Changing Wartburg’s Athletic Training RoomWartburg CollegeDerek Krebsbach,

Anthony Cetera,

Sebastian Mena

Authors Note: This team report is completed as part of an assignment for the course Business

Communications BA 325-02. While focusing on improving the number of staff in the

athletic training, this was completed during winter term 2016 under professor Susan

Meyeraan.

To: Susan Meyerann

From: Derek Krebsbach, Sebastian Mena, Anthony Cetera

1

Date: 3/14/16

Subject: Extending athletic training room hours.

This is the report you requested, on our study over Wartburg College training

room facility and its effectiveness with its student’s athletes.

The topic selected for our study is; the effectiveness of Wartburg College Athletic

Training Room. We concluded on this topic, as the three of us used to be part of

Wartburg College soccer team, and are familiarized with student’s athletes and want the

best for them. In this study case we have concentrated on the employee availability, and

a summary analysis of effectiveness being studied. We agreed that the athletic room

availability has been seen as an issue to many student athletes, giving us our primary

idea that the training room hours should be expanded.

To complete this study as a group we had to interview members of the athletic

training room staff, survey student athletes, and gather information on the athletes. The

purpose of this case study is to create the most injury-free prevention environment for

athletes to be healthy and improve their performances. By studying the effectiveness of

the training room it provides us with information on how to become more helpful towards

student athletes.

Getting Wartburg College to economize and agree to the possible modifications

towards the training room facility is a difficult deal to close, but it will provide with helpful

information that can be used in the future. Through the course of researching this issue,

we’ve found that many student athletes share the same view and opinion about the

training room availability, our mission is to improve the training hour rooms to reach the

adequate level of satisfaction towards the student athletes. Creating the most important

point of our study; trying to create a better prone injury environment provided by the

athletic room.

Introduction

Wartburg College has approximately 21 sports between men's and women's

programs. Some of those sports include anything from men’s soccer to women’s

2

softball, these are just a couple of the sports offered here at Wartburg. With 21 different

sports going on throughout the school year, and also including each team’s offseason

workouts/training sessions and postseason runs, in a ten month period these can all

take up a large portions of each day. As each sport or multiple sports are going on at

the same time plus the inclusion of each athlete in season or doing their offseason

training. The athletic training room can get kind of hectic for the athletic trainers.

Wartburg College currently consists of three and half trainers to care for all 21 sports;

which have 724 athletes involved.

Often with three and half full time on staff caring for the athletes before and after

practices can get time consuming especially with three to four sports going on in their

respective seasons. We want to help the Wartburg training staff become more effective

and save time caring for athletes by adding a staff member to increase the work and

number of trainers that can care for an athlete, in return this gets the athletes moving

through the training room more quickly. As explained further on in this paper we will

primarily focus on alternatives in solving ways to improve athletic training room hours,

and also find ways to increase the number of training staff to lessen the workload that

these trainers have. Our primary alternatives will be to find hours that will best suit the

student athletes, and increasing our number of trainers to become even more efficient

with taking care of our athletes in case of dilemmas caused by not having the lack of

support to provide these student athletes with the proper care.

Executive SummaryThis report analyzes Wartburg Athletic training room hours and the staff

availability provided for student athletes in Wartburg College, and presents with possible

changes for Wartburg College athletic program to be become the most effective in the

region.

Wartburg College provides a high caliber private college education where the

athletic program is considered to be just as successful. With Wartburg’s enrollment is

3

decreasing, Wartburg has lost more than 300 students in the past 3-4 years. Besides

Wartburg’s educational program, they provide with a high end NCAA Division 3 athletic

program which involves 21 different sports for both; men and women. Wartburg College

has 1537 students enrolled in their academic structure, from all these students 724

students participate in NCAA Division 3 athletics. Almost half of Wartburg’s Students

participate in an intercollegiate sport for a year, leaving them to balance their academics

and their athletics. Discovering the perfect balance between academics and athletics,

can become weary for student athletes. As a result of many students competing in a

sport, Wartburg College has to provide with sufficient training room hours, and sufficient

trainers for all athletes to receive treatment and to prevent injuries.

