Michael Ferrara ’80, graduate training program director at the University of Georgia (at right, with daughter), has made his mark with the international Paralympic Games, which are held for athletes with various disabilities at the same time as the Olympic Games (ICQ, fall 1996). "I wanted to go to grad school, and I wanted to be the head trainer at a college or high school. Ithaca College prepared me well," says Ferrara. "Kent [Scriber] is a great educator and mentor." Ferrara is president of the World Federation of Athletic Training and Therapy and served as medical director for the 1992 Barcelona Paralympics and director of medical operations at the 1996 Atlanta Paralympics — responsible for the health care of everyone in attendance, including 3,000 athletes. His interest in the games was sparked by his doctoral dissertation on injury treatments for athletes with disabilities.

"The athletic training profession is specific to the United States. Athletes in the rest of the world rely primarily on therapists who specialize in different areas," Ferrara explains. "In Atlanta our organization highlighted the role of athletic trainers, and there was a lot of interest from many countries. We are now teaching throughout the world — in Japan (photo, left), Korea, Britain, France, Ireland, Spain, and Germany."

Gretchen Schlabach ’75 (left) is far removed from the "glamor" of pro sports, yet she, too, has made her mark in the field. Schlabach, athletic training program director and associate professor in the Department of Kinesiology and Physical Education at Northern Illinois University in Dekalb, received this year’s Most Distinguished Athletic Trainer Award from the National Athletic Trainers’ Association (at the same convention at which Scriber received his hall of fame membership).

Schlabach works with seven local high schools, a community college, a hospital, and a sports medicine center, as well as directly with the NIU intercollegiate athletics department. She teaches, too, but her duties are more administrative these days.

Her Ithaca degree is in physical education. She says she was fortunate to be able to pursue an interest in the sciences as an undergraduate. "The physical education program at Ithaca is very strong," she says. "People who wanted to go into the science arena [got] a strong background." Her primary interest now is sports nutrition, and she has become an authority on the subject.

A good athletic trainer, says Schlabach, "must be passionate about caring for people, be motivated, and be selfless. You have to think of others and get them healed. The best part of my job is working with people."

Another Ithaca alumna who works in an academic setting is Fawn Gleckner Michel ’88, assistant athletic trainer at Utah State University, where 300 athletes compete in 15 sports. Now in her 10th year there, she works with both men’s and women’s intercollegiate teams, preparing athletes for practices, running rehab programs, and attending games. "I got a lot of great experience at Ithaca that has helped me in my career," says Michel. "This is the job I envisioned having when I started with the IC athletic training program."