The Fantastic 4 has the Invisible Woman and the Justice League receives help from the Martian Manhunter. Each has superhuman powers. Neither gains much notoriety because, well, no one can see them do their job.
Meet Kevin Fields and Laura Walsman. They are, quite simply, the invisible backbone to athletics in Decatur County. Oh, and the more anonymous they say, the better.
“No one probably knows who they are unless they have had a son or daughter that has needed their services,” said Greensburg boys’ basketball coach Stacy Meyer. “But what they provide is invaluable.”
Fields is the athletic trainer at Greensburg High School. Walsman does the same job at North Decatur and South Decatur. The pair, hired through the Decatur County Memorial Hospital where they practice occupational health, also take their acts to local factories; Fields to Delta Faucet in Greensburg and Walsman to Rushville and Intat Precision, which makes automotive components.
Meyer said it was Fields that kept Ryan Welage in the state championship game last March by applying a bandage around his head during the heat of the moment. It also was Fields, said Meyer, who on countless occasions would meet student athletes in the gym on off hours for treatments in the training room.
As for Walsman, one athlete and his family credit her with making him not only healthy, but stronger as well.
“What made the biggest difference in my rehab was Laura Walsman,” said North Decatur senior Alex Crowe, who used Walsman’s services when recovering from knee surgery as a sophomore. “She is the best trainer I could ever imagine. I wouldn’t be where I am without her.”
“She found that hidden speed,” said Crowe’s father, Tom. “She put in so much time.”
Alex Crowe is a 245-pound football player. Walsman weighs less than half that. However, Crowe says Walsman is very demanding.
-Written by Eric Wohlford, Greensburg Daily News