The most important part of being an athlete is being healthy. This means eating nutritiously and working out, but also it includes taking care of your muscles to prevent injury and also treating injuries that do happen.

Liberty has a staff member that specifically treats and prevents injuries within our sports programs, athletic trainer Michele Rava.

“The purpose of an athletic trainer is to help prevent, assess, treat, and rehab athletic injuries,” Rava said.

She works for a company called Athletico Physical Therapy, located on Ronald Reagan Drive. That is her main job, but she arrives at Liberty every day just in time to assist with practices and games.

She did not originally plan to become an athletic trainer. However, after an ankle injury from cheerleading, she was left to treat the injury herself because her high school did not have a trainer. This is when she first learned about the responsibilities of a trainer and gained interest.

She is not originally from Missouri but grew up in New York and went to Marywood University in Scranton, Pennsylvania. She was excited at the opportunity of working at a new school like Liberty.

Her job includes a wider scope of training, not just at our school.

“Two mornings a week I work in a doctor’s office as a physician extender. I go into the patient’s room before the doctor and evaluate the injury so the doctor can come right in and give a treatment,” said Rava.

Like most athletes at Liberty, sophomore Ben Gagliano, a player on C-team soccer, has had his fair share of work from Michele due to thigh and heel injuries.

“She first told me to wait without putting pressure on it,” Gagliano said. “And in the end, she helped me out and tested to see what was wrong by stretching certain areas.”

She recommended thigh stretches to do which helped improve the muscle strength of his thigh while he was recovering, and even referred him to a doctor that could formally diagnose the injury.

Rava is enjoying her second year here at Liberty and most importantly, she is ready for whatever injuries are thrown at her.