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| Trainer Sarah Gley |
On one of those occasions, the marker board in her office looked like this:
With characteristic humility, Sarah explained the admiration this way: "I'm helping them get back to doing what they really want to be doing. They definitely appreciate that."
What makes Sarah "the beez neez"? What led her here to work at SBA?
I asked Sarah to supply me with some background for SBA students who might be interested in pursuing a career in athletic training, or who might simply want to know more about her and what makes her - as the marker board says - "magical."
This is what she wrote:
Unlike many people in high school and college, I have known what I wanted to be when I grew up since my junior year in high school.
I have always been involved in sports and loved participating, competing, and making lifelong friends through sports. I started my gymnastics career at the age of 3. I began competing at the age of 6 and continued through the year I turned 13. The reason I quit was a back injury I suffered while practicing a new dismount off the high bar into a foam pit.
My family and I decided it was time to switch sports in order to keep me healthy, due to the fact that gymnastics is so hard on a teenage female's body. I decided to try out spring board and platform diving because I already knew how to flip and twist in the air from the tricks I did in gymnastics. I also picked up snowboarding as a hobby at the age of 16 and tried to make it up to the mountains as often as possible. I participated in diving competitively and snowboarding as a hobby through middle school and high school with very few injuries. However, through all these years of being involved in sports, I had watched other athletes have to leave their sports due to serious injuries.
In high school, I decided I was interested in sports medicine because I wanted to help athletes either stay healthy or work through their injuries to continue to participate and compete in the sports they love.
I took a career class my junior year in high school that combined the experiences of athletic training and physical therapy. Through this class, I was able to help the athletic trainer at my high school with first-aid care and different taping techniques. I completed the career class, but did not want to stop volunteering my time in the athletic training room. I was able to arrange my class schedule around football, water polo, soccer, track, volleyball, wrestling, cheerleading, baseball, and softball practices and games in order to be available to assist the athletic trainer with anything she may have needed. I was able to continue this schedule my junior and senior year and knew this was what I wanted to do for my career after college.
I attended California State University, Fresno for my Bachelor of Science degree in Kinesiology with the Athletic Training option. While completing this program, I had the chance to work with football, tennis, volleyball, softball, track and field, soccer, baseball, basketball, wrestling, and equestrian. I enjoyed working with all different types of athletes, but preferred to be outside with any sport I was working with. By the time my senior year in college came around, I had to start deciding which sport I was the most interested in and either begin looking for a job or for a graduate assistant position in order to work and obtain my Master's degree.
After many meetings with my advisor, I decided I wanted to make the move to winter sports. I was interested in skiing and snowboarding because I enjoyed being on the mountain so much since high school. I contacted the University of Utah because they had a Division I NCAA ski team with a student athletic trainer that traveled with the team. I asked if they would have the funding to hire me as a graduate assistant for the ski team and if I would be able to travel with the team and oversee an athletic training student who could travel with me. To my surprise, I heard back from the athletic department in less than a week with a job offer. All I had to do at that point was apply to a graduate program within the Exercise and Sports Science department. I chose to apply to the Psychosocial Aspects of Sport program (Sports Psychology). I made the move to Utah for the 2 year job offer and graduate program where I was able to work with many amazing ski racers and coaches while learning about sports psychology and the sport of ski racing. I was able to travel all over the US with the Nordic and Alpine ski teams. I quickly became familiar with athletes from other school because they knew I was the only athletic trainer that was traveling on the circuit. The athletes from any of the collegiate teams had no problem asking me for help with the injuries they suffered while racing. Even though I was working for one team, the Utah coaches and I wanted to see all the athletes be able to compete to their highest potential no matter what team they were from. This showed me how caring and supportive the ski community can be. From that point on, I knew I wanted to be involved with ski racing for as long as possible in order to keep skiers competing in the sport they love.
Now I have the opportunity to travel with the elite J1 and PG team down to the J3 team on the alpine side. I am involved with caring for the injuries of all the student athletes at SBA along with the J1, J2, and J3's, Freeriders, and Nordic skiers on the ski team.
I continue to enjoy every part of my job at Sugar Bowl and am grateful for the opportunities I have received throughout my life to have made it to where I am now.
Thanks, Sarah!
