Kori Ellis
03-24-2007, 11:21 PM
Every Good Stadium Needs a Good Trainer
by Tim Price, spurs.com
http://www.nba.com/spurs/features/sevening_score_070323.html
Now in his ninth season as the head athletic trainer for the Spurs, Will Sevening remembers how it all got started. He remembers all the time he spent in high school learning about injuries during football, baseball and track season.
But Sevening, now 38, wasn’t the student trainer. He was trying to play each of those sports, but he ended up spending a lot of his time limping around and using crutches.
“We never had a trainer,” Sevening said. “The coach was one of those guys who told us, ‘Throw some dirt on it and let’s go’ whenever we got hurt.
“But athletic training has gotten so big. It’s light years ahead now.”
His four knee surgeries in high school did more than end his hopes of becoming a college or pro athlete. Sevening learned that injuries need to be taken seriously, rather than taking the attitude to suck it up and play through the pain.
Sevening now knows that if a certified athletic trainer had been around during his high school days, he could have taken the proper safeguards to prevent surgery. But the aches and pains did nothing to diminish Sevening’s love of sports. It turns out that one of his favorite pastimes during the Spurs offseason is America’s “favorite pastime.”
Sevening figures he’s visited more than 60 baseball parks in the minor and major leagues. He loves the game, but going to a ballpark means more to him than just balls and strikes. It’s a full sensory experience.
While attending high school in the Milwaukee area, Sevening often went to Brewers’ games. It was before Miller Park, the retractable-dome stadium, was built for the team. The Brewers played in County Stadium, an open-air ballpark that also played host to a few Green Bay Packers games.
“I just remember walking up to the stadium and seeing a blue haze hovering over the parking lot,” Sevening said. “It was bratwurst being cooked on the grills before the game. You’d pay your four bucks and you were in.
“I loved the feeling of walking through the tunnel, seeing the green grass, eating the hotdogs, the bratwurst or the sunflower seeds.”
County Stadium was fun, but it’s not Sevening’s favorite old stadium. His favorite is in his native Chicago, but it’s not the ballpark most people would name.
“Wrigley Field is wonderful, but I really loved old Comiskey Park,” he said. “They had picnic areas right there along the outfield fence. I think it was great that you could sit there and have a picnic, and you could see and talk to the players right through the chain-link fence.”
The original Comiskey Park opened in 1910. It was enhanced by simple fan-friendly touches installed by visionary Chicago White Sox owner Bill Veeck (like the oversized shower heads he installed in the outfield seating areas - popular during hot summer day games).
Sevening’s family moved throughout the Midwest when he was a child, a result of his father’s job in the insurance and sales industry. It seems fitting, then, that Sevening also handles the travel planning for the Spurs. He essentially has the team’s travel plans ready by August.
His mobile youth, plus his father’s love of baseball, gave Sevening the opportunity to see some of the older structures like “old’ Comiskey.
But a stadium or arena doesn’t have to feature a bunch of “extras” to be special in Sevening’s mind.
Before joining the Spurs in 1998, Sevening spent five years as assistant trainer and strength coach for the Indiana Pacers. The team played in Market Square Arena in the days before moving to their current home court, the Conseco Fieldhouse.
Market Square Arena had a quirky design that enhanced the Pacers’ home-court advantage. The arena actually spanned over Market Street in downtown Indianapolis, and a parking garage was housed below the playing floor.
“It was like a big tin box,” Sevening said. “There were nights when the floor really shook. The place was rattling when the Pacers-Bulls playoff series was going on,” Sevening refers to the 1998 Eastern Conference Finals when the Pacers fell to the Michael Jordan-led Bulls in seven games.
Sevening has found a way to bring the flavor of old stadiums to his own home. He and his wife, Terri, have four children – Allison (9 years), Ben (7), Emma (4) and Liam (1).
