In here, everyone’s laughing and having a good time. In here, 2000’s throwbacks are on a constant loop. In here, athletic trainers Brad Kleine and Catherine Brown are hard at work.

According to the National Athletic Trainer’s Association (NATA), a trainer’s job is injury evaluation, injury management and injury treatment, but for Kleine, that barely scratches the surface.

He spends about 6 hours working on paperwork, taping players, rehabbing injured athletes and dealing with doctors and patients. But what they focus on most are the connections they build.

“As an athletic trainer, I’m the hub of having to farm people out to different areas trying to get them the best possible care,” Kleine said. “So we spend the time as best we can with them.’

Whether it was just taping them up before games or being there through every step of a major injury, the trainers are said to impact many of the people who have gone through there..

“It’s pretty great. They’re really supportive,” varsity football player Josh Bellamy said.

It’s easy to tell that the trainers and their aids absolutely love what they do. Everyone who deals with the trainers are impacted in some way.

“I’m busy all the time, I live at H-F. But I love it, and I think it’s created a lot of new friendships for me,” athletic training aid leader Paige Adams said. “It really just helps my leadership skills, it helps me be organised more, and forces me to be able to handle a lot of things that make me more responsible overall.”

The aids are there with the trainers at all times. They work alongside them in the office and they are on the sidelines with them during games. Working with the trainers breaks many of them out of their shell.

“It’s a lot of hard work and dedication. You have to like helping people, and you have to like being around other people,” Adams said. “You have to be willing to interact with people, and you can’t be scared to approach somebody who’s hurt or be willing to touch somebody and be all in their personal space. You have to be comfortable around other people because you work with a lot of people as an aid.”

It’s not just the current students who are impacted by the training office though. The alumni of H-F, such as Notre Dame baseball player and 2016 H-F alum Bryce Gray, are forever grateful for the trainers.

“Bard and Ms. Brown always had my back,” Gray said. “They always made sure I was good and they kept our spirits high.”

But it’s more than just the athletes being grateful for the trainers, the trainers are grateful for the athletes.

“I just completely fell in love with [training],” Kleine said. “I feel like I am blessed enough to actually be able to find my nitch, how my brain works, and what I’m good at.”