Helping an injured athlete, senior trainer Roxsan Kaaa places a bandage on freshman Pamela Ceku's foot.

The crowd of spectators dressed in red and black remain silent as the trainers come out to determine if the player’s ankle injury is serious. Trainers are a player’s first responders to injury and are there to keep athletes healthy and safe. The player limps to sophomore Musahsai Bonner who examines the player’s leg and announces it is just a bruise and that the player will be fine. After wrapping the player’s ankle accordingly in bandages, a giant roar is let from the fans as the player strides back into the game.

“It’s [the trainers’] job to take care of them and get them back onto the field or court as soon as possible,” Montgomery said.

Behind every team, there are people in the background, ready to help if a player gets hurt. Student trainers are educated by boys’ head athletic trainer Cody Montgomery and girls’ head athletic trainer Amy Perez on types of injuries and techniques to wrap body parts and on how to stretch a player.

“Being a trainer] is like being a doctor, without an extra four years of medical school,” Bonner said.

Trainers’ duties include injury assessment, such as icing and wrapping injuries, stretching out players and making sure everyone has the proper medication and equipment needed, such as inhalers. Many times, a large part of training responsibilities can go unseen by players. Now a trainer herself, junior Jazmine Marcum did not know the trainers’ responsibilities when she was in track.

“The girls didn’t have that many trainers last year whenever I was in here, so I just thought trainers brought the water and went when they could to meets,” Marcum said. “But now that I’m a trainer, I see that we do a lot more.”

Trainers are specifically trained for medical prevention and rehabilitation to care for athletic-related health. They must be ready to assist with health issues.

“Without trainers, all the sports teams would be at a disadvantage,” Montgomery said. “They would have to take care of a lot of needs by themselves.”

Even though trainers do get recognized by the coaches, senior Tristan Brown knows that trainers are probably not on most people’s minds during games, unless someone is hurt.

“We’re kind of like a face in the crowd,” Brown said. “When we’re needed, we’re there, and when we’re not we just kind of hang back in the shadows.”

“When I joined, I didn’t think it was going to be fun,” sophomore Tai Le said. “Now, I’m out here every day at least three hours or so. I got hooked.”

Despite thinking that tennis would not be interesting when they first joined, some students find that they have become passionate about playing. For senior Timothy Dang, tennis is a fun activity he uses to relieve stress.

“This is my last year of tennis,” Dang said. “So I just want to make the best of it. I just like having fun with it. It’s kind of like a haven for me when I’m having a bad day. I can play tennis and I won’t be thinking about what’s bringing me down.”

In double, according to math teacher and tennis coach John Buhl, finding partners who can communicate clearly with each other help players work well together.

“After you play with somebody a couple of times, you start to know your partner and you cover for their weaknesses and play their strengths,” Buhl said. “Now, they’ve played several matches so they have an idea of who does what. And that’s part of why we’re getting better.”

To top rank senior Michael Bicknell, a singles match makes victories and losses feel more significant, because it is one-on-one.

“It’s really depressing when you lose a game because it’s all on you,” Bicknell said. “It’s nobody else’s fault. You have to take it all on your own.”

According to Bicknell tennis is a quick-paced sport and seconds can determine how the rest of the game goes. Players find that time and stress can affect performance in a game where each match counts.

“[I get mad at myself] when I miss the shots I shouldn’t have missed,” junior Edward Ha-Nguyen said. “It could mean losing or winning.”

Buhl believes that practice, not strength or size, reflects how well the player is and that returning and new players need to work hard in order to match or better last year’s standings since they have lost a lot of top varsity players.

“There’s no alternative to practice for improvement,” Buhl said.

Trying to go a step further so varsity and junior varsity improve, Buhl has mandatory practice each week, giving students time to play after school. He pushes that players practice at least 20 hours a week.

“I challenged my way up and just put in a lot of hours into practices,” Ha-Nguyen said. “Weekly I practice about 40 plus hours.”

Buhl wants his players to be dedicated, put in lots of hours each week and find someone who can mentor and help them improve. Those who are really dedicated, apply their skills and challenge themselves, can potentially move up in rank.

“You can’t expect to just play during class,” Dang said. “Playing during class isn’t enough. You have to play outside of school. If you want to be better, you have to work for it.”

His school experience here is different from what he is used to in Germany. There they focus more on the grades and the student’s career after high school.

After elementary school, children are separated into three different schools by their test scores. The kids with the highest scores go to the Gymnasium, average score kids attend Realschule and kids who received the lowest scores go into Hauptschule. He considers the American school system to be more like Realschule because the GPA levels are mixed throughout the school. In addition, he believes the school system makes it easier on students at a lower learning level than it is in Germany.

“In Germany, the good students are just with good students in class,” he said. “I am in Gymnasium and we learn faster than the other schools. Also we stay in the classroom and the teachers come [to us].”

Not only do German schools have a different curriculum, they also have less diversity according to Proske.

“I have maybe three black people at my German school,” Proske said. “And here all [the] mixed culture gets along.”

Proske practices with the school’s soccer team, but he will leave mid-year before the games begin. Since the soccer season has not started, Proske is in the varsity soccer class.

“He feels real comfortable out on the soccer field,” soccer coach Angel Mendoza said. “Everybody gets along with him. He does not struggle with communicating with anybody. I think he is fitting in really well, not just in the soccer team but in the classroom also. ”

Proske is one of the youngest kids in the soccer class, as most of the players are juniors and seniors.

“He is a good soccer player for his age level,” Coach Mendoza said. “He can’t keep up with some of the older kids but he does possess enough skill to be able to play with them.”

While being in America, Proske said he has learned to become friendlier and smiles more often.

“The people here are more open-minded and come to me and ask me questions,” Proske said. “Being in America, I get more open-minded from day to day.”