‘First on the Scene’ (Ronald Martinez -NBAE/Getty Images)

In previous posts, I’ve talked about the flexibility required to be the trainer for the Utah Jazz, but I wouldn’t be telling the whole story without using the word durability.

A typical day for the trainer includes getting to the training room early, around 7 am to set up for treatments. Setting up might include getting the therapy pools ready, getting supplies out, warming up the hot packs, etc. Then the injured athletes come in to get treatment. After doing any treatments and rehab work such as stretching, assisted weight training, pool work, ultrasound, ice, electrical stimulation, it’s time to get ready for practice (or a game). Different athletes have different things to do to get ready for a practice or game, including stretching, getting ankles taped and having protective sleeves or wraps applied. It may not seem very difficult or time consuming to put an “ace bandage” on, but consider that people sweat when they work out. How do you keep that wrap from sliding off? You have to make it stick, and that’s part of what the trainer does.

After workouts there are more treatments and cleaning up the training room. Oh, and I forgot to mention, charting all activities and progress reports, talking to other physicians, setting up office visits for the athletes with the team physicians, and updating the coaching staff. While the time of day and place where these things occur might change, they still all need to be done, every day, no week-ends off! This includes when the team travels.

It isn’t too bad a gig though, you get summers off right? Wrong. Especially for those who work for the Jazz. After the season ends (hopefully in the first part of June) treatments still need to be administered, injuries are still rehabilitated. The Jazz staff work through the draft, the Rocky Mountain Revue is in July. In August, Gary Briggs does get about one week vacation with his family including his wife and two daughters, and he tries to go on a Canadian fishing trip with his friends for a week. Then, it’s back to work. In September, all new players need physicals with the team physicians, which are spaced out over the month, and training camp begins in the first week of October. Then it’s time to start another season. For Briggs, if there is any regret about the demands of his job, it’s the time he’s missed spending with his family and seeing his kids grow up.

Although I couldn’t get get Gary to budge on telling any inside stories about certain players, I did get one funny rookie story. He described a program the NBA has for all incoming rookies. They go to a kind of conference, an NBA 101 if you will. There, they learn about the NBA life, the rules, the expectations, and some of the pitfalls unique to the NBA athlete. Well, after a long day of NBA rookie class, a couple of unnamed Jazz rookies went to the hotel bar to relax. Wouldn’t you know, some lovely young women just happened to be there, and apparently they hit it off really well. Yada, yada, yada, the next day the rookies returned to rookie class to learn more about what to avoid (like certain lovely young pitfalls), and guess who walked in the front door? Our young rookies had been stung in a sting operation designed to make examples out of someone. Now there were maybe some details to this story that had to be left out due to the nature of our audience, but it goes to show that one of the perks that comes with the job of trainer is that you get to hear stories like this and you develop a real camaraderie with the members of the team.

The job of an athletic trainer is essential to the success of any team, and it’s not for everyone. The hours are long, the work is often hard, and tiring, and you miss out on time with your family, but people like Gary Briggs wouldn’t have it any other way. Gary Briggs is an absolute professional, and an all around great guy. The Utah Jazz owe much of their success to him and his expertise.