As the head athletic trainer for the Griffins, Austin Frank welcomes the challenge of keeping the team healthy and in a position to achieve peak performance.

Story and photo by Mark Newman

        Austin Frank is no miracle worker. Bruised egos and damaged confidence are beyond the powers of his profession.

        But when you're talking about the normal aches and pains associated with hockey, or the management, prevention, and recovery from injuries, the Griffins' head athletic trainer is the man.

        "One of my college professors said, 'People – and athletes in general – don't care about how much you know until they know how much you care.' And so for me, I just show the athletes, 'Hey, I'm here for you.' I'll go out of my way to do things for them," Frank said.

        "As soon as you can develop that level of trust, they will believe in you. They think, 'OK, I'm going to listen to this guy.' You start from there, especially when you're in a brand new experience, and you just build from there."

        Now in his second season with the Griffins' staff, Frank believes the fact that he played a lot of sports growing up provides a greater understanding of each hockey player who comes under his care. Every athlete is different, and the quicker he discerns their needs, the better he can help them continue to play at a peak level.

        Born in Saginaw, he attended high school in Fenton, which is when "athletic trainer" showed up second on the list of potential paths suggested by one of those career placement tests you take as a teenager.

        "I had no idea what it was, but I knew I wanted to be in the medical field," he said. "My older brother, who is now a PA [physician assistant], was already going that route at Michigan and my mom is a nurse. I had always been interested in the human body, I love sports and felt drawn to the whole team aspect, so I guess it all just merged into athletic training."

        Frank, who played hockey and football through high school, admits that he knew almost nothing about the profession before he pursued his education in the field.

        "We didn't have an athletic trainer in high school," he said. "It's crazy to think about now, but we went through all of our high school sports without any real medical coverage. There would be an ambulance there on game days, but we never had anyone on the sidelines."

        He was planning to attend Hope College and play hockey, before his interest in a non-playing career led him to Western Michigan University.

        "I ended up going on an overnight visit for hockey [at Hope] and they said I could interview to get into their athletic training program but I would have to delay my enrollment to the spring, which meant I would be going to school longer than I wanted," he said. "I wanted to be out of school in four years."

        Frank already had a friend at Western and had liked the university when he visited, so he decided to head to Kalamazoo. "I took one course at Western Michigan and I was hooked," he recalled.

        With the possibility of combining his love of sports with working in the medical field, Frank found his passion.

        "I thought being an athletic trainer could be a cool role to play within a team and an organization," he said. "I think how the human body works is super-fascinating, and to be able to fill that role behind the scenes and do this job every day was something I could enjoy without it feeling like a 9-to-5 job that I was just doing for a paycheck."

        Once he was accepted into the program, Frank started working with the men's and women's soccer teams. "From there, I got accepted to be the one student with the men's ice hockey team for my whole junior year," he said. "During my senior year, I spent time at Plainwell High School and worked on the sidelines for football, did some wrestling and soccer while also helping out with hockey at Western."

        He recognized that the value of his studies was only surpassed by his experience working in the field.

        "That was what led me to choose North Carolina State to pursue my master's degree," he said.  "Hands-on experience and learning from clinicians who do it every day is invaluable. When you're able to apply what you learn in the classroom, it's cool to see it all click."

        His education ensured that he gained experience working with contact and non-contact sports as well as female athletes.

        "I wanted to build on my undergrad knowledge and diversify myself with more hands-on time, so I pursued a master's degree in sport management at NC State," he said. "I took all my classes online so I could completely immerse myself in the day-to-day work of being an athletic trainer."

        In Raleigh, Frank worked mainly with the men's tennis and men's soccer teams, but he also spent time with women's tennis and women's soccer teams as well as other sports, including gymnastics, football, and basketball. "I wanted to learn. I needed hands-on experience because that's how I learn," he said.

