COLLEGE BEATS | ARTS AND SCIENCES
Just two years removed from earning a B.S. degree in Exercise Science at Fredonia, Audrey Yokopovich began the 2020–2021 NFL season with a realistic opportunity to pick up a Super Bowl ring. Really! Ms. Yokopovich is a seasonal athletic training intern with the Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs, who fulfilled the expectation to return to the Super Bowl by defeating the Buffalo Bills in the AFC championship game. “That would be the ultimate,” Department of Biology Associate Professor Todd Backes, who founded Fredonia’s Exercise Science program, said of an athletic trainer hooking up with a very, very good NFL team. “You ask students now, what level of athletic training would be the ultimate, and professional sports is their choice.” Yokopovich paid her dues to reach this height. After graduating from Fredonia in 2018, the Webster, N.Y., native immediately began working towards a master’s degree in Athletic Training at Daemen College. She was also a student athletic trainer at Daemen and Erie Community College. Students complete clinical rotations every semester for two years at Daemen, which has an affiliation with the Buffalo Bills,
“There are a finite number of (athletic training) jobs… It’s great, impressive what she has accomplished.”
In the top photo, Audrey Yokopovich hands out water bottles to Kansas City players during a practice. In the middle photo, she’s positioned next to the Bills logo in the ADPRO Sports Training Center at 1 Bills Drive. In photo at bottom left, Ms. Yokopovich is in the end zone at Bills Stadium when Kansas City played there. In the photo in bottom right, she’s in Arrowhead Stadium, home of the Chiefs. 22 Statement | SPRING 2021
— Dr. Todd Backes
which put her on track to become an athletic training student intern for the Bills in the 2019–2020 season. Pursuing a master’s, serving a full-time internship with the Bills and also working part-time as a waitress made this a very challenging time in Yokopovich’s life. But it was definitely worth it. She praised the Bills staff as “the best.” Yokopovich quickly gained their trust in her abilities, so she worked in many areas. She was in charge of athletic room maintenance, field set-up, practice and game day sideline duties and
