About an hour before practice, football players begin filing into a cramped athletic training room in the bowels of Franklin Field.
Seeking ice, tape, muscle relaxers and a myriad of other remedies for their varied injuries, they are aided by a professional staff and a small group of peers -- volunteer and work-study undergraduates.
These student trainers fill roles similar to that of a physical therapy aide. They help set up machines commonly used in physical therapy, tape athletes' bodies and set up the field before practices and games, ensuring that medical kits and water coolers are in their proper places.
Working so closely with athletes, some student trainers consider themselves part of the team.
"We are there at their practices. We travel with them. We know them and the coaches," Nursing senior and student trainer Kara Colopinto says. "We're pretty much there on the team."
Colopinto helped out with the athletics department at her high school and has been volunteering at Penn since her freshman year.
She has taken advantage of her experiences there to learn more about orthopedics and taping, and to clarify her career goals.
Colopinto is interested in "the whole recovery process with physical therapy, being able to reach the full potential to where they were before their injury."
Assistant Athletic Trainer Jay Effrece notes that the job of a student trainer has its highs and lows.
"They really enjoy helping us out with the football games," Effrece says. "The hard part is sitting there all day at a fencing tournament, waiting all day for that one person to get a cut."
Wharton junior and football player Greg Williams has been going to the training office since his sophomore year and knows the student trainers as the people who bring him water during practice.
He says he received medical attention from them once, but noted that he prefers to go to the professional trainers.
"They taped my ankles once, but they didn't do a very good job," Williams says. "I think it's just experience. Obviously, the trainers have been around a lot longer, so they probably do a better job of taping."
While student trainers do not go through any kind of formal training or certification programs and are far less experienced than the full-time staff, Effrece notes that they are incredible assets.
"They, I would say, are a large asset because we have 30 varsity sports and six of us," Effrece says. "They work their butts off."
In particular, the student trainers perform a first response for teams that do not have professional trainers designated for them, such as fencing and squash.
Student trainers will usually be present all day for a home game, which regular staff cannot cover. They can assist with ice and Band-Aids, or call the professional staff via cell phone for more assistance.
