Ashley Labrador is our athletic trainer here at McMahon. Ashley has been every athlete’s first call for the past ten years. She is the main reason we’ve been so successful and our athletes can achieve accomplishments like all-FCIAC, All-West, and even All-American!
McMahons athletic trainer is a focused and reliable trainer, many freshmen almost try to avoid seeking treatment because Ashley comes off with such a stern demeanor. Regardless, Ashley always has an easy smile. With a loud voice that can be heard from outside the trainers office, Ashley almost seemingly has a personality bigger than her stature!
In high school, Ashley was a three sport athlete, playing soccer, basketball and tennis. Although Ashley as we know is incredibly humble, and tries to avoid talking about herself, she shared with us that she played international basketball in Spain for the CT Northstars. Ashley knew she wanted to be an athletic trainer as early as high school because she had a great one, Janine.
As an athletic trainer herself, Ashley stays super active, with snowboarding, golfing and running in her free time. Ashley has run six half marathons (13 mile race). She just completed the SoNo Half Marathon this October.
Ashley was on track to be a Quinnipiac graduate, until there was a drastic change in her life, when her mom was diagnosed with stage two breast cancer. Ashley then was unable to afford university education and made the difficult decision to withdraw. She began working full time to help support her family. But Ashley tells us how she has “No regrets, I was able to go back to college five years later at Southern (University). There I graduated with more than enough credits, May of 2014.” Brien McMahon’s previous athletic trainer was two years ahead of Ashley at Southern University, so when they moved on, they notified Ashley of the position needing to be filled. Then she ended up here with us at McMahon.
Ashley has a busy day every day. Her daily routine starts with unlocking the bathrooms by the Casagrande field, filling water jugs for over eight teams, filling up to 13 ice chests and water-jugs, and stocking everything else up for the day. Most game days, Ashley treats and assesses an increased number of athletes. On a daily basis she treats from 5 to 15 athletes a day with taping, assessing, icing and just making sure athletes take advantage of the privileges she can provide. When she has to address larger teams, like football, Ashley somehow manages to treat 20-25 people almost all at once. Dozens of athletes rely on Ashley everyday, for everything from protein bars and water jugs, to ice baths and taping.
On her very first day at Brien McMahon, Ashley treated a player who tore their ACL during preseason. With drastic injuries, Ashley focuses on ways to manage the pain while she waits for ambulances and paramedics to arrive. Ashley, like all trainers and coaches, is CPR and AED trained. She’s encountered many severe injuries during her career, such as a broken femur, ankle dislocation, and six inch laceration to the head. Ashley makes an effort to at least be familiar with all of McMahon’s athletes. Ashley says this sets apart the opposing team for her when she gives treatment. Ashley tells us that “the dynamic is very different” for her when she treats the opposing team’s players. Ashley has a comfortable relationship with our athletes already established.
One of Ashley’s favorite things to do while at McMahon is spectate! If there are multiple games going on at once, she goes to whichever is more dangerous. She assesses the risk through the severity of the equipment and the likelihood of a contact injury. Ashley explained it to us this way: “the injury risk is higher with field hockey versus a soccer game, due to the use of equipment compared to physical contact.” If an injury were to happen during both games, the field hockey player would likely sustain worse injuries than the soccer player. But Ashley always wants to see McMahon win, and is most commonly found at the field, cheering on our athletes!
Without such a great Athletic Trainer, McMahon’s athletic community would not be able to run smoothly. We cannot thank Ashley enough for everything she does for McMahon, as she is the reason our athletes are able to live up to their potential. Definitely congratulate Ash on her 10th season, a major career milestone! As Ashley says, “We need to do better, to get better, to be better!”
