inston Churchill once said, “To change is to improve.” Bridget Spooner MS, LAT, ATC is bettering the Sports Medicine program with the change she is creating. Spooner joins Elizabethtown College as our new head athletic trainer and has already fit into her role in the short time she has been at the College. Miss Bridget, as many of our athletes call her, is a native of Canton, New York. She studied her undergraduate at Springfield College, earning a bachelor of science degree in athletic training with a minor in business management. She then traveled to Arizona to attend her top choice for graduate school, A.T. Still University. She earned a post-professional master’s degree in athletic training and will also be completing her terminal degree in three years.
Spooner came to Etown with extensive professional experience and knowledge. In the past seven years, she has worked several national sporting events, in addition to working at ESPN Wide World of Sports and for an independent professional baseball league. Her experience, across several different sports and handling numerous types of athletic injuries and illnesses, makes her a good candidate for the diversity of athletic offerings here at Etown.
Since her arrival in August, Spooner has made many changes. The sports medicine facility has been repainted and rearranged. Spooner believes rearranging the equipment in the main area will increase functionality. “It was incredibly important to me to make the athletic training room more functional for the amount of the athletes that are treated at one time,” Spooner said.
She has also instituted new policies that create a safer and more sanitary environment for all those who use the facilities. Some general rules include showering before using the hot or cold whirlpools, washing hands before getting ice and always remembering to sign in. While these policies seem obvious, they are sometimes hard to remember, especially with the busy lifestyle of a student athlete. “Athletic training rooms are healthcare facilities. Keeping a clean environment when treating over 350 student athletes is imperative to reducing the spread of disease,” said Spooner.
Previously, the athletic training room designated specific hours for rehabilitation; Spooner added scheduling rehabilitation times. “Scheduling rehabilitation affords us the opportunity to give personalized attention and care to each patient,” Spooner said. “It also reduces the flow of athletes in the athletic training room at one time.” In fact, these changes have aided in lowering the traffic that is in the athletic training room at one time. Junior and fall athlete Kyle Fowler agreed, stating, “It’s just a lot easier to get taped when you don’t have seven people doing rehab at the same time; it’s a lot more convenient in my mind.”
Spooner also sits on the Safety Committee and Campus Wellness Committee, and she has been named as the new advisor to the Student Athlete Mentor (SAM) program. The SAM program was implemented in an effort to aid student athletes and their peers with a point of reference when needing help seeking information or support. SAMs also act as a liaison between the athletes and staff. In addition, the program encourages academic achievement, social responsibility and general life skills awareness amongst students. Jess White, a junior and current SAM, stated, “I’m really excited to work with Bridget; she likes to get involved, and I think she’ll be really helpful with getting done what we want to accomplish this year.” Spooner is currently taking on her first event with the SAMs, First-Year Athlete Night, which will take place in mid-September.
