Head Athletic Trainer Erik Fabriziani didn’t intend to work at a school.

“My goal when I originally wanted to be an athletic trainer was to go into professional sports,” Fabriziani said.

Eventually, he “began to see it would be better for the athletes and me to be here.”

Fabriziani got his Bachelor of Science Degree in Physical Education with a concentration in Athletic Training at Salisbury. He got his Masters degree in Education with a Sports Management focus at Auburn. After that, he worked at Union Memorial Hospital for two years in a program in which he worked at the hospital in the mornings and at JC in the evenings. In August of 2003, former Principal Paul Barker hired him full time.

“I had never done anything like [teaching] before,” Fabriziani said. “Luckily I had [health teacher Tess] Gauthier to guide me. It was a bit of a learning curve for the first few years.”

Fabriziani has taught health, sports medicine, and physical education. He is in his 11th year at JC and hopes to take on more teaching responsibilities in the future.

Fabriziani’s favorite class to teach is sports medicine “because that’s what I love and do for a living.” Physical education is another class he enjoys directing.

“I get to meet other people. Sometimes it’s nice to get out of the athletic realm and maybe get [the students] involved in a little bit of athletic stuff to stay fit all their lives,” Fabriziani said. “Maybe they play tennis in gym and say, ‘Hey, I really like this,’ and play it all their lives.”

He specifically mentioned badminton as a sport that students were introduced to for the first time in his class. Fabriziani likes to play it in class because “it’s different, and they don’t play it often. It keeps them organized, and if they play it properly, it gives them a better workout.”

According to Fabriziani, “I went into [teaching] blindly, but now I love it.”

Kathy Deaver is a Sports Editor for The Patriot and jcpatriot.com.