Over 250 student-athletes are part of Smith Athletics’ 11 varsity sports teams. Any injury, rehabilitation process, practice and game coverage or mental support needed for these athletes are directed towards the Athletic Training (AT) Department. The department is run by Deb Coutu and Kelli Steele, the only AT’s on staff this year after the loss of the graduate assistant position due to a 2015 policy change by the National Athletic Trainer’s Association (NATA).
This new regulation requires trainers to have a master’s degree to work in a clinical practice compared to previous policy which allowed graduate assistants to simultaneously earn their master’s degree and receive hands-on experience during their two-year program. Although this degree change was implemented almost a decade ago, NATA has set the year 2026 as the hard deadline for all collegiate athletic departments to make the change to their programs.
Both Coutu and Steele have worked in the profession for over 30 years, usually supported by one or two graduate assistants, sometimes even three. Despite having fewer staff members in the training room, Smith Athletics isn’t slowing down. Seasons have been extended, weekly practice hours have increased and roster sizes have only gotten larger — raising the demand for athletic trainers around the clock.
Practices during the week start as early as 6 a.m. and end as late as 7 p.m. Weekends are filled with games — most being triple headers with three different sports teams competing back-to-back — leaving very little, if any, time for the trainers to take breaks throughout the day. With the priority of mitigating burnout while also maintaining a strong work-life balance, Smith Athletics has made changes to the training department to ensure that all student-athletes receive the care they need.
Steele began the process of outsourcing during the first few weeks of the academic year, reaching out on a Listserv to trainers working at local colleges, high schools or on per diem. A team of seven trainers are now working on a rotating schedule, covering morning practices from 6:30 a.m. to 9 a.m. before Smith’s staff arrives at 12 p.m. To maximize their in-person training, Coutu and Steele both work from home during the morning hours, answering emails and setting up athlete evaluations for later times in the day.
“We’ve tried to now bring in just some outside support to cover those hours that could make for some really long days,” Smith’s Director of Athletics and Recreation Kristin Hughes said. “I trust their judgment so that they’re going to bring in someone who is capable, and not just someone who is certified. There’s a difference in my mind. They’re kind of passing on or off their treatment to a person, and so I think there needs to be a level of trust there.”
The fall season has always been the most difficult time of year for trainers as in-season teams demand the most attention, with further aid being extended to winter and spring sports as they enter pre-season training and frequent weight lifting schedules.
Field hockey and soccer require one trainer to leave Ainsworth Gymnasium and cross the Lamont Bridge — almost a 10 minute walk from their office — leaving the other to manage all other student-athletes that come into the training room.
“It’s a lot of moving pieces that we’re not used to having to deal with,” Coutu said. “And the hard part is how our facilities are set up. Other facility campuses might be able to just do one [trainer] to cover inside and outside because the outside fields are right outside their athletic training room. So it’s easy for them to just have one person, but our fields are so far away.”
With such a tight schedule, the quality of care for Smith’s student-athletes has come into question. Having a limited schedule has made it even more difficult to allot an adequate amount of time for each athlete to individually receive proper treatment. Even under these conditions, Coutu and Steele have maintained a high standard of care and ensure that student-athletes are getting what they need.
“Most teams have had littler injuries, but there haven’t been a whole lot of injuries to have to deal with at one time, and that, I think, has saved us this fall,” said Steele. “I think all the coaches have been very understanding and realize that this is kind of a different year, and so that’s helpful.”
Staffing isn’t a problem exclusive to Smith, as NATA shared that the entirety of college athletics are facing the backlash of the “Great Resignation” in post-pandemic work settings. Although the physical number of certified trainers has actually increased over the past decade — now at 58,305 in 2021 compared to 38,973 in 2011, finding a full-time athletic trainer has proven to be extremely difficult.
High turnover rates within the profession can be attributed to burnout, demanding workloads with little monetary readjustments, lack of support and a struggle to find work-life balance. A survey published by NATA concluded 47% of respondents have only worked in the profession for less than 10 years. Having a full athletic training team has become a constant battle between colleges and surrounding universities as they seek to hire the most experienced staff, while also needing to be able to compensate with competitive pay to keep hires for long periods of time.
From the data alone, trainers across the country have consistently struggled with staying in such a demanding profession. Even with such a daunting task of managing all of Smith’s athletes alone, Steele and Coutu still find light at the end of tunnel and continue to embrace the challenge the year has brought even during the overlap of sporting seasons.
“You just have to realize, you just have to hold on for a little bit, and then it’s gonna get better,” Steele said.
“Our job changes every three months. That’s an advantage of the job. The whole cast, the characters changed. Everything changed,” Coutu added.
Recognizing the circumstances of where the trainers stand has been extremely important for all staff in athletics to keep the department running smoothly. But part of the chaos simply comes with the job.
“Athletics is always going to be work, right? We always, we work weird hours. We all play weird hours. But I think if you love it, it doesn’t feel like that,” said Hughes. “And so I think why I’m saying all that is, I think there’s like a huge lift to these jobs. And I think Deb and Kelli feel that. I hope they feel that.”
Even with all of the bumps in the road, Coutu and Steele are still in it for the long run.
“Smith is a great place to work, even this year, even with a shortage, we’re still supported […] [it’s] still a wonderful place to be,” said Steele.
The only solution Coutu and Steele see to maintain the sustainability of the trainers is to add another full-time staff member to the department. While an exact pinpoint on where Smith is in the hiring process has not been disclosed, it has been predetermined that having that position filled by the start of next year is a top priority.
“When you have good people, I think you got to work hard to keep them. Part of that is making sure that they have the support that they need,” said Hughes. “So, you know, we’re working hard for that.”
