What interested you in working in the training room?

Andrew Hutson: Last year, I didn’t have a job on campus, and I ended up having a really good relationship with some of the trainers. One of them suggested that I should apply.

Christina Perez-Tineo: I also didn’t have a job my freshman year, and like Andrew, I got to know the training room pretty well and I asked around. At the time, I was interested in sports medicine, so I thought it would be a good first experience in that.

Was there anything at the job that you were uncomfortable with that was hard to get used to?

AH: Definitely. Even though I am on the baseball team, I didn’t know a lot of other teams. It was a little awkward at first when upperclassmen asked me to tape them up. It was weird because I didn’t know them but was wrapping up their feet and felt like I should make some small talk, but now I’m used to it.

CPT: I used to work football a lot and they would come and ask me to tape their shoulders after practice. It was a pretty intimate experience, and sometimes I can’t get around their entire body, especially since they are tall and huge.

What is your favorite sport to work?

AH: I really like working soccer. I find their games most exciting, so I had fun with that. Everyone on both teams has been really nice and not annoyed if I spill the water or something.

CPT: For me, it’s between field hockey and basketball because field hockey isn’t boring and the team is nice. Their practices are also dynamic. I like basketball because it is a fun sport to watch. I don’t really know them that well, but both teams are really nice and the coaches are fun to work with. Being indoors is really nice.

What is your least favorite sport?

AH: Swimming and diving is difficult. It’s not like watching the Olympics. It’s really long and there is a lot of warm up and waiting around. Actually, wait, tennis is worse. For the same reasons, but it’s even less exciting than swimming.

CPT: Yes, tennis is the worst. But the thing with swimming and diving is that diving is long and stressful. Once I worked a meet where both teams were so bad at diving. It was embarrassing to watch, but I was also on edge because I was worried that someone would hurt themselves. When people aren’t good, they get hurt. But it wasn’t worse than tennis.

What are some things you’ve taken away from working in the training room?

AH: I’ve learned to be more responsible by showing up on time and managing my schedule knowing that I need to work from 4–7 [p.m.].

CPT: I’m not the most detail-oriented person, and being at this job, there are so many things to remember. So many things to take, to practice and be aware of. There’s also something about being in an emergency; it’s taught me a lot about the way I deal with crisis.

What’s the worst injury you’ve seen?

AH: I saw a girl on field hockey…

CPT: Hey, that’s my injury. I was the one working.

AH: Okay, it was Christina’s injury. But basically, in field hockey, a ball popped up and hit a player right in the nose and broke her nose really, really badly.

CPT: Yes, I had to drive her to the hospital. Andrew, did you even see it?

AH: Yes.

Any awkward interactions with players you’d like to share?

CPT: Yes, I have a few. [Laughs.] Once, I was working men’s soccer and I hadn’t worked a lot of men’s sports before. One of the players came off the field and needed some ice on his groin and he asked me to wrap some. So I get down and start wrapping, and another player made a lewd comment about me being up in his area and the entire team turned around and looked. After that, I just tell them to stick it down their compression shorts.

AH: I don’t have anything that beats that.

What is one of your favorite things about working in the training room?

AH: I like making friendship bracelets with Jill [Rondini, assistant athletic trainer].

CPT: Once, I was working a baseball game. I was sitting outside; it was a beautiful day and I was kind of tanning, watching a baseball game, thinking, this is my job. This is awesome.

Have you two had any bonding experiences together as co-workers?

CPT: [Laughs.] So, I’ve been doing physicals for two years now, and I’ve never had to test pee. It was some other poor soul.

AH: This year, we got stuck doing the pee… for five hours. Smelly pee with stuff floating in it for five hours, on our feet the whole time.

CPT: The worst part about it is that people don’t realize that we need like, three drops of pee. Maybe a half a centimeter.

AH: But people just fill it all the way up to the top.

CPT: And when it’s filled up to the top, you can smell it, and it spills everywhere.

AH: Christina went through all of Jill’s gloves. She changed them after every person.