By Navin Krishnan (@NavinKthespear) – Reporter
At San Jose State, flexibility has different attributions in sports. Maybe you recall a gymnast or swimmer with incredible elasticity in their limbs or perhaps a team’s versatility on defense or players adjusting against adversity.
A rarely quantified element of sports entails the most flexible position in all of sports – scholastic, intercollegiate and even the pros.
Their job is to prevent, evaluate, diagnose, or treat acute or chronic injuries. The education of athletic trainers as a subject is known as Kinesiology.
Students learn to appreciate and accept minority equality in the sanctity of San Jose State.
Justin Honda, a minority athletic trainer for San Jose State from Atherton, Calif., currently supervises injury rehabilitation and collaborates with sports performance coaches to ensure athletes understand healthy habits and are aware on how to train.
Like many athletic trainers and personnel, Honda’s affiliation grew from an early attraction to sports.
“I was and still am a huge sports fan,” said Honda. “I mainly played soccer growing up, but I also played baseball, basketball, and flag football. Being a sports nut, I knew in high school that I wanted a career in the sports industry.”
In addition, Honda has gained a reputation as a mentor to San Jose State undergraduate students that want a future as an athletic trainer.
“I am the Gatorade manager at San Jose State University for all Gatorade camps that are happening this summer at San Jose State University,” said Honda.
“I have been involved in some Women’s March Madness games, baseball NCAA tournament games, and college basketball tournaments in Portland, Oregon as a student at Oregon State University,” said Honda.
Honda is also an alumni of Oregon State University, where his career took off – but not without adversity.
“The first year at Oregon State University, I was not accepted into their athletic training program,” said Honda. “Luckily, I had the support of my parents and taking that extra year of college would not affect me in my career.”
Honda also assists in athlete eligibility paperwork, inventory and drug education and testing.
“I have been lucky so far in my career that every team I have worked with, I felt a part of their team,” said Honda. “Their success on the field is my success and makes me proud of the job I am doing.”
Joseph Kim, another minority vital to college athletics has earned his status as a first-aid responder and an experienced athletic trainer.
“I grew up from a city called Cerritos down in Los Angeles County,” said Kim.
“My interest drew from professional sports,” Kim said. “I am an avid Lakers and Dodgers fan and loved the opportunity to be able to work with athletes through athletic training.”
“They had a segment on their athletic trainer, Gary Vitti,” said Kaizaki. “I thought what he did with the Lakers was really cool.”
Kim worked for the San Jose Earthquakes Youth League, supervising from the sidelines youth participants of all ages.
Kim’s journey emphasizes the rocky road he had to pass through. He has experience as an athletic training student in Kinesiology at multiple schools including a Master of Arts degree at San Jose State as well as a Bachelor of Science degree at the University of the Pacific.
“There is more celebration rather than hardships in athletics,” said Kim. “I am happy to be a part of our athletes’ lives and helping them achieve their goals. I care for these athletes.”
Kim is known to students outside of SJSU as well. He has given advice to help high school seniors put together their college applications and been active in orientation for incoming students.
He even had a job where he worked for Gatorade.
Nao Kaizaki is another Spartan graduate that chased professionalism in the quest for her translation from Kinesiology student to assistant athletic trainer.
Kaizaki was exposed to the routine professionalism displayed by athletic trainers as a child.
“When my brother participated in the baseball summer camp in the U.S., he injured his wrist as a catcher,” said Kaizaki.
“An athletic trainer there helped him with evaluation, rehabilitation, and taping for the entire camp.”
Something that motivated Kaizaki was the absence of athletic trainers in Japan.
“I grew up in Japan for my entire childhood,” Kaizaki said. “Athletic training is not as familialized in Japan as here in the U.S. If you were to get injured, you would go see a doctor on your own, or leave it hoping that it will heal one day.”
A major obstacle Kaizaki faced was learning English, as her education as a Kinesiology student began in America. She faced racism in her first years in America.
“I have been called a “job stealer” and said, “get out of the U.S.” by a stranger walking downtown,” said Kaizaki.
“Even with the hardships, I continued to make an effort,” Kaizaki said. “I always try to be a person to whom athletes can talk and discuss whatever they wish.”
Athletic trainers take the cake when it comes to being hard-hat, mentally tough and sacrificial every time they are depended upon.
Integration of this artistry into athletics is imminent to the preservation of collegiate athletics, namely San Jose State.
According to the NCAA, men’s wrestling, as of 2015, had the highest injury rate of all intercollegiate sports and football garnered 47,199 injuries across the country.
For women’s sports, gymnastics allocated the highest injury rate with around 10.4% of athletes sustaining injuries.
In total, collegiate athletics totaled 210,674 injuries in 2015.
Clearly this demonstrates the demand and cruciality of having an educated, poised and prepared staff of professionals to treat or even prevent predicaments such as these injuries.
Working in a variety of roles such as rehabilitation, personal training and primary care.
“You can find athletic trainers in a plethora of industries,” said Honda. “Not only do you see us in sports, you see us in physical therapy clinics, doctors offices, in industry working with factory workers, and even in marketing selling the next best athletic and every day wear.”
Their perseverance and work ethic, though sometimes embedded too deep for the common fan to fathom, substantiates itself as the glue of athletics at San Jose State.
Regardless of the money they earn, their presence is highly valued because of the return on investment they generate for employers in and out of sports.
