For many of us, when the word “team” is said, we immediately think of just the players and coaches; we easily forget one of the many important members that contribute to a team’s success: the athletic trainer.

Jo Silken is the head athletic trainer for Skyline’s athletes as well as a teacher in the athletic training field. Now, after 33 years, she will be retiring from the school to pursue other opportunities and will remain active in her profession.

“As an athlete, I love being on the sideline,” Silken said, smiling. “I love the excitement and competition and seeing an athlete with an injury that I helped rehabilitate back on the field.”

Silken explains that it is the rehabilitation side that is physically demanding for a trainer. Although she is retiring, this isn’t the end of the road for her career.

“There are other challenges that I would like to pursue in my field; it’s just not as physically challenging,” Silken said.

Over the 46 years of her career, Silken has accumulated a number of accomplishments. She has received multiple awards and is the first female athletic trainer to serve on the United States Olympic Medical Committee.

“My career has given me a number of opportunities to travel with national-caliber teams,” Silken said. “I’ve had the opportunity to travel around the world, which is what I would like to continue to do.”

Just last year she traveled to Shenzen, China with the United States Collegiate National Tae Kwon Do Team for the World University Games. She has also been involved in a number of Pan American and Olympic Games, and many other world championship games.

“What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us,” Silken said, quoting Ralph Waldo Emerson.

She enjoys helping and motivating the athletes. From my meeting with her, I have learned that there are people who just do and people who love what they do. Luckily for the athletes she trains, Silken loves what she doesooks forward to traveling with other teams and the opportunities that are waiting for her in the future.