ORONO – A University of Maine football player lies motionlessly on the field moaning in pain.

Several players who were just involved in the jarring collision begin yelling. The coach hears and anxiously shouts to the athletic trainer.

The person who runs out to the field has no tinges of gray hair or a furrowed brow. Instead, a tall, energetic 22-year-old woman examines the player.

Heather Benoit is one of the approximately 20 student athletic trainers working at the University of Maine. Benoit examines the player and his teammates help him off the field. Once it’s determined he is not injured, just a little beat up, he stays on the field. Benoit asks if he needs anything after practice.

The student athletic trainers at the university are gaining experience to become certified athletic trainers while assisting in keeping the athletes on the playing field.

Head football coach Jack Cosgrove said although they’re students, the student althletic trainers are indispensable.

“Some don’t know how important they are to the successful operation of the program,” Cosgrove said.

Benoit said watching from the sidelines can give an athletic trainer an idea of what to look for while assessing an injury because they saw how the injury occurred.

“I like the intensity of watching from the sidelines and knowing what we observe here can help get an injured player back on the field,” Benoit said.

Elise Spaulding, football’s student athletic trainer, said it’s important as a trainer to have a familiarity with the sport.

“I try to learn the basics of the sport I’m working with because it helps you understand what’s going on if an athlete gets injured,” she said.

Cosgrove has worked with many student trainers in the past seasons, including several females, and has not seen a gender issue arise.

“I don’t recognize the difference. I don’t think they [Benoit or Spaulding] would be out there unless they were capable,” Cosgrove said. “Both are competent and do the same job as a male trainer.”

Cosgrove said the only time the gender issue comes up is when getting an extra hotel room for female student athletic trainers when traveling.

Student athletic trainer for men’s soccer, Lisa MacDonald said there are no gender issues when working in the training room.

“I haven’t noticed the gender issue,” MacDonald said. “It’s the willingness of the athlete to work with you.”

Recently retired head athletic trainer for the university, Wes Jordan, said the training room became coed about 15 years ago, and while some people had difficulty adjusting one must always remember, “It’s not it’s a male or a female, it’s an athlete.”

Jordan said besides additional room expense, other obstacles occurred when working with football because some of the facilities that were built years ago were not designated for females.

“Some schools have great facilities that aren’t a problem but sometimes we’d tape in less than ideal situations,” Jordan said.

Mike Gay, who has worked for male sports teams, is now the head student athletic trainer for the field hockey team. He hasn’t observed many differences in duties.

“I didn’t know what it would be like at first working with women’s field hockey but working with them is like working with anyone else,” he said.

Head field hockey coach Terry Kix said experiences such as this provide the experience of working with a different sport and people.

“Any time you intermix the genders you learn quite a bit,” Kix said. “We enjoy having Mike, he is an excellent trainer.”

While athletic training is a male-dominated occupation, women are successfully breaking into the field. Benoit and Andrea Malmsten, who is the head student athletic trainer for women’s soccer, agreed it’s encouraging to be working with two professional women such as assistant athletic trainers Paula Linder and Sherrie Weeks.

“I think it’s happening but not in hockey right away. It’s an old school message” Skip Thayer, head athletic trainer for the Pittsburgh Penguins, and a former Maine student athletic trainer said.

Thayer said in other sports women are becoming more and more commonplace and as time goes on it will equal out.

Weeks said when assigning sport teams to students they sit down to discuss career goals, sports preferences, experience and competency level.

“Because I want to work one day with professional sports, having Sherrie’s guidance helps. I know what’s realistic and what’s not,” Benoit said.

Malmsten said the opportunity to work with men’s and women’s teams has helped her gain experience she hopes to use after she graduates.

“I’m going to be a teacher and I want to get my certification and be the school’s certified trainer,” Malmsten said. “It’s important for younger athletes to have an athletic trainer because they might not get the proper care they need otherwise.”

Several athletes agreed they liked working with the students.

“I think it’s easier to talk to the student athletic trainer,” Trey Johnson, a running back said. “They do just as good of a job as a certified trainer and they know our bumps and bruises and what we need.”

Johnson said the program offers the students experience they need.

“I feel they should get an opportunity to do what they’re going to school for,” Johnson said. “They do a good job and I’m satisfied.”

While the average person might not have any idea of what the athletic trainer does, their work doesn’t go unappreciated.

“It’s just like working with a real trainer and they do their job,” cornerback Eric Lewis said. “I don’t know what we’d do without them.”

While the students gain knowledge from the courses they take, most of their education is hands-on.

Weeks said student athletic trainers assist during practice and game preparation as well as rehabilitation. They can also observe in evaluations and assess an injury under the supervision of a certified athletic trainer.

“We supervise protocol to ensure everything is above the board,” Linder said.

Head athletic trainer Charile Thompson said in the training room the students are professionals.

“We could not survive without them here. Most schools have student athletic trainers at any level,” Thompson said.

Jordan said student trainers have a large responsibility because, at times, they are they only trainer to travel with teams. He compared the dedication of a student athletic trainer to that of an athlete.

“The commitment they make is equal to or greater than what an athlete makes,” Jordan said.

The student athletic trainer works a 12-hour day during pre-season along the side of certified athletic trainers.

Assistant athletic trainer Paul Culina said students benefit from having four resources of information.

“If something one of us does is different than what another trainer does, I explain that what they have learned isn’t wrong, but to try a different style a few times to see what fits them best,” Culina said.

Working together with the athletic trainers is Cutler Health Center. Doctors there discuss the athlete’s case with coaches and trainers and map a plan to get the player back on the field.

“We meet on a daily basis to discuss the case and decide what’s best for the athlete,” Dick Young, athletic medicine coordinator at Cutler Health Center said.

The students also learn how to deal with the various personalities of the athlete.

“You learn how to deal with someone differently because you can’t deal with everyone the same way,” Gay said. “It’s more tense and uptight during the season than preseason. During preseason, the attitude is we’re going to do this and during the season it’s depression if they don’t live up to those expectations.”