INSIDE LMU
Athletics medicine:
T
A Hub of Activity.
he busiest place per square foot on the campus of Loyola
“And it is not just my staff. It is the students that make this place
LMU’s on campus commons area, the Lair, University Hall or
great. The student-athletes care and respect what we are doing. With
the LMU bookstore. It is the LMU Athletics Training Room.
21 sports and just three trainers, it can get difficult in seeing to every
Right around 1,000-square feet, the LMU training room at any giv-
need of the athletes. But the students understand and respect each
en moment in season is what Head Athletics Trainer Keith Ellison calls
other and make this place very, very successful now and in the fu-
“organized and controlled chaos.” In the height of its busiest time of
ture.”
the year, when all 21 LMU NCAA Division I sports are in action, the Training Room can make a casual onlooker dizzy. However, Ellison, his three full-time assistants, Joe Gonzalez, Beth Drayer, Steve Cortez and 15 student assistants make it look easy. In his 16th-year at LMU and 10th as the Head Athletics Trainer, Ellison and his staff have turned the LMU training room into a model for the school’s main conference affiliate, the West Coast Conference.
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person as a whole.
Marymount University is not what one would think. It is not
On a given day, the Athletics Training Room will see about half of the 325 student-athletes at LMU. A given day will include lots of paperwork, therapy for student-athletes recovering from injuries that keep them out of competition, appointments with doctors and preand post-practice needs. “Our mission is to eliminate the chance for injury. We stress the use of ice and strength and conditioning to reduce the risk of injury.
“This is a great place to be because of the people,” said Ellison,
Thus, the traffic in our training room can get very heavy throughout
who graduated from LMU in 1987. “The full time staff we have here
the day,” said Ellison, who has been busy this year. “We have had a
is the best in the conference. We have the right personalities for LMU
lot of different injuries with many different teams. Because of that we
and they all genuinely care and are concerned about the student-
have had a lot of traffic in our training room doing rehab and doing
athletes, not just for their injuries and sports they play, but for each
the normal stuff to prepare for practice or games.”
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