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Two falls ago, a young, enthusiastic Fairview Lakes employee named Anna Johnson took her spot in the Chisago Lakes High School athletic training room.

In the training room, Johnson has spent her time advising athletes on how to avoid injuries and helping them recover from them. She's also become a fixture at Wildcat athletic events, where she's been a first responder, dealing with injuries on court, field or ice.

Johnson will remain with Fairview and CLHS until the Holiday break, when she leaves for Kansas to begin the next chapter of her life. Until then, she'll share her duties at Chisago Lakes with her replacement, Deanna Nelson.

Nelson's interest in athletics can probably be traced to her career at Northwestern High School in Maple,Wisconsin, a town of less than 700 located about 20 miles southeast of Superior. As one of 78 Tigers in the graduating class of 1993, Nelson played volleyball and softball and was on the dance team.

Like many students, Nelson wasn't entirely sure of her career goals when she entered the University of Minnesota. During her four years at the Minneapolis school she gradually settled on Athletic Training. While there, she worked as a student trainer for the Gopher football team and did a rotation as a trainer with other sports.

After graduating with a BA in Kinesiology with emphases in Sports Medicine and Business, she enrolled at UMD in the fall of 1997. While working toward her Masters of Education in Sport and Exercise Physiology, she worked as a graduate assistant athletic trainer. She provided training support for a variety of teams, including volleyball, football, soccer, track, cross country and tennis at the Duluth school.

In the fall of '99, Nelson stayed at UMD, taking a job as an assistant athletic trainer. Her primary assignment was with the women's hockey program. The 1999-2000 Bulldog team went to the national championships the year before women's hockey became sanctioned as an NCAA sport. The next three seasons, Nelson served as the trainer for the UMD team that won the first three NCAA hockey titles. "Being a part of that team, I got to go to the White House and meet President Bush. And, one year, we also met Hillary Clinton," Nelson said.

(That very successful team was coached by longtime Canadian National and Olympic coach Shannon Miller. Assistant coach Stacy Wilson later captained Canada's international teams.)

From the spring of 2003 until August '06, Nelson worked at the St. Mary's Duluth Clinic where she worked with Orthopedic doctors at the Duluth location as well as outreach clinics. During that period, she served as the head athletic trainer at Duluth Denfeld High School and for the Minnesota Ballet Company.

In August '06, the U of M / UMD graduate took a job with Fairview Lakes where she split time between Athletic Training at North Branch High School and the Physical Therapy Clinic in North Branch. When the new Fairview Sports and Orthopedic Care Clinic opened in Wyoming in August '07, she started working with Dr. Ronneberg.

This fall, she has split time between NBHS and the Orthopedic Clinic, while helping her replacement at NBHS, Ryan Henry, learn the ropes.

Henry, a 2003 graduate of Foley High School, became interested in athletic training while rehabbing from a series of knee injuries he suffered playing football and wrestling in high school. After his first year at Gustavus Adolphus College, he was accepted into the athletic training program.

At Gustavus, he worked as a student trainer with a variety of teams, including football, women's hockey and softball. Summers, he worked with (University of Minnesota wrestling coach) Jay Robinson Intensive Camps. His work at the Robinson camps took him to Iowa, Pennsylvania, California and the U of M, where he worked as an AT at a basketball camp in the summer of '07.

After graduating from Gustavus last spring with a degree in AT and a coaching minor and being certified as an AT (May '07) he started searching for full-time employment. His search led him to North Branch, where he works at the Fairview PT Clinic, as well as at NBHS.

Henry and Nelson have worked together at NBHS while Nelson has transitioned into her new position at Chisago Lakes. "It's been great to have someone like Deanna as a mentor these last few months. It's also been helpful that she's gone every few days so that I've gained independent experience and confidence," Henry commented.

Henry and Nelson shared some basics of Athletic Training. They started by listing the seven domains in which all AT's are expected to be proficient.

1. Prevention of injury.

2. Injury evaluation.

3. First aid.

4. Rehabilitation.

5. Organization and administration.

6. Counseling and guidance.

7. Education of coaches, athletes and parents.

When asked about the purpose of Athletic Training, Henry said, "Our job is to look out for the athlete's long-term health care." Nelson added, "Our job is to keep athletes participating in their sports in the healthiest and safest manner possible."

To that end, the trainers spend much of their on-campus time evaluating injuries, taping ankles, fingers and the like. Both emphasized that they deal with injuries on-site and that serious or lingering injuries may require the attention of a Doctor. and that one of their responsibilities is to get to know know area physicians and build a level of trust with them.

Johnson's departure from CLHS and Fairview is related to non-job events. She has a late December wedding to plan for. Soon thereafter, she and her husband will leave for Lawrence, Kansas where he will attend graduate school. She is exploring several job opportunities near Lawrence.

Nelson, is currently working on her PhD dissertation in Sport Psychology. She and her husband, Ryan, live in Lindstrom and are busy raising Isabel, their daughter who will turn one in January.

Henry and his wife, Ashley, were married in August and live in Isanti.

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