Q with Shelly Mullenix – Senior Associate Athletic Trainer

A first responder. A first look at the damage. When an LSU player hits the grass wounded, athletic trainer Shelly Mullenix is there. The Florida State graduate has been on staff with the Tigers since 1997, and 225 wanted to know what her life is like as she keeps watch over our warriors.

What do you have to do on Saturday to get ready for the game?

We typically get there around three or four hours in advance of kickoff, and the main responsibility is setting up the field with all the medical equipment.

When a player goes down and you rush out to help him, do you make a diagnosis on the field?

Really it’s a first impression. We’re against the clock when we’re out there, so if the referees come over and tell us there’s a TV timeout, then we know we can go slower in our response.

It’s a primary assessment. We’re making sure there’s nothing broken, that they’re breathing. You may have to do orthopedic tests in case it’s a broken ACL. If there’s no bleeding going on, and there’s no major deformities, our main goal is to get them up and off the field and onto the sidelines. We have physicians, so we’re doing quick, initial assessments.

Does anything ever gross you out?

No. I think for the majority of athletic trainers, that’s one of the things you have to determine early in your career. Athletic trainers are used to seeing so much, from blood and vomit to loss of ability to control one’s bowels. We see that a lot in cross-country. We’re trained to see that and not to react.

There’s nothing I’ve done that’s grossed me out. It’s important to make the athletes feel comfortable, and you’re trying to calm their fears. If you’re a trainer and you go up to the scene gasping, athletes feed off of that. So we manage to do things from a medical standing so they don’t get misconceptions.