Article reposted from Times Record
Author:
A switch in majors during her college days has afforded Samantha Carter the chance to see the world.
Literally.
Carter, who hails from Monroe and attended high school at Howe, works as an assistant athletic trainer for Midwestern State University in Wichita Falls, Texas. She’s also an athletic trainer for USA Softball, primarily working with the Junior Women’s National Training Team.
In her sports medicine duties, Carter has been to places like California, Florida and Massachusetts. Not to mention going overseas to Japan with USA Softball last summer.
Plus, it gives Carter the chance to continue to stay involved in sports, which has been a lifelong passion for her.
“Not being able to be an athlete (hurt) really bad, but it’s the same type of atmosphere because you really are part of the team,” Carter said. “Once you get a job, you’ve got (numerous) athletes to take care of. You work with them every day, you work with the coaches every day, you’re at every practice. … It was where I could still be a part of the team and have perks, and I felt like I could help people, so that’s kind of one of the main things I like about it.
“If someone is struggling or got injured or fell behind, my duty is to be there to help them get back. There’s a lot of physical stuff but also I’ve learned a lot of mental stuff.”
Part of Carter’s inspiration for working with athletes stems from back surgery she had while attending Northeastern State University in Tahlequah, which kept her from doing anything active for 18 months.
“That’s kind of where I based it off of,” she said. “I was out for 18 months and I felt like that was so long. … It helped me feel what they (injured athletes) are feeling, I can get on the same level, like I understand what they’re going through, what they’re thinking, what they’re afraid to hear, when they expect to return.”
Before attending NSU, where she graduated with a degree in kinesiology, Carter – who played basketball and softball at Howe and was a member of the Lady Lions’ 2008 state championship basketball squad – went to Carl Albert State College in Poteau to play basketball. She was also originally a pre-med major.
But while at CASC, Carter got to observe the head athletic trainer there, Kendal Repass, and started to gain an interest in sports medicine.
“I always kind of thought what he did was interesting, but I never knew much about it,” Carter said. “My goal was pre-med and then when I was a sophomore, I wasn’t really interested (in pre-med) after that, and then my junior year, I actually had back surgery and I had to do a ton of rehab.
“It was tough because I couldn’t (play) sports anymore, I couldn’t do anything for 18 months, and so I was looking into how I could still be involved in sports even though I couldn’t play it. Then I started looking at what Kendal did, his job and I decided that’s what I wanted to do.”
After graduating from NSU, Carter began applying for postgraduate master’s degree programs in sports medicine. She sent applications to five different schools.
The second school who called Carter back was the University of Central Oklahoma in Edmond, which offered her the chance to attend.
It didn’t take Carter long to say yes.
Then at UCO, she caught a couple more good breaks in her goal to work with athletes.
“When I was in grad school at UCO, we had to deal with patients at a (area) high school and a university, and the high school I worked at was Oklahoma Christian School (also in Edmond), and the team doctor that that school uses also happens to be the team doctor for USA (Softball),” Carter said. “While I was there, I followed him for observations.”
After graduating from UCO in 2015, Carter took a job as an athletic trainer at the University of California-San Diego. It wasn’t a full-time position, and she was working on a one-year contract.
“It was tough to leave the weather and the beach (in San Diego), but it is so expensive to live there, and since it wasn’t a full-time position, it was rough,” Carter said. “Budgeting is one of my expertise now. I had not only that job but I also picked up several other jobs along the side just to kind of help, but it was definitely a learning experience for like real life and then for my profession also.”
When Carter worked at Oklahoma Christian School, she became friends with the athletic trainer there. While living in San Diego, she heard from him about a possible job opportunity back in Oklahoma.
“So last spring, he e-mailed me and was like, ‘Hey, are you going to be available this summer?’” Carter said. “I was like, ‘OK, what is the job?’ That’s when he told me it was USA Softball. So I dropped everything and I moved back to Oklahoma.”
Carter came back to Oklahoma in May of 2016 to work with USA Softball. She’s been pretty much on the go ever since.
Last summer, she went with the team to tournaments in Texas and Florida. Carter even spent a week with the team in Japan, and even got to reunite with her younger brother Danny, who was stationed there while with the United States Air Force.
“The week we played, he came up to our games and it was the first time I saw him since he left the States,” Samantha Carter said. “He was able to come watch some games and even stay in the dugout with the team.”
This summer, Carter has taken part in the recent World Cup of Softball in Oklahoma City. She will leave for Florida today in preparation for an international tournament.
″(By traveling) I meet some of the greatest softball players in the country,” Carter said. “On the junior team right now, we have some girls that are 16 years old, they’re sophomores in high school and they’re playing for USA Softball. You just meet some of the best athletes around and then you get to travel all over.”
With softball being reinstated as a sport for the next Summer Olympics, to be held in 2020 at Tokyo, Japan, does that give Carter a chance to possibly go over there with Team USA? Carter said she’s not sure, as currently there’s a trainer who works with the USA Softball national squad.
“We’ve talked about possibly going (to the Olympics),” Carter said. “Nothing’s set in stone, I have no idea what could happen. … I have talked to the team doctor and the directors and how they’re going to need coverage, so between me and the other girl, maybe one of us, maybe both of us. We’re just waiting until it gets closer before we start making decisions, so I really don’t have an answer for that.”
Later this summer, though, Carter will get to leave the country once more. She will go to Argentina as Midwestern State’s volleyball team will be playing in an international competition.
Carter, who started at MSU in August of 2016, primarily works with the volleyball and softball teams at the school, while also teaching two courses in the school’s College of Health Sciences and Human Services.
Although Carter’s duties keep her extremely busy, she said she does find it very rewarding to be able to help injured athletes return to action.
“Whenever you get somebody back to playing after something has happened, it’s just overfilling with joy to watch them get back on the court or on the field and play like they did before they got injured,” Carter said. “A lot of times, you don’t hear ‘thank you’ a lot from athletes or coaches or administrators in our profession, but there’s always that one that really appreciates what you do and then goes out of their way to let you know how much they appreciate how you helped them, how you guided them, how you brought them back safely. … I think literally my favorite part is watching someone come back and playing back to 100 percent after an injury.”
