Athletic Trainers Aid in Helping Injured Players Heal

           With the OU women’s soccer team almost two months into its season, athletic trainers continue to play a vital role in helping players rehabilitate following injuries.

            Assistant Athletic Trainer Kristy Smith, who is in her second year as an athletic trainer for the soccer team, explains that athletic trainers are medical professionals whose jobs consist of diagnosing injuries on the field and then taking an athlete through the rehabilitation process so that he or she can return to play.

Assistant Athletic Trainer Kristy
Smith and Student Athletic
Trainer Corrie Bober

Since injury of an athlete is always a possibility, Smith is present at every practice and game. The process of helping an athlete play again is rewarding to Smith, and Student Athletic Trainer Corrie Bober agrees that watching an athlete who thought her season was over heal and play again is her favorite part of her job. Bober, a senior who is double majoring in Health and Exercise Science and Psychology, is in her fourth year serving as the student athletic trainer for the soccer program. She says her job is to help Smith with whatever she may need. As a self-proclaimed sports fanatic, Bober says she was always too small to play sports, but decided to pursue a sports-related degree in which she could help athletes recover from injuries.

For Smith, the variety of medial fields present in athletic training is one of the reasons why she became an athletic trainer.

“I think athletic training is a broad spectrum of many different medical professions, so at any given time I may need to provide emergency care for somebody, diagnose injuries similar to physicians, treat injuries and rehabilitate injuries similar to a physical therapist. We are kind of all-encompassing health care providers for athletes here,” Smith says.

The soccer team boasts an 8-5-1 record and has five more regular season games, the next being on Thursday, Oct. 14 in Norman against Nebraska. The game is set to begin at 7:00 p.m.

Here, Kristy Smith tells about her favorite part of her job.


Corrie Bober explains why she is pursuing a career as an athletic trainer.