When Patrick White is on the sidelines as an athletic trainer for Providence Catholic High School in New Lenox, he knows it is not just the athletes who may demand his attention. He has been called away from the action for injuries in the marching band and dealt with fans who have fallen in the stands.
“As an athletic trainer, you have to be ready for anything,” he said. “You just never know what you’re going to be faced with that day. It’s unexpected. You have to be able to think on your feet.”
But White was not ready for what happened Friday in his sports medicine classroom. Administrators and student athletes surprised him with gifts and recognition for National Athletic Training Month.
“I think it’s tremendous,” said White, who has worked at the school for 25 years. “Oftentimes athletic trainers are underappreciated. I think it’s important for all athletic trainers to be recognized for all the hard work that we do.”
White received a $100 donation to the charity of his choice, a pair of Chicago White Sox tickets and a pair of tickets to see a doubleheader of the Chicago Fire and Red Stars on a day expected to feature Atlanta United goalie Brad Guzan, a Providence graduate who played for Premier League as well as the United States men’s national soccer team.
“He was in one of my first classes here,” White said.
White also watched Eric Steinbach and Miles Boykin play at Providence before they made it to the NFL. He has been present for seven football titles and three consecutive baseball championships.
“I love my job; I love what I do,” White said. “I really enjoy watching my students succeed in the athletic arena but in life, also.”
That job is about much more than icing and taping ankles, White said. He provides medical care for students at school, helps student athletes with mental health struggles as well as physical injuries and follows-up on treatments that go beyond the field, including the protocols for concussions that have evolved during his tenure.
“I think you learn on the fly,” White said. “I didn’t think I was really prepared for the mental component of it.”
White always played sports, including soccer and baseball, in high school while growing up in New Jersey, and wanted to stay involved with athletics. He saw athletic training as a good opportunity and started at Middlesex High School in New Jersey.
He earned his master’s degree in athletic training from Illinois State University and started working at St. Joseph’s Medical Center in Joliet, which Providence Catholic contracted for athletic training services. White worked at the high school for three years in that capacity before making Providence his full-time job.
“I loved the school so much that I went back and got my teaching degree and was hired by Providence as a dual role, both athletic trainer and teaching,” White said.
White said the job of an athletic trainer can be stressful, especially these past couple of years when the schedules during the pandemic have been condensed and more sports overlap. But he likes being around the students and thinks that his own history with injury — an arthroscopic knee surgery and a recent shoulder reconstruction among them — help him communicate better to students what they can expect, setbacks they might face and recovery times.
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“I’ve suffered a lot of the injuries I see students have,” White said.
Morgan Pericht, who was White’s assistant for eight years until this past fall, returned Friday for the recognition. She said working with White was great and he deserved the day’s surprise. He has always kept the focus on being there for the students, she said. And in her new role in corporate injury prevention, Pericht said his lessons still resonate.
“He was my role model, my mentor,” Pericht said. “I learned everything from him out of school.”
White’s recognition came at the end of National Athletic Training Month, which is designed to recognize the difference trainers make both on and off the field. The surprise was organized by Buddy’s Helpers, a Chicago-area nonprofit dedicated to student athletes and those in need.
Bill Jones is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.