The nature of participating in college athletics does require extensive practicing

and top performances on games, with this many hours engaged on sport performance,

it can become harmful towards the body. With the addition of the academics it can

become not only create physical fatigue but also mental fatigue. With more than half of

the students in Wartburg College participating in a sport, the training room is an

essential need for the athletes. The training room provides with three and a half

assistance for all 724 student athletes, making it one of the smallest athletic training

staff in its conference. (Callahan, 2016). Ryan Callahan, is the head athletic trainer at

Wartburg College.

To help student athletes obtain the best athletic training experience there are

several possible solutions and alternatives towards it. The first alternative discussed is

the amount of hours being offered for athletes to visit the training room, and how these

hours can be modified to become more beneficial towards student athletes. Besides the

modification of possible hours, the addition of another staff member is considered as

another solution that can help Wartburg College athletic training room program to

become more effective than what it already is. Wartburg can also provide with the

solution to incorporate athletic training to its majors and minors, by giving the ability for

students to have athletic training practice in helping the athletic room staff at peak

hours.

Background and History

4

Athletic Training has been prevalent in college sports for a long time now. With

having the first athletic trainers participating in the Drake Relays during 1944. Since

then athletic training has been growing at such a rapid pace. With sports injuries, and

trauma growing in youth to college sports “The number of athletic trainers have grown at

an increase of 60% in the last 8 years”(Johnson, 133-134). Athletic Trainers are now

known as health care professionals in which this term was given due to all the

regulations, and types of assessments given during an injury. Athletic trainers tend to

mainly work in an athletic environment however can be used in hospitals as well as

military bases to asses small injuries, and concussions. In order to become an athletic

trainer you must have a degree in athletic training, and must also pass a BOC (board of

certification) test. Athletic training majors typically spend 4 years, and go onto master

programs to reach higher levels of employment in this field so they have higher rights to

assess certain situations.

With the number of sports growing as well as the long history of Wartburg’s

success in athletics. The number of athletic trainers are growing as needed. With

number of injuries increasing from around 250 per year to around 300 a year. Wartburg

continues to not hire trainers to help reduce these numbers, and give proper

assessments to those athletes who need treatment. Wartburg has had athletic trainers

since the early 70s which it was required for all NCAA or NAIA schools to have athletic

trainers to be able to perform athletics. Wartburg College does not currently offer

athletic training as a major, and as well does not have a program to be able to teach

students proper injury care, and proper rehabilitation skills in order to recover quicker.

This can be an alternative in finding a solution for extra hands on duty, and continue to

further to progress of the athletic training room. Wartburg athletic training room however

is state of the art, in which it has three cold or warm tubs for athletes to use after

workouts as well as has state of the art technology with treatment, as well as has plenty

of space for taping athletes, and assessing injuries. Wartburg College has a staff of

three and a half full time athletic trainers which are the lowest number in the IIAC

conference.. “The average number of athletic trainers that other universities tend to

have are a ratio of 87/1”(Bradley, 2015). In which these numbers do not fall under what

Wartburg has for staff. Wartburg also has a positive feedback number in which it

5

received a 4.5/5 star rating for efficiency in how small of a staff they have for serving

724 Student Athletes. “Wartburg experiences around 300 injuries per year”

(Callahan,.2016). The most common form of treatment for these athletic trainers are ice

bag treatment which reduces inflammation on an injury.

BodyAfter, doing research as a group we soon discovered that the main problem itself

was not the lack of hours the athletic training room was open for, but however was the

amount of staff required to treat the student athletes were at an all-time low. While going

into the athletic training room and having a discussion with Ryan Callahan we spoke

about how we can improve the amount of hours that can be more convenient for the

student athletes. While asking questions to see how we can improve this Ryan Callahan

stated that it was not the hours in which were the problem, but then stating that most

athletes go into the athletic training room around chapel time (10:05-10:45). However

after doing a survey we concluded that the most convenient time that athletes go to the

athletic training room is before practice. However these hours are the most convenient

hours for all athletes; which tend to be most of the time out of season athletes who

cannot go into the athletic training room during times that other sports have practice.

This leaves it even more inconvenient for athletes who are out of season who do not get

the same perks as in season sports. Hiring an extra number of employees will add to

the efficiency, and will also add an extra employee; which can mean athletes who are

not in season can go at more convenient times.

