Staff Feature: Ms. Dobbs Supports Student Athletes

Athletic Trainer Nya Dobbs has worked at Crofton High School as the athletic trainer since the opening of the high school last year and the delayed start of the fall season in March of 2021. Before working at Crofton High Dobbs was at Loyola University MD with the women’s soccer team. Dobbs stated that working at CrHS “would be a good opportunity to work at a brand-new high school with high caliber athletics.” Dobbs also said “I was also looking for a change of pace from the D1 setting I had been in most of my career” 

Junior Rylan Kelley is on the varsity football team at CrHS, he was injured early in the season with a high ankle sprain and a messed up tendon. Kelley stated that Dobbs was helpful with setting him up with a doctor and making sure he kept icing his ankle. There is a certain protocol to follow before returning to the field and Kelley stated that  “The protocol when you back is helmet and no pads for 1 or 2 practices then shoulder pads for 1 or 2 practices then full pads.” Kelley would also like to add that Dobbs is “a great trainer.”

Dobbs did her undergrad at Salisbury University and her master’s at California University of PA. Dobbs became interested in becoming an athletic trainer when she was injured in a soccer game in college, she said she then spent a lot of time with family and her athletic trainer. She “thought it was cool that she knew how to figure out everyone’s injuries and then what to do to make it better.” 

Dobbs explained that “when an athlete goes to see a doctor, I must follow the doctor’s orders and need a note clearing an athlete to participate… If an athlete is cleared by a doctor, I ultimately have the final say at Crofton to decide whether it is safe for the athlete to participate.”

Junior Corynn Green is a defender on the varsity field hockey team. Green was injured during practice and she later found out she had multiple fractures in her finger alone with bone contusions. Green said her experience with Dobbs “was a very positive, and constructive experience that helped me get the right assistance medically and also mentally to get me back in the game.”

Green stated that she “Had to get x-rays, and then again after a certain period of time to check progress, wear a splint and buddy tape, along with a cautious mindset due to the fractures” but was cleared to play with the protective supports. 

Outside of her job at Crofton High School Dobbs enjoys weightlifting and traveling in between sports seasons. She has two cats with wobbly cat syndrome named Dizzy and Klutzy, she claims “watching them gives me A LOT of entertainment.” 

Dobbs said her favorite part about being an athletic trainer is “the relationships I build with my student athletes… I see the hard days and the happy days. I see it all and I am a person student-athletes feel they can confide in. I get to know student athletes as they are, rather than just doing rehab on an injury.”