Over the course of 18 years, five different principals and too many coaching changes to mention, Christina Farley has been a fixture in the world of athletics at University High School. The Virginia native and Wedgefield resident recently learned she is also now a Class of 2008 inductee into the Athletic Trainers’ Association of Florida (ATAF) Hall of Fame.
Voted in by her peers at the annual ATAF meeting in Orlando, Farley has seen years of commitment to sports medicine grow throughout the school system in Orange County at a time when the east side of town was rising from mounds of dirt. “For them to all of a sudden nominate me to be in the Hall of Fame [made me feel as though] they haven’t forgotten [what I’ve contributed],” she said.
“Not just being a female, but starting out in Orange County in general was hard back then.” And so much has changed in the 20 years since Farley was driving back and forth from Titusville to Dr. Phillips High School during her first two years on the job. It was a time when old-school coaches were forced to get accustomed to females hanging around the football fields during practices while trainers played a role in the welfare of their kids.
Over the course of two decades, Farley has not only maintained her position as an athletic trainer in Orange County but she’s also played a part in the evolution and implementation of athletic trainers into area high schools during that time. What started with just three certified trainers in 10 schools is currently up to more than 40 Floridalicensed and nationally certified trainers in 17 schools.
Farley originally took up sports medicine while in college much the same way those working in the field of sports often do, after realizing their own playing days are behind them. While in high school she played soccer, softball and field hockey, but she would go on to play basketball at Concord University before tearing her second anterior cruciate ligament in her sophomore season.
It was during her stint in rehab when she realized it was time to concentrate on school full time. “I was fortunate enough to find a way to be involved directly with sports for the rest of my working career and a lot of athletes don’t get to do that. They either stop playing or get hurt and have to go on to what they call a real job,” Farley said with a laugh. She went on to receive her bachelor’s degree in science at West Virginia University and her master’s in science at Old Dominion University before relocating to Florida with her husband in 1987.
Since 1989, when cows and dirt roads were still common in the area, she has worked with student athletes at UHS while also serving as an adjunct clinical instructor for the athletic training student interns from the University of Central Florida. At UHS, Farley teaches two periods of physical education and two periods of sports medicine while also managing 60 student trainers.
And with 950 kids in the computer for nearly 48 teams at the school, being sure those players complete physicals and rehab assignments before being cleared to play is yet another part of the job. And that’s in the framework of a school year.
On the national level, Farley was a part of the host committee for the National Athletic Trainers’ Annual Meeting in 1996; served as a board-certified, test-site examiner for 14 years; and took part in the “March on the Capital” in 2004, when athletic trainers from throughout the state met with senators to educate them about the certified athletic trainer in the medical field. The years of hands-on experience and the passion she’s shown while working in her field is what ultimately led to the recognition on behalf of ATAF.
“I am greatly humbled to be recognized at this level by my peers,” said Farley. “I have greatly enjoyed serving the students, athletes and the eastside community in the name of sports medicine.” It may what she’s learned from those peers that’s helped her balance the two most important things in her life — her family and her career.
“It’s hard enough to be an athletic trainer, but to be an athletic trainer with your own children is even harder,” said Farley. It’s a sentiment she’s been reminded of with each meeting she has attended, where many of the old-timers would talk about their only regret being the time they missed out on with their own kids while looking after everybody else’s.
“I’ve been fortunate enough here at this school that we’ve always been family oriented,” she said of working with the likes of former athletic director Jerry Bourg and head football coach Jerry Buckert. “That has allowed me to stay here [at UHS] this long.” Only this year she has spent some additional time at a neighboring school when not on the job at University.
That’s because while she has a daughter playing volleyball at Corner Lake Middle School, she also has a son who completed his freshman year playing football and volleyball at Timber Creek, a high school packed with former coaches and administrators she once worked with at UHS. It’s just another example of how things keep changing around her.
But just as she’s watched east Orange County grow from its dirt piles, and the role of the athletic trainer expand throughout the school system, it’s apparent Farley is content with her place right in the middle of it all.
