Cailin Brooks, 14, of Duxbury was supposed to be playing soccer this fall but found herself sidelined with health issues, but thanks to the help of Dannie LaFlame, the school’s athletic trainer, she was able to turn lemons into lemonade with a semester-long internship in the athletics department.
“Danni offered me a chance to intern with her and work with athletes alongside an athletic trainer,” Brooks said.
Even though she is only 14, Brooks is interested in pursuing a career as an athletic trainer and her experience interning helped pique her interest.
“It was fun working with Danni and learning and being in contact with fall sports and students,” she said, noting that she learned some basics about how to tape ankles, feet and knees as well as provide student athletes with information on stretching.
“Fall was so much busier than winter with soccer, volleyball and cross-country. and all those students needed their ankles and knees taped,” she said. She and another intern practiced their taping skills on each other as well.
Brooks worked with LaFlame almost every day from the time classes ended until 5:30 p.m. She was one of a half dozen Harwood students who interned throughout the community as part of Harwood’s work-based learning program.
Asked about her next steps, she said they were “doing a bunch of school work and getting good grades so that I can do more interning later in my career and maybe I’ll be able to be an athletic trainer!”
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