Athletic Training Student’s Bengals Internship Was Championship Experience

Chad Rairdon's 10-Month Experience Spanned from Spring Rookie Camp through NFL Combine While the Cincinnati Bengals’ players, coaches and fans might have had a disappointing 2017 season, the experience for Wilmington College’s Chad Rairdon was of a championship caliber. PICTURED: Senior Chad Rairdon is pictured in WC's Athletic Training Clinic. Rairdon, a senior athletic training major from Trafalgar, Ind., landed a much sought-after internship with the team that started last spring when rookies came in for physicals and continued through summer camp, a day a week and home games during the team’s 7-9 season and concluded with this winter’s NFL Combine. “It was a fantastic experience — I learned so much,” he said. “It’s rigorous and hard work, a lot of early mornings and late nights, but I had so much fun doing it.” Rairdon holds a special memory of working the Bengals’ Monday Night Football game with the Pittsburgh Steelers, when, as he’s tending to pregame preparations on the sideline, he’s literally within speaking distance of NFL greats-turned-sportscasters Steve Young, Randy Moss and Jerry Rice doing their pregame show. The College has a longtime affiliation with the Bengals, which has hosted nearly 45 WC athletic training interns since 1981 graduate Paul Sparling became the team’s head athletic trainer in the early 1990s. “When I have an athletic training intern recommended to me (by Wilmington College), I know they’re going to be top-of-the-line,” Sparling said during a visit to WC in which he presented a Bengals injury case study to athletic training students. “With their education and experience, I get the cream-of-the-crop,” Sparling added. “Their hands-on learning experience as part of Wilmington’s fine program allows those students to separate themselves from athletic training students at other institutions. It makes it an easy choice for me to bring Wilmington College students on board the Cincinnati Bengals medical staff.” Rairdon was impressed with how his WC education prepared him for work with the professional football team. “I realized what I learned at Wilmington College directly applied to the professional sports setting,” he said, noting that, by the time he started his internship, he possessed a student’s “comprehensive understanding” of injuries and treatments. “So the first time you work on a Bengals’ player, it’s not your first time with an athlete. You’re not lost. It’s just another step in gaining your confidence.” Rairdon said his Bengals experience would provide a great resume bullet point and conversation starter in interviews as he embarks upon joining the profession following his graduation in May. He plans to take the Board of Certification examination in late April. With his future in athletic training looming, he looked back upon how his interest in the field started in high school, as he enjoyed playing sports, especially baseball, and considered a career that would keep him close to the action. “I wanted to go somewhere hands-on,” he said about his decision to attend WC and how the AT program’s hallmark for experiential learning attracted him to the College. “I had my sights on the Bengals internship from the start. It pushed me to study more and learn the materials by heart.” Rairdon also looks ahead to the Bengals’ 2018 season, as he “built a rapport” with the players and wants the team to be successful. He also appreciates the relationship he developed with Sparling, who gave him an invaluable experience, positive job reference and encouraged him to stay in touch and contact him with any questions. “When I finished, Paul said, ‘We’ll now turn this internship into a friendship.’”