Students who aren’t athletes may have never been in the basement room that houses the College athletic training department. But right under Darby Gymnasium, a team of training staff clocks in every day for a critical purpose.
Carissa Tigges, head athletic trainer and deputy Title IX coordinator, has worked in the athletic training office since 2015. She was named the head athletic trainer after the 2019-20 season, amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.
Tigges told the S&B in an interview that the athletic department oversees 450 varsity student-athletes. With the addition of competitive club sports, Tigges said she estimates the athletic training staff works with over 500 students.
“Our three big jobs are that you are safe, that you are healthy and that you can perform at your best,” Tigges said.
Tigges said that the training staff deals with problems both big and small.
“We’re trained for everything from a life-threatening emergency on the court to a blister,” said Tigges. “We are the first to respond to them.”
Additionally, with the recent stormy weather in Grinnell, Tigges said she was monitoring the weather, watching out for lightning and taking a look at wet-bulb temperatures.
In order to pull all this off, Grinnell has four full-time trainers — Jason Kofoot, Mike Jones, Maycee Cline and Tigges. The department also has a clinical agreement with Grandview University in Des Moines, which allows students from Grandview’s masters in athletic training program to join the department for one year as an intern. Each trainer focuses on designated sports. Tigges is working with volleyball, cross country, women’s tennis, men’s basketball and indoor and outdoor track and field.
The division of trainers at Grinnell College, a Division III school, differs from what athletic training looks like at a Division I school, where a trainer would follow one, maybe two sports at maximum, according to Tigges.
For Tigges the College’s system is beneficial.
“It keeps things fresh, it keeps me on my toes. I have to have a little bit broader skill set,” she said.
On the other hand, trainers at Division I schools have an easier time developing personal relationships with the athletes they work with, according to Tigges, which is harder at Grinnell College, where the trainers work with many more student-athletes. However, Tigges still considers student interaction a perk of the job.
“That’s the fun part. There’s nothing quite like spending three hours a week with somebody,” Tigges said. “I’ve got a couple right now who are in their post-surgical … and some of those post-op rehabs are at least a year, so we’re just kind of hanging out and getting better.”
Nurturing relationships with athletes is a priority for the training staff, who attempt to be on-site for all practices, home athletic events and away football games. Though, with every sport practicing at 4:30 p.m. and only four trainers, that isn’t always possible.
“4:30 p.m. hits and the four of us just kind of scatter. We’ve got two going out to football. We’ve got two going out to soccer. I’m going out to volleyball. Tennis has their phone number if they need me,” Tigges said. ”It is just a kind of balance through there.”
It may sound like tough work, but Tigges said that it is very rewarding for the training staff.
“I joke a lot that I get courtside seats to everything. We get the highs and the lows,” she said. “The lowest of lows is when I’m standing next to them on the court because something just happened. But then, and this is probably my favorite part of athletic training, we get to see that spectrum. I get that full circle moment when I get to see them go back on the court.”
For the trainers, the students themselves are a source of motivation and a reason to stay in the job.
“There’s just so many good people around here that it just never gets old,” said Kofoot.
“They have their own unique expertise too, and they really challenge me in my certain expertise. They make me a better athletic trainer because they’re always asking questions and then everyone’s just so nice and so kind and respectful,” said Cline.
The student-athletes at Grinnell College are certainly unique, Tigges said. She described a core memory of hers when, in her first year at Grinnell as an athletic trainer, she found a football player reading the science fiction hit “The Martian” 15 minutes before practice.
She asked him what he was doing.
“He’s like, ‘The movie comes out on Friday. I want to finish it before the movie comes out,’” Tigges said. “Across the board, and speaking generally, you don’t get too many football players who read for fun, especially 15 minutes before practice. It’s a different mindset [at Grinnell].”