Crystal and Kelly: PTS Athletics SuperStars

By PHILIP MCMICHAEL ‘16
PTS Falconer Editor-In-Chief

If you’ve been to a Palmer Trinity Varsity Football game in the past two years, chances are that you’ve seen student trainers Kelly Blary and Crystal Ferreira working just as hard as the players on the field. The two seniors have been working with PTS Athletic Trainer Coach Jones for the past three years, and their passion for helping student athletes shows when you talk to them about what they do.

Kelly and Crystal have proven to be integral to the success of many Palmer Trinity teams, especially the football team. When a football player is hurt on the field, they are the first to rush over and evaluate his injuries. When a player needs water or ice, Kelly and Crystal are quick to come to their aid. For three years, Coach Jones has been teaching the duo many techniques and tips for treating injuries, wrapping and icing various parts of the body, and prepping sidelines for teams.

Certainly, Kelly and Crystal have seen their share of gruesome sports injuries. For Kelly, the injury that is ingrained in her mind is that of Marcus Kyle ’16, who broke his ankle. Kelly says that she could see the bone pushing at the inside of Marcus’s skin! Crystal remembers how Daniel Chumbley ’15 tore his ACL, and how his knee looked abnormal and displaced. The student trainers treat more minor injuries almost every day of the football season. As Crystal says, “someone’s always got something”.

Both girls hope to study athletic training-related fields in college, and eventually find jobs in the profession. They feel that Coach Jones’ guidance has truly prepared them for success in athletic training. Kelly and Crystal admit that they are still learning, and that certain things like wrapping athlete’s shoulders are still yet to be mastered.  The pair says that their different traits complement each other, both when it comes to on-the-field assistance and injury treatment.

Crystal says that Kelly is often more competitive during games, cheering the team on and always as energized as the players on the field. Crystal prefers to be the calm and comforting member of the training staff, useful for keeping injured players calm and deliberate in their movements. Kelly believes that she is better at shin wrapping, while she admits that Crystal is often better at correctly applying ice wraps. Both are constantly learning and improving, and this season they have once again demonstrated their importance to the success of sports at Palmer Trinity School.