Adam Olsen loves his job, but he’d prefer
you didn’t have to see or hear about him
performing it over and over this season.
The Cardinals’ head athletic trainer has
managed the care of 15 different players
who’ve been placed on the disabled list
through the season’s first 57 games –
third-most in baseball through June 4.
Even the coaching staff hasn’t been spared
(just ask bench coach Mike Shildt, who
underwent concussion protocol after
getting hit in the head by a line drive at
Pittsburgh). But injuries happen when
grown men hit, throw, chase and catch a
baseball for 162 games.
The workload puts Olsen and his fellow
trainers (assistants Chris Conroy and Jeremy
Clipperton) in an unwilling spotlight. “The
last place we want to be is on TV, helping a
player on the field,” Olsen acknowledges.
Still, all the bruises, breaks and
breakdowns are their daily dose of normal
from the start of spring training through the
season’s final day. It’s a schedule Olsen knows
well in his ninth season as a big-league
trainer, the first six as the club’s assistant
trainer and physical therapist.
The 40-year-old native of Green Bay, Wis.,
earned his athletic training certification at
Auburn and his master’s in physical therapy
at Wisconsin. He also completed a post-
professional fellowship under the direction of
doctors James Andrews and Kevin E. Wilk,
both titans in the world of sports injuries and
rehabilitation.
“When students ask me how to advance
in this business, my advice is to find out who
the leaders (are), find out their background
and find out how to spend face time with
those leaders,” Olsen explains.
Olsen’s rookie season with the
organization came in 2006, when he was
hired as the club’s first-ever medical/rehab
coordinator at its Jupiter, Fla., complex.
Since then, he’s been on an ever-evolving,
ever-challenging journey – and he wouldn’t
have it any other way.
“Anyone’s goal is to have something that
challenges them every day,” he says. “It’s
a puzzle here every day. Schedules change
constantly. But I love that challenge.”
Olsen recently sat down with Cardinals
Magazine to talk all things training.How did you pioneer that first position with
the Cardinals, back in 2006 at Jupiter?
OLSEN: Before I started, the Cardinals
had lost a few prospects to the rehab process.
The standard at that time was for a player to
go back home after surgery and work with the
local physical therapist; then the team would
see the player later and evaluate the progress.
There was just too much investment on the
Cardinals’ part to not be in control of the
recovery. That’s what drove the club to develop
its own program in Florida that focused on
prospects’ medical and physical rehab.Adam OlsenHEAD ATHLETIC TRAINER
To minimize the reactive part of his job (injury treatment), Olsen stays proactive
(injury prevention) by studying players’ movements during games, making
hydration a priority and communicating if something catches his eye.CARDINALS MAGAZINE 27