Behind the Scenes: Awesome Athletic Crew

Director of Medical Services Matthew Ferreira and Assistant Athletics Trainers Jillian Gleason and Christina Balsamo take care of sports injuries and afflictions. Ferreira remarked, “I think for my position, specifically, I would say probably 40-50% is spent behind the scenes and I spend 50-60% actually interfacing with
the students.” Gleason said that her “student interaction time is probably 70-75% [of her work].” In attention to
tending to students’ injuries, Ferreira stated that he is “responsible for creating our coverage schedule.” He

described that while the other two trainers are “cover- ing [a] game, I stay at the trainer’s room” to ensure “that  the room is available for anybody that needs to walk in.” The athletic trainers also regulate medical activity that concerns the safety of Hopkins. Ferreira emphasized the importance of internal communication regarding Hopkins’ safety: “There’s good communication around on campus to make sure that everybody knows about the certain healthcare incidents that happened with the students and the faculty.” Gleason stated that she is “in charge of all of the school’s medical paperwork. So all those forms that parents have to fill out every year, I’m in charge of keeping track of those things and immunization records.” Gleason added that “we share amongst the athletic training staff, prepping game day stuff, so first aid goes out, water goes out, ice goes out. I make sure that our @Hopscores has a post with all the games for that day.”

Prior to every game, uniforms need to be handed out to players, and after games, they need to be collected: this role falls upon Equipment Managers Kenneth Ackerman and Peter Giatrelis. They prepare athletic equipment for sports, and open and close the Walter Camp Athletics Center in the morning and night. They do the majority of laundry in the fall and spring, Ackerman mentioned: “During the fall, you got football. We were spraying a lot of them with Shout. It’s good to get the dirt, grass, and stains out. And the same thing with baseball and softball in the spring.” Ackerman added that storage of equipment is something that has become increasingly difficult: “One of the biggest problems is that we’ve added, since I’ve been here, different sports: squash, rowing, both boys and girls water polo. So then we run out of room for storage. That’s the biggest problem, finding room and trying to get rid of the stuff that you’re not using anymore.” Ackerman remarked that his “favorite time [is] the winter because it’s easy for me. I’ll sit here and play music or something. It’s a fun job.” The significance of Ackerman’s and Giatrelis’s jobs are often unnoticed by athletes, despite their presence being crucial for all teams and sports.