Trainers, managers are team’s unsung heroes

When a football team wins a state championship, the glory goes to the team, of course, and the coaches, the cheerleaders, the fans and even the marching band providing halftime entertainment.

But when Lewis and Clark High School’s football team beat Bothell 21-14 in Tacoma earlier this month, there were eight young ladies who went unnoticed by the general public, but greatly appreciated by the coaches and team.

“They are not in it for the limelight at all,” said Tom Yearout, Tiger football coach.

Ellen Webster, Elizabeth Webster, Jessica Matresse, Katie Matresse, Jessica Scott, Amber Mackin, Danielle Price and Laurel Abbott are the trainers and managers of the Tiger football team.

The duties of managers Elizabeth Webster and Katie Matresse include taking care of equipment, bringing water and making sure the uniforms don’t have blood on them.

Yearout said that since the football team uses a lot of equipment with many parts, the managers’ job is important. He added that the trainers didn’t have to take on many of the duties that managers do, but they did it anyway and were happy to do so.

“They’re unbelievable,” he said. “They were just – it probably sounds dull, but they were unbelievably consistent.”

“All of the players appreciate us,” said senior Ellen Webster.

The trainers take care of the players. The six girls who take care of the team are all in the sports medicine class at the high school and are there when a player is hurt. Before the game, they tape up the players to help prevent injuries.

“We come earlier and we stay later,” senior Jessica Matresse said.

The eight girls seem to get a lot of satisfaction from being trainers and managers, though.

Price, another senior, said that the lessons she has learned in the sports medicine class and out on the sidelines have encouraged her to become a physical therapist.

Price decided to become a student trainer before she even arrived at LC. Her older brother was on the football team and she would accompany her mother when they dropped him off at practice.

“A few girls were sitting around,” she said. “I thought it was weird.”

When she found out what they were doing, she decided to give student training a try.

Their sports medicine instructor, Tara Groves, said that the six girls are trained in CPR, medic first aid in how to use the automated external defibrillator.

They also must take a semester of sports medicine before they can job shadow other student trainers. Only then can they become trainers for the sports teams. Groves said that she has around 21 trainers at LC this year for all the teams, including varsity, junior varsity and freshman.

If a player gets a serious injury, there are doctors on the field to jump in and treat them. The student trainers call 911, inform the player’s parents about the injury, observe what the doctor is doing and maybe help hold down the injured player.

They have to be prepared. Many times when they are not training, they might find Band-Aids in their coat pockets.

This fall, one of the players on the Tiger team snapped his humerus bone in half. Yearout said the student was out for the rest of the school year and had to have surgery.

The girls helped out and maintained their distance so the doctors could do their job.

“They were fantastic,” Groves said.

The girls are all trainers in other sports as well as football, but they all agreed they liked football the best.

“You become part of a family,” said Scott, a senior. “A lot of people think the football team is just the players.”

Katie Matresse, a sophomore, appreciates how nice the players are, which surprised her.

“You look at them and they are out there hitting people really, really hard,” she said.

They also like that the team includes them in many of their off-the-field activities, such as the Black and Blue Dinner, and they always get team T-shirts.

Many of the trainers for the football team are going to graduate in the spring. Yearout has been joking that they will be harder to replace than many of the players.

“Most of us are seniors this year,” said Jessica Matresse. “It’s kind of sad.”