GARDINER — By 2:15 p.m., the small trainer’s room at Gardiner Area High School is full of student athletes, waiting for their turn to see trainer Pat Norwood. For an hour, Norwood works the room like a sports medicine conductor. This student needs her arm stretched. That one needs to do his resistance exercises to strengthen an elbow. There’s a shoulder injury over there, and an ankle injury over here. Let’s get ice on that knee. Everybody must sign in.
When the room is just about empty, Norwood’s day is just starting. Gardiner hosts a girls lacrosse game, and he has to be on the field. He also has to swing by track and field practice to talk to the coaches.
“I like it when it’s busy. It makes you feel a little bit more accomplished when it’s busy, and you get the athletes out and you can watch them play in their games,” Norwood said. “It means what we do is needed.”
A Readfield native and graduate of Maranacook Community High School, Norwood is doing a job he loves that is close to home and is surrounded by the people he loves. This is Norwood’s first year working with Gardiner’s athletes. According to his bio on the MaineGeneral Health website, Norwood also works with athletes in Richmond. Norwood is just one of two trainers on the MaineGeneral staff who grew up in the area. Nick Thompson, a Waterville native, is the trainer at Messalonskee High School.
Norwood, 24, still lives in Readfield, with his wife, Julie.
“Finding an athletic training job so close to home is pretty rare. With MaineGeneral, there’s only nine trainers, and we cover a big span. I wanted to stay in Maine,” Norwood said.
A 2013 University of Maine graduate, Norwood worked on a per diem basis during his first year with MaineGeneral. He jumped around, covering whatever was necessary. Norwood made an impression on longtime area trainer Chris Sementelli.
“His passion for his profession is evident in everything he does,” Sementelli said. “He’s a local guy. He wants to stay here. He’s worked as hard as anybody to make that happen.”
Gardiner senior Brad Weston was one of the first students in Norwood’s office on Thursday afternoon, to get some treatment before baseball practice.
“Me and him established a pretty good relationship,” Weston said of Norwood.
Weston was one of the first students Norwood got to know last fall when he started at Gardiner. Weston battled a foot injury for six and a half weeks of the football season. Norwood was a big piece of Weston’s recovery.
“I don’t like to do rehab. He kept me here, every day. He kept track of my doctor’s appointments. He stayed on top of it,” Weston said.
Norwood was a three-sport athlete at Maranacook, playing football, basketball and baseball. A knee injury his sophomore year, and the rehab he did with trainer Rich Garini, got Norwood thinking of sports medicine as a career.
“I had quite a bit of injuries. One in particular, I had a pretty bad knee injury in football. He rehabbed me back and I was able to play the following basketball season,” Norwood said. “Sports was a big part of my growing up. I wanted to stay in some sort of sports medicine. I liked the idea of helping athletes. Rich helped me out when I was in high school with my injuries.”
When school lets out, Norwood has a full training room. Just the way he likes it.
Travis Lazarczyk — 861-9242
Twitter: @TLazarczykMTM
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