some of the reasons for that on-field success. The athletic training staff is most often unnoticed because of their work behind the scenes and they are often only seen when running on the field to attend to an injured play.

However, CUW athletic trainers are more important than most people know and they need to be commended for giving student-athletes the ability to overcome an injury and help the team put another check in the win column.