Stephannie Maca knew that being an athletic trainer is the right job for her. Her love for sports drove her to becoming an athletic trainer along with the fact that she didn’t have an athletic trainer when she was in high school.
“The idea of knowing someone could have taken care of my injuries and my parents wouldn’t have to take me to the doctor made me think this could be a pretty cool gig,” Maca said.
At Benson, Maca works with the athletic teams, providing them with health care during both practice and games. She does things such as providing primary and emergency care to athletes, doing examinations and doing rehabilitation for the injuries.
During these times, she gets to learn about the athletes at Benson, which is something she enjoys doing. Her favorite part of doing this job, is seeing these student athletes going on to play college athletics or graduating college.
“I have also enjoyed watching athletes grow from high school to D1 and even NBA players,” Maca said. “It is not every athletic trainer who gets to watch their previous athletes on TV at the next level, so I take great joy in this.”
While this part of the job is enjoyable to her, there’s also the downside of it.
In her line of work, Maca gets to work both inside and outside. So, when she’s working outside and the weather starts turning bad, she has to deal with it. When the weather is not in ideal condition, she would find herself standing outside in the cold and having to deal with sleet; however, dealing with this is just part of the job.
Aside from the bad weather, being an athletic trainer made her time with her family limited.
“I enjoy working afternoons and evenings as my daily shift,” Maca said.
Maca’s shifts start after school and goes on until all practices or sporting events are all done.
If it’s a football game, it may be closer to 10 pm when she gets out of school.
Her daily shifts give her time to get her kids to school and appointments in the morning before she gets to work.
“Weekends and nights can be hard for my family when I am gone, but being home in the mornings and during the summer makes up for it,” Maca said.
Even though there’s the downside to her job, this doesn’t make her job any less lovable, thus her continuous working as an athletic trainer.