Bella Lamantia, Sahuaro’s athletic trainer, says the hardest part of the job is “…understanding how our body works and how each joint is different, understanding all the muscles, all the ligaments, the tissues, and all the different possibilities of why something hurts.” She started working at Sahuaro in July of 2023. On average, Bella sees around 25-30 kids a day; fall and winter are her busiest seasons, with spring requiring the most movement due to the multiple sports in season which include: softball, baseball, tennis, track and field, and boys’ volleyball. Bella said, “I feel like every athletic trainer, at least when they’re new, you’re trying to remember everything you learned, and so some injuries come through the door and you initially see it and you’re like ‘I don’t know what it is’, and then you keep thinking and looking at it and then everything makes sense.”
Bella originally graduated from Winona State in Minnesota but ended up interning with the U of A’s football team, which eventually landed her position here. During Bella’s 9-month internship, she completed an extensive amount of work under 5 other athletic trainers, who mentored her in injury evaluation and treatment, learning to insert a breathing tube, what to do in emergencies, working with the U of A Police Department, traveling to away games, seeing how athletic trainers work with physicians, nutritionists, sports psychologists, and even strength and conditioning.
Originally, Bella was a Criminal Justice major, and she wanted to be an FBI agent. She got into the athletic field because she, “…grew up watching a lot of sports, playing a lot of sports, and then my first semester, I took gen-eds and then criminal justice classes and I was like, ‘It’s super cool, but not for me.’ So I immediately went to my advisor and I was like, ‘We need to switch my classes ASAP.’ And so next semester, I started taking classes for my undergrad, which was movement science. And I was like, ‘This is perfect.'”
Bella ended up staying in Arizona because she, “…just started applying to a bunch of different places. Here in Tucson, some in San Diego, and just other places. But I knew I really wanted to stay here because I really fell in love with Arizona, and then I found a job at Banner Health, and Banner luckily matched me here at Sahuaro.”
Bella has thoroughly enjoyed her time here so far at Sahuaro, “…I’ve just been super appreciative of how everybody at Sahuaro has accepted me and welcomed me because it can be hard to have somebody come in and, you know, have different ways and just be a different person than previous athletic trainers, and so everyone has just been awesome about making sure I’m getting what I need and just being available, and it’s huge because I feel like this is a good community and everybody has been very supportive and I’m just very thankful that I got placed here.”
A helping hand from the Sahuaro staff was imperative to her success, especially since the difference between college and high school-level athletic training is huge. With colleges, you’re working with just one team a year. In high school, you’re working with every sports team on campus. For the future, Bella plans on going back to the collegiate level of athletic training, being that it is a more intense, but also personal level of work.
Bella’s most fulfilling moment in her time at Sahuaro has been seeing boys’ basketball make it to 4A state. She said, “That was an incredible opportunity to be a part of…the coaches allowing me to go with them and seeing just the boys’ excitement, because I feel like there were so many moments of like, okay, this might not be it, you know, and then they got that opportunity.”
Lots have wondered why Bella’s “No Popsicles” sign went up. She says she bought popsicles on Amazon Prime Day, and the kids were obsessed, so she wanted to do the same thing this year, but ran out of them. Students kept coming in and asking for one, so she had to put a sign out there because they were all like, “Miss, can I grab a popsicle?” Bella says she is most definitely taking popsicle donations.
It’ll always be “Go Cougars!” Bella says.
