Issue link: http://latinschool.uberflip.com/i/686133
Around School Athletics Where It All Began A lot has changed since the athletic training room was a small closet located in the basement of the upper school. Well, maybe not everything has changed ... the training room is still in the basement. But in addition to moving to a bigger space, the operation has evolved into a robust athletic training program through a longstanding relationship with Athletico Physical erapy – one that started in that basement closet. In the early 1990s, athletic director Tom Bower was approached by Mark Kaufman, a recent graduate of Northwestern University's Physical erapy School, who deemed their conversation about the possibility of working together the "easiest sales pitch ever." Coaches did not necessarily want to make injury decisions, calls or assessments since they were not trained specifically for that, parents liked that someone was looking out for their kids, athletes liked having someone to go to, and the school liked being protected in shouldering those responsibilities. To Bower and Kaufman, partnering was a "win-win-win-win" situation. Kaufman was given a small closet in the basement of the upper school to set up shop once a week after school. ere was room for a treatment table, cabinet and four fold-up chairs that he would take out in the afternoons and line up in the hallway, since only one student could fit in the room with him at a time. Kaufman didn't mind, though. He was immersing himself in the Latin culture, and soon his weekly trips to Latin turned to two days a week, then three, then he was covering home games and events and eventually was upgraded to a "real" outfitted training room. Kaufman was surprised to discover how much he enjoyed working with high school athletes – with his background (in addition to Northwestern, he had studied physical therapy at University of Iowa for undergrad, and e University of Arizona for graduate school, and had worked as an athletic trainer for varsity teams at both schools), he always saw himself working at the college level, in charge of The relationship with Latin is the foundation for how we do things at Athletico." – Mark Kaufman, Athletico president and founder Around School 20