Amanda suffered a horrible back injury due to overworking herself through extensive workouts and long hours of bartending without tending to her body’s needs of stretching and recovery time which led to her developing a herniated disc, but this injury also led her to discover her love for meditation and yoga which helped eliminate her back problems. Being an active person and also working in a restaurant at the time, she realized she needed to be able to move, so she changed her focus from teaching to physical therapy, and eventually fell in love with the fast-paced environment of sports medicine. Amanda believes that being an athletic trainer means that she gets to help all of her athletes continue to play safely as well as helping guide athletes to make good choices to prioritize their health. Amanda’s favorite part of the job is seeing her athletes in action playing their sports, especially when athletes finally get to return to playing following an injury. She loves being able to see her athletes at Marymount push themselves and persevere in the hard moments of both success and failure. Amanda emphasizes the importance of failing because without failure, you can never truly reap the rewards of success like winning a championship and growing as an athlete throughout the season. Amanda had many setbacks when she started off pursuing her career in athletic training. Medical fields lacked the presence of women, resulting in many women, like Amanda, to be not taken seriously. However, she never let these setbacks get in the way of her pursuing her career, and she continued to persist and grow her knowledge in her athletic training career. She wants everyone interested in a career like hers to know that knowledge is the key to success. You should never let anyone get between you and your career! Athletic trainers help so many athletes reach their full potential by making sure they take care of themselves through exercises, recovery, and providing proper treatment, so athletes can thrive all season long. 

In addition to being an athletic trainer, Amanda is obsessed with living a healthy life! She has an abundant amount of knowledge about the human body, food, nutrition, working out, proper shoes, skincare, self-care, meditation, breath work, and making moon water and crystals (She even has her own collection!). She is also a dog owner, to an adorable chihuahua named Bruno who has stuck by her side for two years. She adopted Bruno after her therapist said a service pet would be good for her after her third and final surgery on February 2nd, 2022. Bruno truly changed Amanda’s life for the better and each day she cherishes his company and love. 

We are so happy you are part of the Sailor community Amanda! We couldn’t have asked for a better Athletic Trainer. You truly impacted every one of us. We love you Amanda and Happy Athletic Trainer Month!