        "I was able to do just about everything I had hoped to do, and those were probably some of the longest hours I ever worked. It was all day, every day, and then I went to class at night. It was fun and it was a blast."

        Working with athletes in different sports helped him understand the demands of being an athlete and how his work could help them remain as close to their peak physical performance as possible.

        "I think it gave me a good appreciation for the different sports and an understanding of the demands of each sport," he said. "You're able to pull bits of knowledge and discover the things that work as well as the things that don't work, and you adapt those things into how you practice every day."

        His first job out of school was at Kent State University, where he served as an athletic trainer for the men's basketball program for two years. He also oversaw a graduate assistant and covered other sports, everything from baseball to women's field hockey.

        "All the experience helps you build this toolbox of skills that you can apply in whatever sport that you work," he said. "Wherever you go, the human body is the same but the demands of each sport change the steps you take. Each experience was different and gave me another perspective."

        Frank eventually ended up back at his alma mater after he accepted the job as the primary athletic trainer for the Western Michigan hockey team. He admits that he almost missed his opportunity to return.

        While at Kent State, he had been offered the athletic trainer position for the men's basketball program at Yale, but a phone call about the possibility of landing a job with the hockey program at Western changed his mind.

        "I ended up turning down the Yale men's basketball job without an actual offer from Western, just hoping that I would get the job," he said. "It was a huge curveball, but it was an easy decision for me."

        For Frank, it was the perfect stepping stone to his dream of working in professional hockey.

        "At the time, that was as close to a dream job as I could have gotten," he said. "Coming back to Western, where I went to school and where I started in athletic training, and then working underneath Brian Bauer, who was director of sports medicine at the school, was just awesome.

        "There was a little bit of familiarity there. I knew the campus. I knew the area. The training room hadn't changed a bit since I left and some of the same trainers were still there, so it was nice to go back."

        Frank might still be working with the Broncos – he loved his job at Western – if he had not spotted a posting for the Griffins' position through the Professional Hockey Athletic Trainers Society.

       "Western was a great job, but there are limitations with it being college athletics," he said. "My ultimate goal was professional hockey, and so to have the opportunity to apply for a job within the Red Wings organization just 45 minutes north of Kalamazoo, I decided to put my name in the hat."

        He quickly assimilated himself into the Red Wings organization.

        "The whole experience has been great," he said. "Having mentors like [Red Wings head athletic trainer] Piet Van Zant and [assistant athletic trainer] Russ Baumann is pretty cool because they have so many years on the job and they've seen it all. They were nothing but welcoming when I joined here."

        Adjusting to working with pro athletes was not as big a jump from college as one might expect. "The schedule is longer and there is a bigger age gap between the youngest and oldest players, but they're still going to have the same aches and pains.

        "You treat them the same, or at least you try to. The younger players typically have a lot to learn in terms of the right way to take care of their body, and how much time it truly takes to be a pro.

       "Whether it's on the ice or off the ice, being a pro involves taking care of their body with sleep, hydration, and the right nutrients. It's coming here when they don't want to, even on their off days. There's a whole organizational approach that we follow.

        "From taking appropriate supplements to a strength-based assessment that breaks down every joint of the body in terms of what they need to get stronger and more mobile to protect them from injury, we do the same things that the Red Wings do."

        At the NHL level, players have access to everything from an underwater treadmill to in-ground hot and cold tubs, sauna, steam room, salt float tank, and even a cryogenic chamber that uses extreme sub-freezing temperatures for quicker healing.

        "Here we have a whole range of therapeutic modalities at our disposal – laser therapy, cupping therapy, electrical stimulation, and dry needling, which is acupuncture," Frank said, rattling off some of the various techniques he uses to keep players on the ice.

        "There are a lot of things that can help with various symptoms, the pain and tightness, and stuff like that. Ultimately it's getting them on a corrective exercise program that addresses that, whether it's weakness or a dysfunction. There's a whole bunch of stuff we can do on the back end to get them out of a cycle of nagging injuries."

