Meet Our Faculty
Ben Towne
- Title
- Program director, clinical coordinator, athletic training education
- Department
- Exercise, Health, and Sport Sciences
- Areas of interest
- International service learning, health care for Olympic athletes
What are the strengths of the athletic training program?
The athletic training program is a bridge between academic and athletic worlds. There’s a good relationship between instructors and coaches. It’s a mutually beneficial atmosphere. Athletes benefit from the care, and our students benefit from getting very practical, first-hand experience.
What role does fieldwork play in the athletic training program?
Students go through a series of four clinical rotations, starting the spring of their sophomore year. They do their clinical work here, at St. Joseph’s College, at Bowdoin College, as well as at a number of local high schools and clinics throughout southern Maine. Our students provide a service while getting out and gaining experience at the same time.
Who is drawn to athletic training?
People get into athletic training because they want to be in the health care field. Many of them are attracted to physical therapy, but the allure of working with athletes brings them into athletic training. They realize they want to be out where the action is and making decisions about an athlete’s condition. With so many clinical rotations, you gain the confidence to make those decisions.
Forty percent of our athletic training students are student athletes. It’s tough to fit in rotations—given their schoolwork, jobs, and sport —but they manage it. The student and the trainer have to decide when it’s safe for the athlete to go back, when they should see their primary care doctor, or consider an orthopedist. They’re asking the questions: How do we manage this injury? What’s the optimal time to heal? How much time can they miss? Our students need to be able to have those conversations and make those pressure-filled decisions.
What notable professional experience has influenced your teaching?
I really enjoy making those pressure-filled decisions. Working with Olympic athletes [on the U.S. Olympic bobsled team the] the last two years in Lake Placid and Park City, Utah, and in the world championships in Germany. When there’s an accident on the track, you’ve got four people on the scene, and you need to determine who has broken bones, who’s okay, sometimes dealing with a language barrier. It keeps me on my toes.
Also, being part of the interdisciplinary health care team that visits the Dominican Republic is a tremendous service-learning project. We took eight students down there in December 2007. For example, with a torn (anterior cruciate ligament), whether it happens on the basketball court or on the side of a hill, students need to determine what the patient presents clinically.
What is your role in students’ lives.
The biggest thing is to continually challenge them in the classroom, even those who are doing really well. You have to balance that with being there for them when they’ve had a tough day. You want to be student-friendly without diminishing the standards of the program.
What surprises you about USM students?
I’m surprised that so many of them are able to work 40 hours a week, study, balance courses, a load of 150 clinical hours per semester, and still be passionate about what they’re doing. They’re really resilient and committed to their education.
Think about some memorable students. What makes them stand out?
The most memorable ones also have the desire to do more. They need 150 clinical hours, but they want 170. They want to gain as much experience as possible so they can land that job they want when they leave here.
Where do you live and why?
I live in Saco, about 2½ miles from the ocean. I love striper fishing, and living there I can jump right in the water.
