Put it into practice

During their senior year, Athletic Training majors must complete a personalized research project.

___ By Patrick Fergus ___ @Fergus5Fergus

Athletic Training is a fundamental program at Springfield College. The major is a leading area of study in most graduating classes, with the student-centered focus of the curriculum leading to comprehensive growth and development.

For AT seniors, required research projects highlight their final year, with many unique topics being investigated. From eating disorders to the perception of ATs for club sports athletes, these projects include various aspects such as surveys and clinic-based assessments.

Senior Emma Slater chose her area of interest as the different eating habits of athletes and how these sustenance choices affect their preparation and performance.

“At the core of my research, I am looking to assess how different eating habits fuel athletes’ bodies and how these choices affect injury rate and prevalence,” Slater said.

Her project, titled “The Impact of Orthorexia Nervosa on Division III Collegiate Athletes and the Associated Injuries,” has been a multi-month process.

“I have created a short survey to assess athletes’ eating behaviors and injuries that they have experienced while playing as a collegiate athlete at Springfield College, and at a DIII institution, often I feel like there are not as many considerations made for athletes’ dietary habits,” Slater said.

Slater – who previ- ously worked for both the women’s gymnastics and women’s lacrosse teams – has had the opportunity to build genuine relationships with athletes she’s worked with. This hands-on experience has allowed Slater to gain the confidence and skills she needs for this more complex assignment.

“Working with these teams that are filled with athletes that depend on you, there is a lot of trust that is built, and you learn so much,” Slater said. “There were a lot of nuances to the eating habits.”

Another senior, Jake Hewitt, has taken an interest in one of the ascending problems in the field: mental health in the athletic population.

“Athletic trainers are increasingly learning about treating non-physical injuries, and often, we are the first people there to talk if something happens,” Hewitt said.

Many remember gymnast Simone Biles’ courageous choice to withdraw from portions of the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 to focus on her mental health, or tennis superstar Naomi Osaka’s struggle with depression and anxiety after her newfound fame.

“An athlete has to keep themselves mentally strong, or else they can’t perform at their best,” Hewitt said.

A deeper layer of the project is the correlation in mental health between concussed and non-concussed student-athletes. Concussions have been a central talking point around player safety, especially in sports like football. Hewitt wants to explore how brain injuries might impact a player’s psychological well-being.

“I think it’s really important to dig a little deeper on this issue because mental health has become such a critical part of a healthcare worker’s job, and even AT Training continued from Page 7

Mental health is a pressing issue at colleges across the country. Springfield College was recently awarded a $3.29 million grant to train counselors to help address that need.

The U.S. Department of Education awarded the grant to the Department of Counseling. Springfield was one of 60 recipients of an estimated 300 applicants. The department had an innovative plan, written by chair Allison Cumming-McCann – to partner with Americor, and the Springfield and Holyoke public schools (K-12,) – that helped its submission stand out.

“The goal is to get our students trauma- and evidence-based training, but we are also going to collaborate with these two districts to train current employees,” said school counselor Kelley Paige.

The idea was a twoway street. The first was to diversify the counsel-