SLIPPERY ROCK - Trying to decide whether to become an athletic trainer?

Take the introductory course at Slippery Rock University, and you'll have your answer in a hurry.

"They throw a whole lot at you right away," SRU junior Nate Seager said. "They try to scare you. They want to find out if you're dedicated."

About 90 students took SRU's introduction to athletic training course during Seager's freshman year. Only 25 applied for the school's athletic training program the following year and only 20 were accepted.

Seager is one of 16 SRU juniors presently in the program. There are about 40 students in the program.

Nearly all of them were involved in sports at their respective high schools.

"I've played sports my whole life," junior Joe Muraco said. "My uncle was an athletic trainer and became a physical therapist at Allegheny General (Hospital in Pittsburgh).

"I loved sports and wanted to stay in the field. This was the way to go."

Seager played baseball and softball in high school and admitted to being in the trainer's room often.

"I was always getting hurt," he said. "I got to know the trainer well and gained interest in the field through talking to him."

Bryan Bell, another SRU junior, said he got interested in athletic training through longtime interest in sports and science.

"I guess I combined the two," he said. "The human anatomy has always fascinated me and this was a way to stay connected to sports."

SRU sophomore Meghan Sarao played softball and volleyball in high school. Junior Shalyn Burton was a cheerleader and ran track.

"I'm using this as a start toward physical therapy," Sarao said. "I love the medical field, but I don't want to work in a hospital setting."

"Some of my friends in high school had serious sports-related injuries," Burton said. "I was amazed by the trainers' work. It was something I wanted to pursue."

All of these students have stayed with the program despite heavy demands on their time. Each semester requires 200 total hours, combining class, clinic and training time in the field.

Each student becomes part of a rotation that includes work in the trainers room, with a SRU sports team, depending on the season, and working in the athletic training field off-campus for a semester.

"Time management is tough," Seager said. "You need to work study time into everything, but this program keeps you in task. You have to be dedicated. It reminds you why you're here and forces you to be productive."

Bell worked with The Rock football team last summer and put in 100 hours during a two-week stretch.

During the football season, he put in another 25 hours per week.

"As a college student, the long hours scare you a little," Bell admitted. "I look at it like any job - you have to put in your time."

"You want to have time with your friends and time for yourself," Sarao said. "There is pressure that way. It's a hard obstacle to overcome."

So is building self-confidence. Working on injured athletes requires that trait.

"It was hard the first time I had to apply what I learned to an actual athlete," Muraco said. "You want the athlete to have confidence in you, so you have to be confident in yourself.

"You have to get over the nerves, the uneasy feeling that comes with doing anything for the first time."

Sometimes the athlete doesn't have confidence in the trainer.

"I've worked with athletes who didn't want to cooperate or refused to work with me at all," Burton said. "That can happen, but it's disheartening.

"It's hard when they don't have trust in you because you know you have trust in yourself."

There are more women than men enrolled in SRU's athletic training program this year. Traditionally, it's been a male-dominated field.

Seager said about 52 percent of athletic trainers nationwide are men.

"That percentage used to be much higher," he pointed out.

While Sarao is targeting physical therapy as a career, she said opportunities are out there for female athletic trainers.

"The chances are still slim that a woman would become head trainer at a major university or with a professional sports team," she said. "But there are high schools, small colleges."

Certified athletic trainers can go in a lot of directions these days. Major corporations are hiring trainers to help lower their insurance costs. The military is hiring them to work with soldiers as well.

They also work with high school, college or pro sports teams, as well as in physical therapy and rehabilitation.

"The field is growing so fast," Burton said. "There's a lot of opportunity out there."

Burton hopes to work with rehabilitating injured athletes as a career.

"You get to work on a more personal basis with the athlete," she said. "It's rewarding to see someone get back playing again and know you had something to do with it.

"I've worked with some rehabs that took as long as two months. Some are slow, some are fast."

Regardless of the challenging demands, rigorous course work and long hours, these students stay with the program.

"I've always liked helping people," Bell said. "That's probably a common trait with everybody here."

Here is the required process to become a certified athletic trainer through Slippery Rock University's Department of Exercise and Rehabilitative Sciences:1. Maintain at least a "B" average in Introduction to Athletic Training course as freshman.2. Maintain a 2.75 grade point average in all freshman coursework.3. Complete 50 hours of athletic training observation.4. Submit letter of application to SRU athletic training program, including letter of recommendation from a certified trainer and a 500-word essay on "Why I want to become an athletic trainer."5. Go through interview process.6. Upon acceptance, complete 3.5 years of coursework, including one summer semester and 120 total credit hours.7. Maintain 2.75 GPA throughout college career while getting a "C" or worse in no more than two athletic training-related courses.8. Upon completion of program curriculum, pass the National Athletic Trainers Association Board of Certification exam.9. You are now certified to be an athletic trainer in state of Pennsylvania. Some other states may have different requirements.