Anyone who has been to the trainers’ room in the past two years has probably seen a student helping out or sitting in on an examination that the professional trainers are performing. Maybe you’ve attended a Lake Braddock swim and dive meet and watched the female divers compete for wins for the team and themselves. One of these students is Kaleigh Neumann.

“She knows how much time and work goes into the job and still enjoys it–that’s the first step,” athletic trainer Emily Davis said. “Once she goes through the program she’ll have a great career, whether it be an athletic or a physical therapist.”

She has helped them, but it seems as if she has been helped more by them.

“Hanging around Ms. Sheeron in the ATR [Athletic Training Room] has given me an experience that’s invaluable,” Neumann said. “Now I know for sure I want to work in Sports Med.”

Not only does Kaleigh have a good reputation with the ATR staff, but she also has made ties with Lake Braddock Swim and Dive coaching staff.

“Nobody has improved in their 4 years of diving as much as Kaleigh has,” head coach of swim and dive Scott Darwin said. “She’s gone from not knowing how to dive to being one of the better divers in the district. She’s a hard worker, a good kid and she doesn’t waste time at practice.”

“Kaleigh is very helpful and willing to do whatever is asked of her,” athletic trainer Meredith Sheeron said. “She’s dependable, good natured and intelligent.”

She has proved herself dedicated to both activities, and she’s willing to sacrifice a lot of time and effort to help out her team mates and adults who depend on her assistance.

Neumann didn’t always plan on diving for high school, but shes definitely found a passion she enjoys.

“I did gymnastics for like, 8 or 9 years then moved to Portugal where I started swimming [ in 7th grade] and then I moved here [in 10th grade] and summer of 2012 I started diving because I thought it’d be fun,” Neumann said.

But when a student has more than one role in the school, whether it be a dual sport athlete, an assistant to a trainer or even a manager to a sport, their main role is to be a student, and they need to learn time management, a skill Neumann has mastered.

“To be a SAATC (student aid to the athletic trainer) you need to have a lot of time to dedicate to being out at practices that aren’t yours, showing up for game shifts that can be between 4-6 hours, sometimes on weeknights, sometimes on weekends, as well as just spending time in the ATR after school,” Neumann said. “So you need to have time and you need to love it. Don’t volunteer if you’re an in-season athlete, or if you don’t want to spend lots of time with Ms S and Ms D.”