At the beginning of this year Whitman College welcomed John Eckel, new head trainer, to the Athletic Training Center. Eckel, who previously worked as the head trainer at New York University for 22 years, comes most recently from working at two high schools in Hawaii.
Eckel replaces Brooke Kennedy who held the position for the past year on an interim basis. Kennedy took over after former head athletic trainer Juli Dunn vacated her position to undertake a new career as director of the Academic Resource Center after the 2009 school year.
On any given day Eckel is occupied with around 75 varsity athletes walking through his doors looking for help with injury prevention and rehabilitation. He is also often working during home sporting events, helping both the Missionaries and any visiting athletes.
Eckel has been very impressed with the school so far. In particular, he enjoys the one-year-old training room itself, which is located in the newly renovated Sherwood Athletic Center.
“For this size of school I don’t think you’re going to find a better facility,” Eckel said.
He is also very thankful for an athletic department that is closely connected and accommodating, which forms a contrast to the department he worked with at NYU.
“Everybody seems to get along here which is different than New York,” he said. “There is more attitude in New York than there is here.”
Even though he has been at Whitman for little over a month, he has already made an impact on how the training room is run. Sophomore volleyball player Hannah Holloran has noticed an increase in the structure and order of the facility.
“It is a lot more professional than last year,” Holloran said.
The professionalism noted by Holloran is one aspect of the job in which Eckel takes pride.
“This is a health care facility and it should be run as such. You want to have a professional atmosphere,” he said.
Beyond this awareness of and increase in professionalism, there are no major changes that Eckel sees himself implementing in the coming year. So far, the consensus amongst varsity athletes is that Eckel is very competent in what he does. Both Holloran and sophomore basketball player Drew Raher further this point with their belief that Eckel genuinely cares about the athletes.
“He is a lot more involved,” Raher said.
“He really cares about the individual, not just about efficiency,” Holloran said.
One particular change from which Raher personally benefits is Eckel’s choice of training room music.
“He likes country music, which I enjoy, but the rest of the team doesn’t,” he added.
