Sports Medicine/Management Field Trip to NIU
On Thursday, March 6, the Sports Medicine/Management students traveled to Northern Illinois University in DeKalb. The entire class wore red and black in support of NIU after the tragic shootings on February 14. We toured the Convocation Center, which houses the main athletic training room for intercollegiate athletes. The center itself hosts events of all kinds, from intercollegiate basketball and gymnastics to monster truck shows.
Our tour guide was Jeff Sisson, ATC, an associate athletic trainer to Huskie athletics, who led us through the men’s basketball locker room, as well as the athletic training room where student athletes receive injury treatments.
We then boarded the bus for a short trip down the road to the new Yorden Center. The Yorden Center is a new facility, housing football coaches’ offices, as well as a state of the art strength and conditioning center. The entire building was funded through donations - not student fees. The strength and conditioning center is solely for the use of NIU athletes. Another athletic training facility is located within the Yorden Center. In both athletic training rooms we saw, there were underwater treadmills, and at the Yorden Center, there was an in-ground whirlpool that is kept at 50 degrees – Brrrr!
After we left NIU, we stopped for lunch at Portillo’s and then toured Unlimited Performance Physical Therapy. UP is Kishwaukee Community Hospital’s outpatient clinic. Chris Laurent, ATC, guided us through the different areas of the clinic, including the pediatric therapy room, which is set up for young children, and the ADL room, which is set up like a house. The ADL room allows patients to familiarize themselves with activities they may need to perform on a daily basis at home, such as opening cabinets, pulling out drawers, and cooking on a stove. These skills may seem simple, but some stroke patients have to re-learn these actions during their recovery.
Both of these stops gave us some insight into several careers in Sports Medicine and Sport Management. A big “Thank You” goes to Mary and Doug Anderson for volunteering to chaperone for our class!