Wartburg’s athletic training room consists of three and a half full time trainers

who have to be accountable for 724 students. “Wartburg College has the smallest

amount of full time on site trainers in the IIAC conference” (Callahan, 2016). With

Wartburg offering over 21 sports on campus three trainers per six teams a year does

not seem like enough for the amount of athletes Wartburg has. As stated in Appendix A

adding an extra trainer will increase the already productive efficiency, and will also rise

in convenience for athletes on a yearly basis. Most Athletic trainers work 52.55 hours

per week which exceeds the amount of a full time job. By not having any extra sort of

overtime payments employees are working more than required times in which is not

6

beneficial for how much work they do during the average week. This does not include

post-season runs which adds more time for work. Hiring an extra hand will make it

easier for trainers to get some time off, and also make it more flexible for having good

numbers in case of a post-season run.

The main problem that occurs with the solution of adding another trainer is,

financially being able to come up with cost to pay for an extra employee. As stated in

Appendix A hiring another employee will cost the school on average 40,000 plus the

benefits for an extra employee. Ways that can be resolved that can help benefit with

adding costs, but also adding revenue would be implementing an athletic training

program for students. This can add more on-site labor with small things such as

wrapping ankles, and taking care of ice bag treatment. Though cost may go up with

hiring, an extra employee it can be beneficial, and will provide all athletes with more

treatment at any convenient time. Adding another hand can certainly mean that athletes

who tend to go before practice even during the off season can go get treatment even if it

conflicts with sports that are already in season. This can be convenient for more

athletes, and can also add to efficiency which is stated already in Appendix A.

When we were looking at the perspective that the training room hours were not

ideal for student-athletes we took a survey of 20 student-athletes asking them “Are you

satisfied with the Wartburg training room hours,” “what hours do you go the most to the

training room,” and the final question we asked was “How much time do you typically

spend in the training room.” These were all factors we considered when asking the

student- athlete's how they felt about the hours of the training room. This allowed our

group to gain a perspective from an outside group rather than just our groups thoughts,

and the Wartburg athletic trainers thoughts.

We found from the student-athletes that answered our survey is; 70% felt

satisfied with the Wartburg training room hours and that 30% were not. This was kind of

our first sign that possibly the training room are sufficient for the student-athlete. After

analysing the results from the survey, and learning about the opinion on student

athletes, we realized that that not many athletes had problems with the hours available

as we primary thought about.

7

Figure 1 Shows the results of “Are you satisfied with the Wartburg training room hours?”

As the survey results showed a different information as what we thought as a

group on the opinion over the training room hour. This lead to the conclusion that the

training room hours available for the students athletes are sufficient to meet the needs

of student athletes. This information represented by the survey, matched the information

gathered in the interview with Ryan Callaham, which lead to the conclusion that the

hours available became no issue to students athletes. With the interview and the

information available our group idea towards making the trainers room more effective

lead to the idea of hiring another trainer to help.

To learn more on the hours, we look at what hours of the day most student-

athletes would be heading into the training room for whatever reason they may need to

be in there. This question was asked, as knowing the time most athletes visited the

training room. It would provide with supportive information on our idea of hiring another

trainer.

However this survey does not show how many student athletes answered this

while being in season. This survey shows that hours are more convenient for those who

are currently in season which does not benefit athletes who continue to have practices,

but are out of season. This only benefits in season sport athletes which by hiring an

extra employee can help build open an even more positive number in conviency.

Figure 2

8

Shows what hours students tend to go to the training room for treatment or other

athletic care needs.

Figure 2 represent the most visited time, as shown in figure 2 the peak time

where most athletes are in the trainer’s room is one hour before practice. Because most

athletes show up during this hour having another trainer on the staff would be beneficial

in creating a more effective team. With the addition of another trainer, it would impact

the cost, but it would provide with a beneficial factor into making Wartburg College

training facility one of the most efficient in its region. As figure 2 points out that the

morning hours seem to be the least used, it gave our group the conclusion that student

athletes, might be the busiest in the morning or are being lazy deciding to skip

treatment. Knowing the reason to why student athletes do not visit during the morning

hours is an uncontrollable behavior that cannot be controlled.

