Park High School hasn’t had an athletic trainer in three years, but this school year they have hired a  trainer to help the various sports teams. “Our goal is to have a sports trainer every day,” stated Park High athletic director Nate Parseghian. As the fall sports seasons kick off Shiann Hanks has been at many of the soccer and football games helping the athletes when they are injured or need help preparing for games.   Hanks will be around for 13 game days for the fall sports seasons including soccer, volleyball, and football, which comes out to about twice a week. But as  It turns out there are way more open jobs for trainers than trainers themselves.  

 Shiann also works for the MSU football team as their trainer, which makes her schedule a busy one. Hanks works with all high school athletes any time she’s here. If a football player needs something during a volleyball game because she’s not here a ton that player could talk to her at that time. Parseghian says, “She is probably working up to 100 hours (about 4 days) a week between being a student and her job as a trainer.”  

During the winter, Hanks will hopefully be on Park’s campus more for the sports of basketball, wrestling, and cheer. They will be seeing more of her because the winter is a less busy sports season. The trainer position at the high school has been open for about three years, but as Mr. Parseghian says, “There have been few applicants, so we went out and started recruiting. Unfortunately, they weren’t coming to us.”

Parseghian asked the head athletic trainer at MSU, Robb Higgs, and he said he had a few students who might be interested in the position, and that led to Hank’s introduction. After bringing Hanks to a few games last winter, Parseghian said he knew she would make a great fit.