Timmy Greene | Staff photographer
Toni Kabilian (’00) has been the athletic trainer at ENC for seven years.
ENC’s athletic trainer Toni Kabilian graduated from ENC in 2001 and has been the college’s trainer for the past seven years.
She attended ENC from 1996-2001, earning a Bachelor of Science in physical education and athletic training. Additionally, she played softball for three years and basketball for four.
Basketball provided Kabilian an opportunity to shine at ENC. In her senior year (’00), the Crusaders women’s basketball team won the Commonwealth Coast Conference with a 25-2 record and advanced to the NCAA Division III tournament. Kabilian and her teammates made it to the Sweet 16 round of the tournament—the only team in ENC history to have advanced that far. The entire team was inducted into ENC’s Athletics Hall of Fame earlier this year.
Kabilian was also named Female Athlete of the Year at ENC during her senior year.
Upon graduating, Kabilian immediately continued her education at Bridgewater State University, graduating with a Master of Science degree in 2003.
“My ultimate goal was to be an athletic trainer at a college,” Kabilian said, explaining her motivation to further her schooling.
Kabilian is certified as an athletic trainer, strength and conditioning specialist, and personal trainer.
As the head athletic trainer at ENC, her responsibilities include preparing athletes before practices and games (taping ankles, etc.), providing immediate care during practice and games, performing clinical evaluations, preventing injuries, and helping to rehabilitate athletes who have suffered an injury.
Her responsibilities also include working to coordinate athletes’ doctor’s appointments and follow-up care, as well as dealing with the athletes’ insurance.
“The most challenging part of my job is that I am expected to be in multiple places at one time,” Kabilian shared. “We always have multiple practices going on at once and, unfortunately, I am only one person.”
This difficulty, though, does not take away from the joys of her job. Kabilian says the best part of her job is building relationships with the athletes.
“I love helping them on and off the playing field and sharing in their successes, both athletically and personally.”
Kabilian encourages athletes to “work hard in the offseason, be in the weight room after practice, putting up extra shots or taking extra swings whenever you can to get better.”
She confesses that when she was an athlete she may not have been considered “a highly-skilled athlete,” but instead received her playing time because of her work ethic.
“Every day, I listen to athletes complain that their coaches do not play them enough. My question to those athletes [is]: what are you doing to earn your playing time?”