POUGHKEEPSIE, New York – March is National Athletic Training Month, and provides the opportunity to take a deeper look at a profession which has had to adapt and take on new responsibilities over the past year.
 
This year's National Athletic Trainers Association (NATA) slogan is "Essential to Health Care." This has proven to be true in multiple ways, as athletic trainers have had to confront the challenges brought on by COVID-19 in addition to their daily tasks.
 
Marist's athletic training staff is headed by Coordinator of Sports Medicine Jeff Carter, who is assisted by Amanda Alongi and Maikee Migallos. Their customary services include injury prevention and rehabilitation, emergency care, examination and diagnosis, and mental wellness promotion. The landscape of the past year has added expertise with COVID-19, data collection and analysis, contact tracing, and testing to their plates.
 
"The staff has taken on a lot of extra work," Carter said, "but it's a way to keep the department going and get through the situation we find ourselves in."
 
Carter has become the COVID-19 expert within the Marist Athletics Department. He is charged with staying up-to-date on the latest research and data. He is also responsible for finding out which student-athletes have had the virus, who is currently in the 90-day window from the virus, and who has received the vaccine.
 
Carter was included in a group of Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference athletic trainers who were cited by conference commissioner Rich Ensor for the development of return to play protocol, testing options, and safety measures. They have been asked to provide recommendations based on current research, to the member schools' presidents and directors of athletics. This duty includes a thorough understanding of local and state regulations, which was made more complex by the conference consisting of schools from New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut.
 
Contact tracing duties have encompassed more of the daily routines for Alongi and Migallos. With the bond athletic trainers naturally form with student-athletes, they are uniquely qualified to succeed at this task, and find out more information that can curtail the spread of the virus.
 
The coordination of testing has involved several layers as well. Carter, Alongi, and Migallos have been involved with schedules for surveillance testing, and working with PCR as well as antigen tests. They have also needed to become well-versed in technology, and to make sure tests for student-athletes and coaches are synched with the correct app.
 
As the pandemic has now lasted over a year, the phenomenon of "COVID burnout" becomes more real with each passing day. The athletic training staff is responsible for keeping teams on task with adhering to safety protocols. They look forward to the day when COVID-19 is far less of a focus.
 
"Hopefully by the fall, we can focus on the work that we were initially brought here to do," Carter said.