Lauren Orth
Six hours before the clock ticks down to game time, the gears are already in motion in the Westerville South High School Athletics Department.
For Lauren Orth and the athletic training team, it’s clockwork on overdrive – with an ever-changing cycle of prepping equipment and tables, checking in with athletes, taping up any injuries and coordinating coverage across games – ensuring everyone’s equipped for any scenario that may arise.
More than 20 years into her career, with 10 at Westerville South, Orth loves the quick pace of the job, and has been recognized as a top athletic trainer and mentor as she looks to continue growing in the field and mentoring the next generation.
Finding her path
Lauren Orth
Orth with her husband, Kort, and daughter, Colette
The second oldest of four kids, Orth and her siblings grew up running around the local high school and fields in their hometown of Fort Wayne, Indiana – first in their youth, when her mom conducted theater rehearsals and her dad coached multiple sports, and later, as they bounced between sports of their own.
When Orth was 10 years old, they moved to Delaware, Ohio, where she grew up competing in softball, volleyball and cheer. She also explored musical interests through clarinet in middle school and as part of the symphonic choir through high school.
Orth showed a particular interest in softball, leading her to a college visit at Bowling Green State University to explore her options post-high school. Though college softball was ultimately not in the cards, the visit introduced her to something greater: the field of athletic training.
“I knew I wanted to do something in healthcare, but I didn’t know if it was nursing or what exactly it was (I wanted to do), and they said, ‘Well, have you heard of athletic training?’” Orth says. “I had never really been injured, I didn’t know too much about the profession, but I was like, ‘I want to be in medicine and I love sports, so, sure, let’s try it,’ so that’s how I got into it, and then I just fell in love with it.”
Bowling Green became her next stop – where she was drawn to athletic training immediately.
From falcon to wildcat
As an undergraduate, Orth’s weeks consisted primarily of clinicals, with 50 to 60 hours a week spent in the training room and traveling with the BGSU Falcons football team to apply her classroom learning in real-time.
Following graduation, Orth moved on to Defiance College to pursue her master’s in education with plans to teach and become an athletic trainer at the collegiate level. But, as a graduate assistant working with multiple collegiate teams and the prehabilitation clinic, she also worked for Ayersville High School Pirates – where she discovered the joy of covering practices and Friday night football home games with the students.
“That was really my first experience working with the younger (athletes). I really enjoyed my time… so that’s kind of where I fell in love with the secondary school setting,” she says.
Orth’s goal from then on was working at the high school level. Taking a position at a family practice in Westerville for a year post-graduation and moving to the community, Orth then pursued her first position at the high school level at Olentangy Liberty High School.
For the next 10 years, Orth worked at Olentangy Liberty, where she became an athletic trainer for OhioHealth Sports Medicine as the school district shifted to contracting through OhioHealth. As the district later changed healthcare providers, an opportunity opened for Orth to make a change and work closer to home as the head trainer for the Westerville South Wildcats – one she took.
“This job opened up, and I just had my daughter, and I wanted to work in the city where I lived,” Orth says. “So I asked if I could move over here, (and) I’ve been here ever since.”
“I’m not an office, behind-the-desk person. I like putting out fires. I like that you never know what’s going to come at you. I like that everything is changing every day. I mean, medicine changes every day. It’s not monotonous. Every day, you don’t know what you’re going to walk into or have to handle.” – Lauren Orth
Life at Westerville South
Lauren Orth
Following in the footsteps of Bill Kulju after his 30-plus-year career, Orth inherited an athletic training department built on the support of the community – a support she’s set on growing.
“He did all the groundwork for just educating the community on what an athletic trainer is, how we can help, how imperative it is really to have onsite healthcare for our student-athletes,” Orth says. “Bill Kulju was a mentor of mine when I was at Liberty… (He’s) someone to look up to, someone to strive to be, and now being here at South in his footsteps is humbling.”
Expanding on Kulju’s work, Orth established the Westerville South Athletic Department Golf Scramble, the department’s annual fundraiser. Now in its sixth year, the fundraiser helps raise money for expenses such as team uniforms, equipment for the sports and training room, pay-to-play fees and giving back to student-athletes. The Golf Scramble brings in alumni and community members alike, including former athletics staff such as Kulju and their former student-athletes, to get them involved.
Mentorship is another pillar Orth focuses on, sharing her knowledge as a clinical instructor – called a preceptor – with athletic training students, teaching them how to apply classroom knowledge in a clinical setting.
Her passion for mentoring started back at Defiance College during her days as a graduate assistant, later evolving into a love of teaching students about new types of cases and challenges. Now, she works with students from The Ohio State University and Antioch College, as well as residents through Ohio University’s residency program, showing them how to problem-solve in live time.
“It’s not just evaluating, coming up with a diagnosis and treating it. There’s more to it, especially at this setting,” Orth shares. “It’s talking to the parents, it’s talking to many different coaches… From 14 to 18, it’s (also) such a huge age gap, and there’s a lot of growth that happens… so it’s just learning that working with adolescents (means) their musculature and their bodies are different and going through different phases in their life, so some injuries, we handle them differently.”
Beyond mentoring and picking up new tips and tricks from her clinical students, Orth works hard on coordinating communication for the other trainers, nurses and coaches; managing teams in and out of pre- and post-practice treatment; charting and setting up MRI and specialist appointments for athletes; and enjoying the hustle of working with student-athletes.
“I love working with the kids. They’re fun, they’re funny. I feel at this setting, in this profession in general, you really, truly feel like you make a difference,” she says. “You’re here because you want to do what you feel is best for the kids, for their health and safety, keeping them doing what they love.”
Jane Dimel is an assistant editor at CityScene Media Group. Feedback welcome at jdimel@cityscenemediagroup.com.
