Sprains and strains are part of varsity sports and for that student athletes have a team of athletic therapists and student trainers behind them.
The best part? It’s a free service at Durham College (DC) and Ontario Tech (OT), designed to support them without the worry of cost.
Located within the Campus Recreation and Wellness Centre, the Athletic Therapy team provides injury prevention, assessments and rehabilitation services for student athletes.
The team is made up of athletic therapists, athletic therapy students and kinesiology students.
Dana Renfrew is one of the athletic therapists. Her favourite part of her role is working with student athletes and “getting them back to the sports that they love” after an injury.
According to the National Library of Medicine, athletes constantly face the risk of injuries. Recurring injuries can affect mental health, pose financial stress, affect their performance and cause them to end their careers early.
Renfrew says the athletic clinic at DC provides student athletes an opportunity to learn how to take care of their injuries at this stage of their lives.
“I’d like to think that it’s a big impact for them,” she says. “We can get them back to sports sooner than they may if they were left to their own devices.”
Renfrew isn’t only treating varsity athletes, she is also a mentor for the student trainers in the athletic therapy and kinesiology programs.
She explains the students have the opportunity to use what they learn in class in the clinics on campus. Additionally, they get to learn firsthand from the athletic therapists.
“Some of them will actually start doing some of those skills prior to and they’re shown from us before they actually get it in a lecture setting,” says Renfrew.
Renee Fernandez is a third-year kinesiology student at Ontario Tech University and is one of the student trainers who works with Renfrew.
To Fernandez, hands-on experience is essential for her learning.
“I’m more of a physical learner,” she says. “It’s just better for me to apply what I learned in class and working with the athletes.”
In her classes, Fernandez learns about different kinds of injuries, as well as the signs and symptoms and management of those injuries.
“Putting that into work with the athletes … it’s just so cool because everything just comes together, everything starts to make sense,” she says.
While Fernandez says balancing school can be challenging as a student trainer, the experience has given her work experience before she even graduates.