Tyler Pinder is a student at Bridgewater College who is pursuing her love for sports by becoming an athletic trainer. However, before she can reach her goals of becoming a college trainer, she has to start small. Pinder is one out of two college interns at the HHS athletics program who has been able to work with student athletes. Pinder’s love for athletics began early in her life and she has carried it along with her through her college years.

“I’ve been an athlete all my life, and I got really close to my athletic trainers, and I gained great relationships with them,” Pinder said.

Although Pinder was sure she wanted to work somehow in sports, she was unsure about what specific field she would go into. Pinder enjoyed working with people and found that working with athletes was what she wanted to do.

“I always wanted to do something in the health field so I was originally thinking of physical therapy, but then I realized I like to work with athletes,” Pinder said.

Working with athletes is not something that is new to Pinder. While studying to get her masters in athletic training at Bridgewater College, she has had multiple opportunities to work with other college athletes. Her past experiences have included interning at The University of Richmond and Bridgewater College.

“I’ve interned for Bridgewater’s field hockey team and their track and field and also at the University of Richmond with their football team,” Pinder said.

Working at a high school has been a new experience for Pinder since all of her previous internships have been at the college level. Because of this, Pinder feels that she has been able to widen her skills and learn more about different types of sports.

“Working at the college level is a lot different,” Pinder said. “Normally you get one sport [to work with], but with high school, you get to work with multiple sports so that’s been really fun.”

Athletic trainer Siaura Saville has watched and worked with Pinder throughout her time at HHS.

“She has been good with helping us out with some of the athletes who have been doing longer rehabs. We’ve had a couple ankle injuries that she’s helped out with and she’s good about getting games prepared with water and everything that needs to be set up for the day,” Saville said.

After graduating Bridgewater College, Pinder hopes to continue working with older athletes and further pursue her goals.

“[In the future], I want to work with college athletes but I’m willing to start off with high school and work my way up,” Pinder said.