Throughout the season, USCRipsIt will be taking you into the off-the-field life of a player, showing you what goes on behind the scenes through "Inside the Life." In this weekly series written by staff writer Courtney Kalisz, we'll bring you into the daily life of a player and reveal the details that fill a student-athlete's schedule while off the field. Here's a feature about the athletic training room and its faithful place in the regimen of a USC student-athlete:
Whether it's for an ice bath, serious injury rehab or just physical examinations, every member of the USC football team has experienced the training room. The training room is the epicenter of the most important factor for the performance of the football team: the health of the players' bodies. As a former Trojan athlete who suffered a career-ending ankle injury, being injured is one of the most difficult challenges an elite athlete can face. Besides the obvious physical discomfort, the disappointment of being unable to compete is often times more devastating than the injury itself.
It's 2 p.m. on a Thursday, and the usual assortment of athletes is present in the athletic training room. Much like Student-Athlete Academic Services, the training room is the designated healing spot for all of USC athletics, with the exception of basketball and volleyball players, whose training room is located within the Galen Center. Some athletes are stretching before their afternoon workouts. Others are unwinding in the ice bath after a hard weight room session. Alongside the ice bathtubs and therapy tables, several members of the football team are sprinkled throughout the weight room. They are taping limbs before practice, stretching out and socializing. The mood is light, but the focus of the players is impossible to miss.
This time in the day is peak traffic for the athletic training room, and it is managed by the talented athletic training room staff. Led by head athletic trainer Russ Romano, the training room staff never fails to attend to the needs of all of the student-athletes.    Â
The levels of injuries amongst the athletes range from minor to devastating. Among the mix of athletes in the training room on this Thursday was sophomore safety Ryan McMahon. McMahon was stretching out before the afternoon workout. "Have you seen my bruise?" he asks. McMahon has a bruised hip. I assume this means a small bruise, no larger than the size of an orange. He pulls up the lower half of his shirt revealing a helmet-sized bruise on his side, boasting every shade of red, purple, and blue imaginable. McMahon is allowed to practice, he says, but will not be subjected to contact. When asked about when he will be cleared for regular play, he lights up. "Saturday," he says with a smile, referring to the first game of the season for the Trojans.
Also present in the weight room was McMahon's fellow sophomore teammate Blake Ayles. Ayles, a tight end for the Trojans with incredible potential, suffered a serious knee injury last year. The onset of this injury was in early November, launching an ordeal that affected him until as late as spring training. Ayles underwent surgery in December to combat the injury, but faced many long months of therapy to become healthy. "I tried to get into the training room whenever I could," he recalls. "I would come in two to three times a day to ice."
With all of the time off the field and the stress of being injured, it is sometimes hard for the players to maintain a positive attitude. Ayles attributes his successful recovery to his positive outlook on the situation and motivation to return to practice and competition. "Thinking about getting back on the field helped me stay positive," he says as he prepared for his first game of the 2009 season.
The hardest time in the process of being injured is often the beginning stages. Ronald Johnson, a valuable wideout for the Trojans, is amongst the most recent victims of injury. Johnson broke his collarbone during the Aug. 29 scrimmage at the Coliseum and will be sorely missed at the beginning of this season. "I'm looking at it as 'everything happens for a reason,'" Johnson said.
- By Courtney Kalisz, USCRipsIt staff writer
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