Sevening’s brother painted Ben’s room into a likeness of Wrigley Field, ivy-covered wall and all. The numbers on the scoreboard and the umpire’s uniforms correspond to Ben’s birthdate and his weight when he was born. It shows an attention to detail that Sevening has to have while handling the training duties and travel plans for the Spurs. And the comfortable feeling of a classic ballpark lives on.
by Tim Price, spurs.com
http://www.nba.com/spurs/features/sevening_score_070323.html
Now in his ninth season as the head athletic trainer for the Spurs, Will Sevening remembers how it all got started. He remembers all the time he spent in high school learning about injuries during football, baseball and track season.
But Sevening, now 38, wasn’t the student trainer. He was trying to play each of those sports, but he ended up spending a lot of his time limping around and using crutches.
“We never had a trainer,” Sevening said. “The coach was one of those guys who told us, ‘Throw some dirt on it and let’s go’ whenever we got hurt.
“But athletic training has gotten so big. It’s light years ahead now.”
His four knee surgeries in high school did more than end his hopes of becoming a college or pro athlete. Sevening learned that injuries need to be taken seriously, rather than taking the attitude to suck it up and play through the pain.
Sevening now knows that if a certified athletic trainer had been around during his high school days, he could have taken the proper safeguards to prevent surgery. But the aches and pains did nothing to diminish Sevening’s love of sports. It turns out that one of his favorite pastimes during the Spurs offseason is America’s “favorite pastime.”
Sevening figures he’s visited more than 60 baseball parks in the minor and major leagues. He loves the game, but going to a ballpark means more to him than just balls and strikes. It’s a full sensory experience.
While attending high school in the Milwaukee area, Sevening often went to Brewers’ games. It was before Miller Park, the retractable-dome stadium, was built for the team. The Brewers played in County Stadium, an open-air ballpark that also played host to a few Green Bay Packers games.
“I just remember walking up to the stadium and seeing a blue haze hovering over the parking lot,” Sevening said. “It was bratwurst being cooked on the grills before the game. You’d pay your four bucks and you were in.
“I loved the feeling of walking through the tunnel, seeing the green grass, eating the hotdogs, the bratwurst or the sunflower seeds.”
County Stadium was fun, but it’s not Sevening’s favorite old stadium. His favorite is in his native Chicago, but it’s not the ballpark most people would name.
“Wrigley Field is wonderful, but I really loved old Comiskey Park,” he said. “They had picnic areas right there along the outfield fence. I think it was great that you could sit there and have a picnic, and you could see and talk to the players right through the chain-link fence.”
The original Comiskey Park opened in 1910. It was enhanced by simple fan-friendly touches installed by visionary Chicago White Sox owner Bill Veeck (like the oversized shower heads he installed in the outfield seating areas - popular during hot summer day games).
Sevening’s family moved throughout the Midwest when he was a child, a result of his father’s job in the insurance and sales industry. It seems fitting, then, that Sevening also handles the travel planning for the Spurs. He essentially has the team’s travel plans ready by August.
His mobile youth, plus his father’s love of baseball, gave Sevening the opportunity to see some of the older structures like “old’ Comiskey.
But a stadium or arena doesn’t have to feature a bunch of “extras” to be special in Sevening’s mind.
Before joining the Spurs in 1998, Sevening spent five years as assistant trainer and strength coach for the Indiana Pacers. The team played in Market Square Arena in the days before moving to their current home court, the Conseco Fieldhouse.
Market Square Arena had a quirky design that enhanced the Pacers’ home-court advantage. The arena actually spanned over Market Street in downtown Indianapolis, and a parking garage was housed below the playing floor.
“It was like a big tin box,” Sevening said. “There were nights when the floor really shook. The place was rattling when the Pacers-Bulls playoff series was going on,” Sevening refers to the 1998 Eastern Conference Finals when the Pacers fell to the Michael Jordan-led Bulls in seven games.
Sevening has found a way to bring the flavor of old stadiums to his own home. He and his wife, Terri, have four children – Allison (9 years), Ben (7), Emma (4) and Liam (1).
Sevening’s brother painted Ben’s room into a likeness of Wrigley Field, ivy-covered wall and all. The numbers on the scoreboard and the umpire’s uniforms correspond to Ben’s birthdate and his weight when he was born. It shows an attention to detail that Sevening has to have while handling the training duties and travel plans for the Spurs. And the comfortable feeling of a classic ballpark lives on.