By JANE P. LORD

Education Lewiston editor



As an athletic trainer and instructor, Sarah Cook has found a field that encompasses her passions. But Cook, 25, had it all figured out years ago.

“I’ve been an athlete from about age 5,” says Cook, on the phone from Bridgewater College in Bridgewater, Va., where she teaches. “Most who know me know I’m prone to injury. Freshman year in high school, I met the athletic trainer. I realized how it combined my love of sports and interest in anatomy and science.”

She graduated in 2001 from Lewiston High, where she played soccer all four years, track for three years and lacrosse her senior year. She went on to major in exercise and sports sciences – with a concentration in athletic training – from Colby-Sawyer College, in New London, N.H. She graduated in 2005, and then spent two years earning a master’s in kinesiology, with a concentration in sports psychology, from the University of Minnesota.

At Bridgewater College, where she’s worked since August 2007, Cook has dual responsibilities. In the classroom, she teaches emergency care and prevention of athletic injuries to freshman athletic training students, and principles of fitness assessment and exercise prescription to junior and senior exercise science students. On the field, she works in the fall with the men and women’s soccer teams, and in the spring with the softball team.

“I’m at all the practices and games, and I do rehab with athletes, working with them after an injury or working on a specific part of the game,” says Cook. “Plus, with the athletic training education program, students get assigned to clinical experiences with us in different sports. So each semester I spend time supervising them and going over skills with them or what kind of injuries we’re seeing, that kind of thing.”

Cook was a good student at Lewiston High, and named a few on the faculty she felt made a difference for her.

“I definitely worked a lot with Mrs. (Pam) Labreque (now Abzan). Mr. (Michael) Hutchins was my high school anatomy teacher. That was a great class for me sophomore year. I loved it. That was very confirming that going into a health field was for me.

“And I also worked closely with Mrs. (Joan) Macri on some extracurricular activities. She pushed me to challenge myself.”

Cook also took some AP courses and participated in the Bates Scholar program her senior year.

“The college transition wasn’t difficult. I was well-prepared,” she says.

Bridgewater College is a small, private, coeducational, four-year liberal-arts college with about 1,500 students. Cook says she often is mistaken for a student, and considers her youthful looks an advantage.

“It actually helps, because the students can relate to me and are comfortable talking with me,” she says. “It’s more of a benefit and a way to relate to the students. So I don’t get annoyed anymore.”