Harwood Union High School has been missing an athletic trainer for the past two school years. After being in a constant search and countless interviews, will they find a trainer for the 26/27 school year?
The absence of an athletic trainer has been tough on everyone; administration, student athletes, the athletic director, Ian Fraunfelder, and so many others. The interview process is not easy.
In the spring of the 2023/2024 school year, Harwood found themselves without an athletic trainer for the upcoming school year. After two years without a trainer, Harwood administration has hired a new trainer as of February 2026, Rebekah Bernard.
The beloved Harwood athletic trainer, Danni LaFlame, announced that she would be leaving Harwood to pursue another job and spend more time with her young daughters in 2024. This came as a shock to the families, students and administration, but in the end, everyone was excited to see what amazing things Danni would do next. Harwood was always known for their amazing athletic programs and with that comes an amazing athletic trainer.
In 2024, the search for a new trainer began.
Ian Fraunfelder, the athletic director, quickly sprang into action and created a team to find and interview potential candidates. “If we could’ve hired someone immediately after Danni left, we would’ve,” says Fraunfelder. The hiring committee interviewed a total of 3 candidates for the first year of the interview process and wanted to find the best person for the job. Unfortunately, there was no follow through and no trainer was hired for Harwood.
Throughout the whole interview process the balance of budgeting was very important. Much time was spent researching near-by schools’ budget strategies and pay to stay competitive. “Instead of looking at national numbers, we needed to look more locally”, says Fraunfelder. The Harwood administration didn’t know how long it would take to find the best candidate possible, so they couldn’t stay set on one number for salary forever; they needed to keep an open mind to stay the most competitive possible.
In the meantime, Harwood partnered with Vasta Physical Therapy in Waterbury. One day every week, the Vasta physical therapist, Courtney Kaup, would commute to Harwood and provide care to student athletes for a couple hours. To add on, Sam, a Harwood alumnus, was hired as assistant athletic director to give a helping hand.
Finally, after a year and a half of rigorous search, Rebekah Bernard turned into a Harwood hero by taking this job and helping out hundreds of student athletes and administration.
She recently visited Harwood in March and walked through a tour of the school and some Harwood students were able to, very briefly, introduce themselves to Rebekah and she was immediately asking questions and was genuinely interested in what they had to say.
Student athletes were impacted by the absence of a trainer at Harwood. Not only did a trainer help the students physically but also emotionally as well. The trainer office was a space for students to go before practice and games to just rewind and let out the stress that comes from being a student athlete.
Student athletes were left lost. In the two years without an athletic trainer, there were seven ACLs torn. These students that were left with season ending injuries and a 9 month recovery ahead of them, had close to no in-school physical guidance. We had to find help on our own.
Lastly, I asked Ian Fraunfelder if he wanted to say anything to the audience reading this story; he said, “We are thankful for everyone bearing with us; if we could’ve hired someone right after Dani left, we would’ve.”
