With most wins and losses, comes bumps and bruises…and if and when the time comes that University of Wisconsin-Superior student-athletes may need some medical care, attention and treatment—the Yellowjackets are in good hands.
Athletic training duties have taken Kim Moncel around the world and even to the Summer Olympics in London, England.
Now she cares for Yellowjacket athletes.
Moncel and her team of athletic trainers caring for the Yellowjackets are contracted through Essentia Health in Duluth. Essentia Health partners with over 20 high schools and college athletic teams in the area to care and prevent athletic injuries and provide orthopedic sports medicine services.
Moncel, a Superior native, said working with world-class athletes in London was an experience of a lifetime. “Highlight of my career so far. I got invited to be on the medical staff for Team USA. We set-up a clinic in the Athlete Village and treated all of the athletes from all of the teams and spent six weeks over in London enjoying the Olympics.” Another Summer Olympics are coming and she will be cheering hard for the red, white and blue. “We worked a lot with track and still doing a little work for them and eager to see them be successful in Rio. I have also worked para-Olympic track, Handball and USA Baseball.”
Last summer, her attention turned to the USA National Women’s Baseball team that took home the gold at the Pan American games in Canada. “We beat Canada 11-3 in the gold medal game. It was the first time that women’s baseball was represented at a multi-sport international games. So it was a pretty big event for us. Previous to that we only had the World Cup.”
Moncel is also looking forward to her next USA Baseball assignment. “This September we will be in South Korea for the World Cup. It runs every other year and it is organized by the International Baseball Federation. The headquarters for USA Baseball as a whole is in Raleigh, North Carolina. We frequently train there, or Pepperdine University, or Cal-State Fullerton different universities around the country based on where we are traveling for our games. We normally train for about 10 days to two weeks and then travel internationally for a competition which usually lasts about a week.”
Her passport must be pretty worn down. Moncel added, “In 2006 we went to Taiwan, then 2008 Japan, then to Venezuela, Canada and then back to Japan, every other year we go somewhere. It’s really exciting to be a part of it in a foreign country and to be a part of it, and wear that jersey and hear your national anthem.”
Her international experience includes: Staff Athletic Trainer for Team USA at the 2012 Olympic Summer Games in London, England; Athletic Trainer for USA Team Handball at the 2011 Pan Am Games in Guadalajara, Mexico; Athletic Trainer of the 2013 Paralympic Track and Field World Championship in Lyon, France; Athletic Trainer for the Women’s National Baseball World Cup teams in 2006 -Taipei, Taiwan, 2008 – Matsuyama, Japan and 2014 – Miyazaki, Japan.
Twin Ports Home Sweet Home
It takes an understanding supervisor and company to be flexible to allow her to help train world-class athletes. John Haugrud of Essentia Health values her commitment to her teams and her co-workers. “I have worked with Kim for twenty years, during that time I have found Kim to be a stellar athletic trainer and we are glad to have her as part of our Essentia Health team. In all the years I have known and managed Kim, I’ve only ever received positive feedback on the sports medicine expertise and customer service Kim provides to student-athletes at UWS.” So far this season Moncel has worked with a variety of UW-Superior teams likes soccer, hockey and basketball. Haugrud added, “Kim is very skilled, which is proven through her continued work with the Olympic Games and numerous National and World Championships. Essentia Health is very fortunate to have an asset like Kim within the sports medicine department.”
Moncel and her Yellowjacket team of athletic trainers shine because they care. Her ties to UWS go back years. Her father was a Yellowjacket football player at UWS and she grew-up near campus. She said, “The athletes at UWS are receptive to our care and are willing to put in the work in order to better their health and physical performance. The coaches have trust in our care for the athletes and have been willing to collaborate with us on how to best prevent injuries and increase performance.”
Not only is Moncel an Olympic caliber athletic trainer she is also a member of the Superior Academic Hall of Fame. She was named as the 2014 Superior Academic Hall of Fame Lifetime Achievement Award winner for her high professional standards and achievement. Moncel has been a dedicated athletic trainer offering years of high school, collegiate, clinical and national team training experience since 1991.
A 1986 graduate of Superior Senior High School, Moncel achieved a completion of graduate studies, and then attained the position of Head Athletic Trainer at the College of St. Scholastica in 1999. Prior to that time, she was Staff Athletic Trainer at St. Mary’s Duluth Clinic and Sports Medicine in Duluth, Minnesota; Clinical Coordinator and Athletic Trainer at Superior, Wisconsin’s Physical Therapy Clinic; Head Trainer at Central College, Pella, Iowa; and Assistant Trainer at Northern Michigan University.
Moncel’s tenacity to detail, hunger for constant learning and self-improvement stimulates her work environment and the motivation of her peers. She is a mentor, teacher, and educator.
Joining the `Jackets
Moncel has made an impact on UW-Superior the minute she arrived. One of the first coaches that she worked with at UWS wasMorgan MacLean in women’s soccer. Morgan is perhaps the one person on campus who has worked with her the most. They worked together at St. Scholastica before joining the Yellowjackets.
“I have known Kim for close to 12 years now, when I started out coaching collegiately she has been the type of role model and mentor that you could only hope for. Being a male coach in a female sport can be hard at times, there are many things to consider and she showed me a “no-nonsense” way in dealing with athletes that I found very refreshing. I learned very early on that I could trust her in her job because she is incredibly knowledgeable.”
MacLean, who is preparing for his 3rd season with UW-Superior, said Kim also helps to motivate his athletes and he is just fine with that. “Players need to know that hard work will hurt a lot of the time and that is something that I will never forget about Kim, because I believe that is her motto.”
Morgan added, “She truly cares for the people that she treats and interacts with on a daily basis, and she tries to instill that motto every day as well in them. That ‘every day should hurt if you are working hard enough, but wait until you see how sweet the payoff is’ and this is why she has been awarded the opportunities to work with world class athletes as much as she has, and why we are so lucky to have her here.”
Morgan summed-up the Moncel experience the best. “That is what she has brought to us here at UWS, not only her vast knowledge in injury prevention and her ability to help the athlete after they have an injury, but an attitude that we will work hard and be sore but that is okay, because the rewards are sweet.”
Moncel has even inspired student-athletes to follow her footsteps and go into a sports medicine career. UW-Superior freshman hockey player Frida Bratloef wants to become an athletic trainer just like Moncel. “When I came here I was injured and Kim helped me to get back on track. She is always positive and makes things easier. She is an inspiration to me because I want to be an athletic trainer in the future.” Freda added, “She helps me not only for injuries but helping to prevent them as well, she does a really good job.”
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As part of Essentia Health’s commitment to health and wellness, we donate more than $750,000 annually in orthopedics and sports medicine care during practices and games. We are proud to be the official Orthopedics & Sports Medicine team for the UW-Superior Yellowjackets and more than 250 teams across the Northland.
The University of Wisconsin-Superior is a nationally recognized public liberal arts institution of over 2,600 students in the Duluth-Superior, MN-WI metro area. UW-Superior now has more than 60 program offerings, select graduate programs, and competitive Division III athletics programs, as well as research and scholarship that support the community and region.