Athletics training room gets crowded

Stonehill College athletics have returned to the Northeast Conference for their third campaign across multiple sports.  

With teams getting into their seasonal grind, injuries are inevitable and cannot be treated on their own. 

Enter Associate Athletic Trainer, Kayla Cullerton, who is in her third year as an athletic trainer at Stonehill. She is one of five athletic trainers on staff. Prior to Stonehill, Cullerton was the associate athletic trainer for the Massachusetts Pirates of the Indoor Football League. She has also worked at other universities, including Becker College, Bryant University, and Providence College.  

With the fall sports season being the busiest of the school year, the athletic training room can get hectic due to different practice and game schedules that vary throughout the season.  

“Normally, it’s so busy, I don’t have time to document on the spot. We have a handful of work-study students who help us with our day-to-day operations (cleaning, stocking, setting up for practices, etc.). I will sometimes get an intern from our health science program who tries to do an internship with me,” Cullerton said.  

With players being in the training room prior to practice or game time, the relationship built between players, coaches, and athletic trainers is an important one, she said.  

“I have incredible relationships with players and coaches alike, even those athletes on other teams who are not ‘my’ athletes. I strive to make the training room a warm and fun place so that athletes feel comfortable being there when they are there because they are injured. I like being able to cheer them up and I pride myself on treating all athletes as humans first, not just as a student-athlete. They are more than their sport,” said Cullerton.