Keeping The Body Going (Part 2)

A large help to our training staff are the Sports Medicine Interns (SMIs) and the HydraTechs. Both groups spend almost equal amount of time with the athletes in the training room or field as do the actual trainers.

Many of my rehabilitation is done with a SMI. SMIs are college students that are usually pre-med bound trying to earn degrees from UC Berkeley in areas such as Biology and Molecular Cell Biology, but not limiting to those areas. While the training staff usually evaluates injuries, the SMIs are near by learning the proper techniques of evaluation and rehabilitation for the particular injury. SMIs also assist our trainers by stretching, deep tissue massage, ultrasound, and other various pre-practice needs by players when the training room gets busy.

Hydratechs on the other hand are usually paid interns that assist in hydration of the athletes at the practice. Bluntly, they are waterboys (or girls), but are pivotal to making sure I and the rest of the team don't die out on the field during these hot summer days.

Without the help of both groups, the teams success would not be the same.