MICHELLE HALE
Special to the Leader
Katalin Parent has been named an assistant athletic trainer as well as the strength and conditioning coach at Fredonia. She now joins head athletic trainer Erik Barkley and assistant athletic trainer Erin Abbate.
“I traveled here [to Fredonia] with the Mount Union women’s soccer team last year and just fell in love with the campus,” Parent said.
She took a walk around campus and loved the size of the school and immediately knew that this was where she wanted to be. There are about 3,000 more students attending Fredonia than there are at Mount Union. Parent applied for the open position at Fredonia because of her familiarity with the campus, and she received the offer.
Parent will be working with women’s volleyball in the fall, women’s basketball in the winter and softball in the spring. At Mount Union, Parent did a majority of men’s sports rather than women’s. She was the athletic trainer for women’s soccer, but also for men’s lacrosse, baseball and wrestling at Mount Union. Here, she will be working with all women’s sports.
“It was an adjustment switching from mostly all men to women’s sports, but I love it,” said Parent. “The volleyball girls were so welcoming, and with their small team it made the adjustment that much easier.”
Along with being the assistant athletic trainer, Parent will be doing a strength and conditioning component with all sports teams in season. She will train all sports teams except volleyball three days a week. This will help each athlete’s individual performance.
At her previous job, there were about nine athletic trainers assisting each sport individually. Fredonia has only three athletic trainers who are responsible for multiple sports at one time. Parent’s biggest adjustment is the transition from large to small staff size. Luckily, the Fredonia Blue Devils’ athletic training room keeps everything extremely organized and well managed.
“Katalin is so helpful to our volleyball team, and we all get along with her really nicely,” said Paulina Rein, captain of the women’s volleyball team.
Parent is a 2012 graduate of Keene State College in New Hampshire where she double majored in athletic training and chemical dependency. After undergrad, she attended California University at Pennsylvania and received her master’s degree in exercise science. Parent then received a graduate assistant job at the University of Mount Union where she was offered an assistant athletic training position and professor for one year.
Parent will be providing all student athletes entering the training room with maintenance, treatment, rehabilitation and education. With the addition of Parent, student athletes now have a full-time athletic trainer as well as a strength and conditioning coach.
“Katalin has been a great addition to our staff,” said Erin Abbate, assistant athletic trainer. “Her positive attitude and willingness to help will greatly benefit Fredonia Athletics!”