Keeping them healthy: It’s a fast pace for athletic trainer Jennifer Krug

By James Day

So what’s the most difficult challenge for Jennifer Krug, the certified athletic trainer at Silverton High School?

It’s not running out of tape or ice. Or the complicated logistics of staffing a district wrestling meet during the day and returning to campus that night for a basketball game. Or the high pressure of fall, when the presence of football, plus the sheer number of teams and injuries to be dealt with almost seems overwhelming.

Nope, the biggest problem is finding time to eat.

“Athletic trainers work strange hours,” Krug said. “We eat when we get a chance. We don’t get breaks. Maybe at halftime you can grab something. But if there is an injury you have to take care of it. I might be driving my little cart while eating a protein bar while going from event to event.”

Sometimes the athletes will bring her food. Sometimes moms do. Krug told a story of a generous benefactor giving her a stuffed chicken with rice that she was able to polish off during a basketball game.

“Every athletic trainer is always faced with the issue of when am I going to find the time to eat,” Krug said. It should be noted that she was being interviewed in a sandwich shop, with a an unwrapped sub on the counter beside her. She was saving it for later.

“You leave before the bus leaves to get settled. After the game we don’t leave until after the team has left. That’s what we do,” Krug said. “We take care of everybody else before we take care of ourselves.”

That taking care of everybody else has been noted.

“She has an amazing set of skills for the high school level,” said Greg Kaatz, the Foxes’ athletic director. “She has incredible knowledge and experience and takes great care of our athletes. We are really fortunate to have her. She can handle everything that comes up.”

Krug returns the compliment.

“I really enjoy the working environment at Silverton,” she said. “The staff and administration are conscientious about taking care of our athletes. They are proactive and have made a commitment to take care of our athletes above and beyond what other schools are able to do. The kids don’t really understand how much they care. It’s not the same at other institutions.”

Krug, who started her training career at Western Baptist College (now Corban University), has a side gig with USA Fencing, where she is one of 10 certified athletic trainers on the medical staff. The fencing assignment has allowed her to do quite a bit of travel internationally.

“I don’t get to do a lot of sight-seeing. I’m with the athletes 12 to 14 hours per day. I don’t get to do a lot of sightseeing except between the hotel and the venue. Being there for the experience and the athletes is quite a privilege.”

Krug says that there aren’t significant differences between administering to the injuries of fencers and those of athletes at Silverton.

“An ankle sprain is still an ankle sprain,” she said, while noting that because a fencer always leads with the same arm their bodies wind up … lopsided.

“One leg is bigger than the other and one arm is bigger than the other. Overuse injuries are pretty much on one side. Especially with the elite athletes. You see them walking and one leg is bigger than the other because they have worked so much on that side.”

When she is not tending to athletes Krug enjoys fishing for king salmon and sockeye in Alaska, where she has served as a fishing guide.

Krug also is in the late stages of a lengthy restoration project on a 1935 Chevrolet pickup truck she has been sharing with her father, Larry.

“It’s a great father-daughter project,” Krug said.

Who knows, maybe someone who can figure out how to keep athletes finely tuned might have some insights into convincing an old pickup truck to keep running.