This fall, STA hired their first full-time trainer to assist all the fall, winter and spring sports teams.

Athletic director Mark Hough said finding a full-time trainer for STA was a top priority when he arrived here last year. According to Hough, STA had a company called Elite Physical Therapy come in about once a week to treat injured athletes. In addition to this company, the school also had to schedule personal trainers for any other dates they needed, such as home games.

Among these trainers was Ms. Tiffany Jeffers. Jeffers worked at STA part time last year with a variety of other trainers and was eventually choosen by Hough to be the school’s first full-time trainer.

“[STA] had several different trainers last year that would come on campus for games, and after talking to the girls and the coaches everyone seemed to like Tiffany,” Hough said. “Her schedule also fit the difficult times we needed.”

Jeffers can be found at school every day in Goppert Center during Lunch/Activity and after school from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. According to Jeffers, she typically sees up to seven girls during the day and many more athletes after school before and after their practices.

“During lunch and activity I’ll do rehab exercises, strength training and working with different injuries,” Jeffers said. “Right after school, before the girls go to practice, I’ll help them stretch or tape ankles, stuff like that.”

According to varsity cross country runner, sophomore Sarah Vickery, the trainer has immensely helped her shin splints which she has had off and on since last October.

“If it weren’t for the trainer, my shins would have been in a lot worse condition and I probably would have had another stress fracture by now,” Vickery said.

Jeffers is also currently figuring out the details on having an open weight room once the winter sports begin, where she would teach students about the equipment and offer strength training sessions. Jeffers would like this be every day from 3 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. and it would be open to all off season athletes and any other interested students.

“I want [weight training] to be more organized, I want people to commit and not just come like once every two weeks,” Jeffers said.

Hough is very pleased with Jeffers’ work here at STA and believes his goals for having a full-time trainer have been met.

“I wanted to be more proactive and do more injury prevention, not just fixing people once they are hurt,” Hough said. “And having [Jeffers] be able to do both strength training with weights and injuries is perfect.’