In our final survey question we wanted to look at how long the student athlete typically

spends in the training room.

9

Figure 3 Figure three signals that the most popular amount of time spend in the trainer’s

room is 20 to 30 minutes. This final question gave us an idea of how long a student-

athlete may spend in the training room, this also gave the idea of how long a trainer

may have to spend with the athlete’s injuries or getting them the proper care before

practice. The results from figure 3 supports the solution of hiring another trainer, as

most athletes visit before practice and take up to 30 minutes each. With the addition of

another trainer, it would facilitate the going in and getting treatment right way for

athletes, in conclusion it would speed up the process. From the results of figure 3, came

another solution that can be possible to have a more effective team in the trainer's

facility. This leads to having students who are applicants to a major involved with

athletic trainer’s knowledge, such as majors in fitness management, physical therapy, or

incorporating an athletic trainers program in which students can get involved and help

trainers. This is a reasonable solution as in our interview with Ryan, he mentioned that

the most common treatment, was ice bags. Ice bags, do not require the expertise of a

trainer to complete, but it could be completed by a student trainer. By adding extra time

10

after practice this can benefit in the amount of athletes being treated. With an average

of 1 new injury per day this does not meet the proper time of treatment due to injuries

that are long lasting and require more time for treatment. Most small injuries do not go

reported, and also have treatment lasting 20 minutes, which is not beneficial for those

who end practice, and need the training room.

With the information gathered from our interview with Ryan and the survey done

to student athletes we created a chart represented by Appendix A which display the

feasible solutions with the positive and negative factors that would support the selected

solution. Appendix A starts with the first solution in which has no impactful cost, has a

high level of convenience as the survey results demonstrate, and does meet the needs

for student athletes who are visiting the trainer’s room. The only complication with

leaving the trainer’s room how it is, is the availability of trainers when there are several

athletic events in different places. As mention by Ryan, there are sometimes difficulties

when more than two athletic teams have games outside Wartburg, as they are limited to

only three and a half trainers.

The addition of hours does have an impactful cost rate towards Wartburg, as

trainers would need to be paid more, and work more hours than what they already do.

The addition of hours early in the day or late in the afternoon, do not show a result of

convenience as the hours are already maximized to benefit student athletes. It is also

represented in figure 1, as it states that 70% of student’s athletes are satisfied with the

hours available. With the hours, we also had another solution which was the same

hours but to modify the times available. This mean instead of opening in the morning

which are the least popular hours, to eliminate those hours and add them in the later

afternoon. This might have an impactful cost, as trainers would have to be paid more to

work at different times, as it is probable they are busy, and the hours have to match the

academic schedule. Changing the hours to alter hours would not be convenient as the

hours available now are matched up with the academic schedule and they provide

students athletes with a time to visit the trainer’s room.

The final resolution represented in Appendix A is the addition of a new trainer.

The addition of a new trainer does have an impactful cost, of about $40,000 plus with

11

benefits towards Wartburg athletic program. Even though it would have a cost of about

$40,000, it can be seen as the best but toughest solution. Hiring a new trainer is

convenient as it would help through peak times, and it would also allow trainers to travel

with sport teams, or to stay in the Wartburg facilities, instead of having a physical

therapist from the hospital at the Wartburg trainer’s facility. The addition of a new trainer

would meet the needs expected by student athletes at Wartburg, and the efficiency and

consistency of the trainer room would increase as there would always be another

person to help.

Summary and Conclusion

Wartburg’s great success cannot be accomplished without the coaches and the

trainers that make everything possible for the athletes to recover and be at their best

performance. With Wartburg having a very efficient staff they have many problems due

to the lack of numbers which affect the amount of athletes they treat, and also affect the

time that athletes can go in for treatment. Our group came up with ways in which were

alternatives in creating a better environment for student athletes in the sense of time for

treatment, and also benefiting the workload that these efficient athletic trainers already

have. In this report we talked about the brief background, and history that is part of

athletic training, and also the history of Wartburg’s program. We also touched up on the

background of number of employees Wartburg has which is 3.5, and also discussed

about how many injuries per year Wartburg tends to deal with which is around 300.

