Many people know that March is typically reserved for Women’s History Month, but there is another holiday that is often overlooked.

National Athletic Training Month also takes place during March, and it celebrates the work that all athletic trainers, both professional and collegiate, do.

“I think it’s a huge achievement for athletic trainers to be recognized as an important part of healthcare. We are usually the people in the background that go unnoticed so it is nice to have a time period where we are celebrated,” Katie Aschemann said.

Aschemann is one of five athletic trainers located in the Health and Fitness Center on campus that take care of the 26 teams Quincy University has.

Miranda Higgins is the head athletic trainer and covers men’s and women’s soccer, baseball, sprint football, women’s basketball, track and field, men’s and women’s golf, and men’s/women’s bowling.

Josh Miley covers football and wrestling.

Katie Parks covers football, men’s volleyball, and men’s/women’s tennis.

Alaysia Culbertson covers women’s volleyball, men’s and women’s swimming, and men’s/women’s lacrosse.

Aschemann covers sprint football, men’s basketball, and softball.

“She goes above an beyond to help each player to feel as if their body was never sore or hurting. She even would go as far as calling the doctors to speed up paperwork,” Ashtin Roberts said.

Roberts is apart of the new sprint football team and sees Aschemann for treatments to keep him healthy and on the field.

Some of the treatments that help keep athletes healthy include cupping, light therapy to help with inflammation, ultrasound to help heat the muscles, stem to decrease pain, and ice.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the athletic training staff had to work even harder to ensure the health of athletes.

This included following strict COVID policies including quarantine, mandatory testing every week for all teams, and reserving times in the athletic training room for treatments.

Additionally, there were return to play procedures that every trainer had to oversee after an athlete returned from quarantine.

The worst thing that could happen to an athlete is a career ending injury, but the athletic training staff work incredibly hard to make sure they can return to the sport they love.

“One of my favorite parts of being an athletic trainer is seeing my athletes light up when they have a breakthrough in treatments, or when they are able to return to the sport they love. We are an important aspect to keeping athletes healthy throughout the year so having a month to be recognized is an added bonus to doing the job I love,” Culbertson said.

Culbertson is not the only trainer that feels this way after a success nor is she the only person that has this feeling.

For an athlete to be able to get back on the court, field, or track is an amazing feeling.

Athletic trainers are underappreciated for all the hard work they do, but once a month, they receive the recognition they rightly deserve.