While participating in sports has always been a popular way to be involved in school, some students took part in sports in ways other than playing them.

Senior Britta Seland found she loved being involved in sports by helping the athletes as an athletic trainer at Hamilton Southeastern.

Senior Britta Seland walks away after explaining her position as a student athletic trainer. Seland has been an athletic trainer since her freshman year and enjoys helping the football players at HSE when they are injured.

“I thought it would be cool to help people, and I love putting smiles on people’s faces. My friend during freshman year started doing athletic training because her dad was an athletic trainer, and she always told us how fun it was, so my friends and I decided to join her on Fridays with football. I decided it would be fun and a way to get involved in school, and I do really enjoy it,” Seland said.

Seland has learned more than she ever expected she would when she first joined her friends as an athletic trainer freshman year.

“I’ve learned things I didn’t even think I’d ever know. We have two professional trainers, and one wants to teach you everything. Since freshman year, I’ve learned how to tape wrists and thumbs. Every Friday when we were bored, we would try to tape each other’s ankles, and it is so difficult, so we would practice on each other. I would never let anyone take off the tape, though, because if you hit the wrong bone on the ankle, it hurts so bad,” Seland said.

It took some time for Seland to learn all that she has about being an athletic trainer, however.

“My first day, this guy comes up to me and says that all he’s seeing is white dots everywhere, and I said, ‘oh, that’s not good’ and walked away because I forgot I was the one to help him. So, he came over again and asked me to help him, and I just pointed him to the professional athletic trainer,” Seland said.

Some experiences as an athletic trainer were not exactly pleasant for her either.

“I almost passed out one time, so now people think I can’t look at blood and always ask me why I’m even doing athletic training. So, we always clean up the football players’ cuts, and one time this football player had a cut on the bridge of his nose, and it was bleeding pretty bad, and I was giving gauze pads to everybody trying to help, but they were all squeezing it and playing with it. I was about to pass out because it was so gross, so they sat me down and gave me water, and ever since then they have made fun of me, saying I’m afraid of blood even though I see it all the time and I’m not,” Seland said.

Through her experiences, however, Seland has learned enough to know what she is doing and even be able to teach others as a senior at HSE.

“I was so proud of myself when this guy came up and his thumb was messed up, but the athletic trainer was busy. I didn’t really know how to tape thumbs, but I improvised, and it was right. I was so proud of myself that I knew what I was doing. Now this year, everyone is going to be asking us what to do because we’re seniors,” Seland said.

Through both the good and the bad, Seland has enjoyed her time as an athletic trainer.

“I love Friday nights. You get to be on the sidelines and see the game, and you’re in the locker room, so you even smell like the guys you help. My mom doesn’t like that part because when I get in the car afterwards, she tells me I need to take a shower, but it’s fun. Plus, I have so many sweatshirts from being an athletic trainer,” Seland said.