After doing research on this topic we stated that it was more convenient to hire

another employee rather than change the hours due to the fact that Wartburg is short of

staff compared to the rest of the IIAC conference. In this report our group also came up

with another alternative which explains that adding an athletic training program will add

to efficiency for the trainers, and will also offer an educational program for students at

Wartburg College. This was also the alternative solution due to the costs of hiring

another employee in which might not meet funds from Wartburg College.

Our group surveyed 20 student athletes who participate in Wartburg College

athletics, and discovered that most are satisfied with athletic training room hours

12

however are satisfied while in season. We also discovered that most students are

willing to go to the athletic training room prior to practice, and also after practice which

only benefits those student athletes who participate during an in season sport. In our

last surveyed question we found out that most students tend to spend around 20

minutes in the training room for treatment. By the number of students becoming injured,

and time that they typically spend for treatment this means that the school needs to

extend hours after practice.

In conclusion, in order to change the athletic training room we first have to

start with improving the amount of staff in order to make it more efficient with time, and

with employee work hours. By coming up with alternatives such as more employees,

and possibly an athletic training program it is obvious that Wartburg College needs

more staff to make ends, and also compete with other athletic training programs in

treatment for its athletes. Wartburg College has a main objective for athletes which is to

meet ends by becoming the top school in conference, and ranking in the nation for best

cumulative sport for NCAA division 3. In order to meet those ends athletes must have

the proper treatment, and care in which is provided by coaches, and trainers. In order to

meet those ends Wartburg must continue to build upon the already efficient staff that

works here at Wartburg by increasing the number, and expanding as a whole to meet

athlete ends.

Recommendations:Currently the Wartburg athletic training room consists of three and half trainers

on staff. Adding another full time worker would help increase productivity in the training

room, allowing the trainers to see more athletes before and after each teams practice in

their respective seasons. Also by adding more employees we can focus on making

ends in case of post-season runs clashing together with in season sports. Hiring

another employee will also lighten the already high work-load these employees face on

a daily basis. Hiring extra staff will increase hours that are needed for athletes who are

not in season in which will help them be beneficial in being able to meet at a more

convenient time if needed. Our group also recommends that an athletic training program

be implemented to help with small treatments for athletes which will also raise the

13

amount of efficiency, and also allow an extra option for an education process. This can

also provide services to more teams which can also make hours more convenient for

teams who are not participating as an in season team.

The last recommendation our group came up with was modifying hours to be

more suitable for student athletes who participate in a sport here at Wartburg. By

changing the hours earlier before practices begin this can give more time for athletes to

get the proper treatment at times that suit them the best during the academic school

year. Also by making the hours last longer after practice so athletes can shower get

food, and also come in for treatment. Instead of having the athletic training room close

early after practice ends.

Appendix A:

Cost Convenience Meet the needs

Efficiency Consistency

Stay same No impact yes yes Strong efficiency

Yes

Add more hours; early morning or late afternoon

Impacts costs

No, as hours are already maximized

No Increases efficiency

Yes

Same hours different times

Unsure Yes, gives athletes other hours for visiting

No Impact Yes Strong

Add trainer $40,000 with benefits

Convenient for athlete, not for school budget

Yes Increases efficiency, helps all around

Strong

14

Sources:Athletic Training. (2015). Retrieved March 28, 2016, from

http://www.nata.org/about/athletic-training

The official site of Wartburg athletics - sports medicine. (2014). Retrieved March

15, 2016, from http://www.go-knights.net/sports/2010/7/28/GEN_0728100429.aspx

Medco Sports Medicine, Training Room Equipment. (2015). Retrieved March 29,

2016, from https://www.medco-athletics.com/supply/default.asp?category=65

Ratios Of Certified Athletic Trainers' To Athletic Teams And Number Of Athletes

In South Carolina Collegiate Settings | The Sport Journal. (2015, March 16). Retrieved

March 29, 2016, from http://thesportjournal.org/article/ratios-of-certified-athletic-trainers-

to-athletic-teams-and-number-of-athletes-in-south-carolina-collegiate-settings/

Ryan Callahan. Interview. 2016

15