In the stairwell next to the library and the gym, there is a little room that hundreds of students pass by without a glance. That room is the athletic training room. Some students are there on a regular basis, but some probably never knew that WHS housed its own training room.

Now, with the help of the Westfield Athletic Boosters and the BOE, WHS has a new and improved training room. “[The Athletic Department was] expecting to renovate [the training room],” said in-house Athletic Trainer Steven Barandica. “We met up with [the Boosters] and asked them to see if we could renovate the athletic training room and they supported our request.”

WHS Athletic Director Sandra Mamary said that there was no training room when she began working at WHS as an athletic trainer in 1987. And when she acquired the training room, she took on the responsibility of building it up. Despite all of the hard work she put into the old training room, “we have to improve and we need to make sure that it matches the philosophy of what we are trying to do here” she said.

Both Barandica and Mamary are happy with the new room. “I’ve worked in different places and I can tell you that it’s a state-of-the-art athletic training room,” Barandica said. “Not many high schools are lucky enough to have certain things that we have. There are professional cabinets and treatment tables, things pretty similar to what Division I training rooms and professional teams have.”

According to Mamary, the Athletic Department, with all of the renovations going on, is “trying to make facilities [that] our student athletes, our students and our community are proud of.”

Barandica echoes the sentiment expressed by Mamary. “It’s great to show the students that we care about them,” he said. “It’s a medical facility so we are definitely going to try to have the best things available for our students.”

Mamary and Barandica are ecstatic with this renovation and what it means for the athletic department. “This is my second year here and it’s nice to work in a town where they support all the student athletes and athletic training, which is a big part of athletics,” Barandica said.

Mamary said, “You always want to progress and that’s the nature of being in education, to always try and improve.”