Before sophomore Cassandra Lee joined the Peglegs, the only females on Stuyvesant’s football team were the football trainers. Trainers volunteer their after school time to help players in games and practices, yet go unnoticed by most spectators.
The Peglegs currently have four football trainers, one sophomore and three seniors. “The key is to get at least two or three trainers from each grade, so that after one group graduates, there will always be another group to take their place,” junior and Pegleg linebacker Wardell Lee said.
Trainers’ duties include hydrating football players with water and treating injured players. “We are the medical component. Our main job is to prevent injuries. If they are already hurt, we prevent it from getting worse,” senior trainer Stephanie Hon said.
Unlike team managers, who only go to games to take down statistics, trainers must go to every practice and every game. An injured or inactive player usually fills the role of football manager. However, football trainers are “certainly much more than managers. They are part of the team,” varsity Peglegs coach Brian Sacks said. “Every day there are two to three trainers there to help out the guys and talk to them. Some of them are certified in first-aid.”
Though their job may seem menial, trainers keep the team functioning efficiently during games. They help the team stay hydrated. During games, some trainers quickly distribute the drinks to the team while other trainers get water bottles and tanks ready for the next round.
Without football trainers, “practices would be a lot slower because we would all be taping up ourselves, and all the guys would have to get their own water,” junior and running back Matthew Baumel said. “Everything would be a lot worse.”
Besides medical aid, football trainers serve a greater role—moral support. “We can basically talk to them about anything we want to. They make the atmosphere less boring,” senior and caption Alex Plamm said. “They also raise our morale after a tough game.”
Spending much of their time on the football team results in trainers forming lasting relationships with players. “The team is almost like my family,” junior Yara Ganem said. “They are great people and I know that if it wasn’t for football, I would never have gotten to know them.”
The team, now 3-4, and its trainers, have had their share of ups and downs. “When they lose, we are sad along with them. Especially when we lost by one point [to McKee/Staten Island Tech], the bus ride home was the worst because we knew that they worked really hard and deserve to win,” senior Jennifer Liu said.
Liu and senior Arianna Demas became trainers their sophomore year, after former trainers told them of the opportunity. Sophomore Wendy Ho said, “At first I was forced into it by a bunch of the players. But after coming a few times to the practices, I found that it was very relaxing. All the guys are cool, so I have a good time, and it is not a bad way to spend your after school [time].”
Other trainers also look at it as a learning experience for college and possible careers. “It is a good way to get medical experience,” Demas said.
There are also downsides to the job. The most obvious is the smell. Since they practice in padded armor, football players sweat profusely. “Imagine wrapping the foot of one of these guys. Their stink is horrible. It is so bad because there are so many of them,” Ho said. “It is by far the worst part of being a trainer.”
Yet, “after a while you get used to it,” Demas said.
Training also means sacrificing certain weekends to help out the team. “I resent having to wake up early in the weekends to go to games,” Ganem said.
“Filling up Gatorade bottles is a pain as well, especially when you have to mix the Gatorade with your bare hands,” junior Evilika Fridman said.
Though most people do not notice the trainers during games or practices because the main focus is on the football game, Liu said, “We do not do it for the attention, we do it because we like it.”.