My penpal is Brannon. He is an athletic trainer at Norfolk State University who has been working in the athletic training field for many years. He graduated college during covid which delayed him from going into his profession as soon as possible. But once he was able to, he took the job opportunity at a division two school (Upper Iowa), and started to pursue his career in athletic training. My interview with him had a wide range of questions. But the main question that stuck out to me was “What advice would you give someone that’s trying to become an athletic trainer?”. It was the response delivered by him that made me want to make an infographic about. He went into various specific details that I thought would be very helpful to someone reading it that wants to become an athletic trainer.
The interview started off with a little overview of how he became interested in athletic training. Brannon was a student athlete in high school and would often get major injuries, aches, and pains from the sport he played. He found his athletic trainer as an important person in his life because his trainer was very helpful to his injuries and his mental.
When asked for advice on becoming an athletic trainer, one of the first things he said was “Being an athletic trainer is not only about helping the physical injuries of an athlete.” He further explained how trainers are able to take care of an athletes mental, spiritual, and emotional well being because they are not just a person coming in with an injury. There is a lot more going on with them than just that. The injury can also affect them internally because it stops their ability to do what they love.
Another piece of advice that I found helpful from the interview for an upcoming athletic trainer is to have as many observation hours as possible so you know what you’re getting yourself into. He says this because it’s not like any other job where you get to work a couple hours a day and get to go home. Brannon spends an ample amount of hours a day (sixty to ninety hours a week), even back to back multiple days, out on the field or in the athletic training room helping these athletes. He advises that being an AT is not for everyone especially if you want a nine to five career because of the amount of hours dedicated within this field. This limits any personal days to himself or any alone time because he is dedicated to his career by all means.