By : Hailey Smithson
High school athletic trainers play a very big role in athletes’ lives.
Redwood’s Athletic Trainer, Becca Olson, has made a huge impact on athletes and the way they play. She is constantly ensuring that the athletes are physically healthy to play their sports.
She has worked as the Athletic Trainer at Redwood for 5 years. When trying to decide what she wanted to do as a career she decided on this job because she, “loves sports” and has a “large passion for helping and caring for others,” she said.
This career gave her the opportunity to fulfill both of these passions.
Her love for sports began in her childhood. She played multiple sports throughout her life including softball which she continued to play in college.
She recalls “spending many weekends watching, playing or going to different sporting events with my grandpa growing up.”
She says, “He was the person who really inspired me to pursue different sports growing up and who instilled the love of all different sports in me.”
Becca attended George Fox University in Oregon. She played softball there and received her Bachelor’s of Science degree in Athletic Training. She then proceeded to receive her Masters Degree in Kinesiology with an emphasis in Athletic Training at Fresno Pacific University.
When she graduated college she knew that she wanted to work with highschoolers but she never had a set location in mind. She says, “The opportunity to work here came up after I moved home and I jumped on it! Looking back, it was a great decision!”
“Redwood is a great place to work at!”
-Becca Olson, redwood’s Athletic Trainer
She enjoys the fast paced setting that this job allows for. She says that she, “almost went into the Physical Therapy setting, but it was too slow for [her] personality.”
In her job, no two days are the same but she is still able to build relationships with every athlete that comes across her path.
Being an athletic trainer is a very time consuming and demanding job.
She says, “At Redwood we have a large number of student-athletes and there is only 1 of me for all 22 sports.”
She stays busy all school year long. However, she says that the fall season is very busy due to how physically demanding football can be.
Every season is busy in its own ways. She says, “I am on campus for all home games, practices, and even get to travel with our teams when time allows.”
With sports being neverending all year round she never really gets a break, but she says the fact that no two days are the same makes it enjoyable.
With COVID-19 leading to sports being postponed during the fall season, she helped distribute different items to students in order to help keep things running smoothly. Now that conditioning for most sports is starting up she has been ensuring that all of the protocols are being followed by every sports team.
She also works with our school nurse, Mrs. Walkowiak, to make sure that the athletes are cleared to participate in conditioning.
When asked about her favorite part of her job she said, “I love most everything about Athletic Training.”
However, she says that some of her favorite things are “the interactions I get with student-athletes, getting to celebrate them when they win, pass a test they were struggling with, or overcome an injury they had suffered.”
Becca is loved by both athletes and staff all across campus and plays a huge role in making sure Redwood Athletics continues to run smoothly, whether COVID-19 impacts them or not.
Without her, it would be very difficult to ensure the health and safety of all of Redwood’s athletes.
I love that Becca is getting some attention and credit for all the hard work she has done over the past years! She’s a very important part of Redwood sports and your coverage on her was great. Keep up the good work!