RB Training Staff

Players on the team require many different things when it comes to staying healthy for the season, from something as simple as taping ankles to going into injury prevention and rehab. Players need to be taken care of every week throughout practices and games to make sure they are as healthy as possible for the remainder of the season. Many players could not play if it was not for the constant care of the RB training staff.

William Frye, one of the athletic trainers at RBHS, has been helping RB athletes stay healthy for a long time at RB.

“I’ve been here for 11 years now. I’ve been a certified athletic trainer going on 31 years,” said Frye.

The training staff makes a big difference for teams. There are always players that are going to have injuries, major or minor, and it is a necessary to have a training staff that can make sure the team can keep their players healthy and able to play as much as possible in their limited season.

“Every team is going to have injuries, and they all have a finite number of players and starters. My job is obviously to make sure players are safe, but also to ensure that they can play on Friday nights,” said Frye.

The training staff works to make sure that players can play as much as possible while staying healthy. They try their best to make sure that the players can play as many games as possible.

“If you take a sport like baseball that has 35 games in nine weeks, and an injured player goes to a doctor that says they can’t play for four weeks, that player just missed half of their season. If I can do what I’m trained to do, and they work with me, I might be able to cut that down to two weeks. If I can use my bag of tricks to help you stay on the field, then I’m doing my job,” said Frye.

The training staff does many things to make sure players stay healthy, not just before games and practices, but off the field and into offseasons as well. They have three main things that they practice to help players off the field and out of season.

“We do three main things. We do injury prevention, acute care, and rehab. Part of rehab is making sure in the offseason, if there’s any deficits, that we do enough rehab to make sure you’re stronger for next season,” said Frye.

The training staff can also affect players through their relationships. Some younger players come in and tend to be scared of the training staff because they want to keep playing through injuries, but the training staff is there to help reduce the time out for those injuries instead of prolonging the time missed.

“Younger players sometimes think that if they come to see the trainer, we’ll pull them out. It just requires education that I am doing just the opposite. If you stay quiet and let an injury fester to where you may have only been able to miss one day if I do a treatment, because you didn’t say anything, it now becomes a chronic problem and you now miss a full week or two. My job is to make sure that you’re safe and you can get back on the field,” said Frye.

The training staff can also help players with knowledge that they are there to help. Seeing the training staff out on the field during practices and games can reduce player worries about getting injured since they know they have help if they ever need it.

“There are definitely less worries on the field when the trainers are there, because when you start to feel something you’re not supposed to feel, it makes you want to go towards the training staff and ask them for help to see what’s wrong,” said varsity football player Eddie Pena.

With so many sports and players, Frey cannot take care of everyone alone. He has the help of an assistant trainer and a student training program to help him keep players healthy throughout the season.

“I have my assistant trainer, Mr. Hidalgo. He’s been with me 5 years now. Then we have a student training club. They’re kind of my assistants as we’re getting teams ready to go out for practice. The big part is their my eyes and ears. We can’t be at every practice all the time, there’s just too many going on, but when I can have student trainers at various practice locations, then they can tell me what’s going on and perform injury assessment until I can get there and figure out what’s going on,” said Frey.

Frey has many different sports to take care of and players to keep healthy, and it is imperative that he has help by his side to keep the players safe throughout their respective seasons.

“We have about 27 sports now across the year. We have three levels of football, four levels of soccer, four levels of volleyball, two levels of swimming, and so on. When you add up all the athletes there’s over 400 athletes that are practicing from 3:30 to 5:30. Two people can’t watch them all. It’s important that I have as many eyes out looking as possible,” said Frey.

Players also need to eat healthy throughout the day to ensure they are well fueled for their games and practices.

“Off the field the training staff makes sure that we’re okay during the school day, and they make sure we’re eating right and staying positive during the school day,” said Pena.

The training staff plays a huge role for the football team. They make sure players stay healthy throughout their season and throughout the offseason. They take care of players in the offseason and make sure they are eating right to keep healthy for their seasons to come. Without the training staff, the RB football season most likely would not be able to run, so a good training staff is imperative for the football team’s success.