Athletic trainers keep players ready

What do most people associate a successful athletic team with? Is it their ability? Their coaching staff? The hours of hard work that student-athletes put in everyday? 

These options may all be true, but what most people fail to associate with a successful team are the trainers and sports medicine staff behind them. 

At the University of Detroit Mercy, our student athletes are provided with individuals and resources to help them stay healthy, recover from injury to keep them performing at a high level, and to build strength and conditioning. 

In order for student-athletes to perform at a high level, their bodies must be prepared. The athletic trainers help condition and strengthen athletes both physically and mentally. 

Nick Wilson heads the unviersity’s strength and conditioning program. Wilson pushes student-athletes to the limit every workout to gain physical strength and conditioning to eventually ensure a successful season. 

Each workout is tailored for the specific team in order to build the correct muscles for the specific sport. The Larry Bleach Fitness Center, where student-athletes have their workouts inside Calihan Hall, is continuing to expand in size and equipment. 

 Not only is it important to train student athletes, but it is equally important to maintain their bodies so they are able to perform at the best of their ability. From aches and pains that training causes to an athlete’s body to nfortunate injuries, the Detroit Mercy Sports Medicine staff is there to help. 

The associate director for sports medicine, Mike Miller, along with the sports medicine staff, is committed to providing the best care for over 250 student athletes. The university welcomed a new assistant director of sports medicine this year, Lauren Ainslie. Ainslie works primarily with the women’s basketball programs, schedules physician’s clinic/annual physical & appraisals,  and oversees Women’s Lacrosse, Fencing and Softball Graduate Assistants. 

“The sports medicine department is absolutely vital,” Ainslie said. “The goals of the University of Detroit Mercy Sports Medicine Department is to prevent athletic injuries as much as possible through effective injury prevention programs, and to return injured athletes to their previous competitive status in the safest and quickest manner possible.”

She said it’s important to use all the university’s resources to help the student-athletes. 

“In order to play the best you can you need to feel the best you can,” she said. “Whether that includes a prevention program to decrease the likelihood of an injury, evaluation of an existing injury, or simply facilitated recovery every day after workouts and practices, the answers can be found in the training room. If the obstacles keeping a student athlete from success have to deal with mental or physical health we have all the resources and tools needed in order to provide the best care possible to keep the student athletes at the top of their game.”