A virtually unknown team of trained students works hard to fix the bruised and battered bodies of BYU-Idaho student athletes: athletic trainers.

The head student athletic trainer and future physical therapist, Haley Larsen, a senior from Colfax, Wash., has been involved in the athletic training program for about two years.

Larsen and her team of five paid trainers and other health science students provide assistance for student athletes’ injuries.

Larsen had always been interested in going into a medical field, but when she attended physical therapy sessions with her mother, who had gone through surgery, she found what she wanted to make her life’s work.

“[Physical therapy] is all positive, helping somebody get better,” she said.

Larsen not only has the opportunity to improve the lives of the injured, but she helps and leads those still learning through a unique hands-on experience. She teaches a wide variety of treatment techniques, as well as how to react in game site emergencies.

“Another aspect I love is the teaching side,” Larsen said. “You can just see the students grow in the program. They go from sometimes being afraid to being fully competent and able to handle a situation in a game.”

Students involved in athletic training not only receive education in administering treatment and dealing with emergencies in a game, but they “are involved in progressing and improving leadership skills and their testimonies as well,” said Richard Goates, the former head student athletic trainer and a senior from Gillette, Wyo.

“You gain a love for people, a desire for their overall well-being and a knowledge of eternal principles,” he said.

Jodi Howard, a certified athletic trainer, oversees the program and continually gains satisfaction in working with athletes and “seeing the athletes get back on the court after a long upward course to get back and participate as they did,” she said.

Whatever the task, Larsen and other athletic trainers continually make a positive influence in the lives of others and strengthen their own testimonies through love and service.