        So whether it's taping and bandaging or providing additional protective equipment, Frank faces the challenge of helping players stay on the ice. Or, in some cases, staying off the ice.

        Frank sends out a confidential daily injury report to the whole organization, from Detroit down to Toledo, so that everyone in the know is kept in the loop.

        "On Monday mornings, our staff sits down here in Grand Rapids to discuss the week ahead, upcoming travel, any restrictions, whether it's in the weight room or on the ice. We try and plan out certain things, whether it's someone coming back from a long-term injury or determining timelines for testing. We'll communicate all those things with management, the coaches, and the Detroit medical staff."

        Hockey players are known for having high pain thresholds, so telling a guy that he has to sit out is almost adding insult to injury.

         "It's a fine line, for sure, and that's what makes our job so hard," he said. "You can only change the healing process so much, and so while we try to speed up the process with the different things we can do, some injuries can take multiple weeks for the healing process to complete because we do not want to risk complicating the injury or further damage."

         Decisions are based on input from various parties. "It's utilizing our whole department, whether it's myself, the physical therapists, strength coaches, or team doctors, so we make sure we're speaking with a unified voice," he said.

        While he wishes he never had to sideline a player due to injury, Frank said the decision is always made in the best interest of the player.

        "There are instances where you've got to be the bad guy, but at the end of the day, they understand," he said. "It's not fun to be that guy, and I don't want to be that guy. I'd rather be the other guy, saying, 'Yep, he's good, everything's great,' but sometimes you've got to be the bad guy and say, 'Hey, this is best for the health and safety of the player.'

        "As much as I have a responsibility to get them back on the ice, I have just as much responsibility to keep them off the ice for their health and safety."

        And that decision-making process doesn't materially change during the playoffs.

        "On average, hockey players are the toughest athletes, which makes my job a little bit easier. But it can also make my job harder, because these guys want to play through just about anything they can.

        "If it's a pain-tolerance thing, there might be a little more leniency, but there are some things that, no matter what game it is, they're not going to be allowed on the ice. It's ultimately the athlete's choice to play, but they can't override me. If I say no, and they say yes, it's still a no.

        "But if I say yes, and they say no, then it's a no. I can't force them to play, but I can tell them they can't. During the playoffs, when your season can be done in a night or the next night, they're often willing to push through and recover in the summer."

        Frank said the best part of his job is the relationships that develop.

        "You see everything," he said. "From the good to the bad, from the early mornings to the late nights, you get a little bit of everything, so you build a tight bond with everybody. We've got a great staff and they make it easy to come to work every day and just enjoy it.

        "I've got a guy across the hall [Griffins equipment manager Brad Thompson] with 2,000 games under his belt. He just knows so much about hockey – the ins and outs of the league – and he's dealt with different coaches and different management. He's seen Calder Cups and Stanley Cups. He's a guy you definitely want in your corner, right?

        "He's been around so long, he knows how to extend the padding on pants or provide extra protection with shoulder pads or shin pads. Brad and Kyle [Hornkohl, the Griffins' assistant equipment manager] are like little craftsmen. They do these little additions that are designed to protect the players.

        "For example, our captain Josiah [Didier] is known for blocking shots. He has reinforced padding everywhere. If we can do something to lessen the blow, it may make my job easier down the road."

        Frank said the fact that the Griffins got off to the best start in team history is just what the doctor ordered. "Things are always easier when you're winning, that's for sure," he said, noting that even the ever-present aches and pains might hurt a little less when a team is enjoying success.

         Whether it's shoulders or hips – the most common hockey injuries – or a wrist or an ankle, Frank is happy to be tasked with the responsibility of helping the players return to the ice as quickly and safely as possible.

        "If you're not a good communicator, you're not going to survive in this position," he said. "If you communicate properly, you'll instill confidence and they'll trust you to do the best you can do. And that's all you can ask."