Injuries are often riddled with unfortunate circumstances, but Erin Sierer believes spraining her ankle as a young girl guided her to the career path she was destined for.
Sierer, an assistant athletic trainer for the Minnesota Timberwolves, sprained her ankle while playing softball during her sophomore year of high school and ended up going to physical therapy before she could get back on the field.
“I was like, ‘Wow, this is amazing. I want to do this when I grow up,” Sierer said. “It was there in that clinic that I met my first athletic trainer, and he told me what the field was. Then I was like, ‘Never mind physical therapy. I want to be an athletic trainer.’”
Since her childhood ankle sprain, Sierer has earned her doctorate of physical therapy degree from Duke University School of Medicine and served as a tactical physical therapist and athletic trainer for U.S. Army Special Operations Command, U.S. Marine Corps Special Operations Command, Rutgers University Athletics, San Diego Fleet of the Alliance of American Football and most recently joined the Minnesota Timberwolves’ athletic training team in August of 2019.
As a Timberwolves employee, Sierer is able to work in a progressive league for a progressive organization that prioritizes hiring the best talent regardless of gender. Furthermore, she gets to spend every day doing what she loves: helping athletes return to their dream jobs.
“I love getting people back to what they need to get back to,” Sierer said when asked to describe the most rewarding element of her job. “For me, no matter what it is, someone comes to see you at the lowest point of their career, their life, they’re struggling with something; and being able to take them from that point through the rehab process, the peaks, the valleys, the good, the bad, and getting them back to 100% and then seeing them excel at what they do.”
Because of her supportive family, friends, network and strong female role models, Sierer never felt being a woman stood in the way of her career path. In fact, a specific instance of encouragement still resonates with her to this day.
Sierer was a junior in undergrad when she met with her academic advisor and fellow athletic trainer who reminded her that belief in her abilities could go a long way.
“We were kind of laying out different options, and she said to me, ‘No matter where you go, no matter what you decide, no one can ever take your education away, and no one can ever take your career away,’” Sierer said. “It’s something that really kind of resonated with me where here’s this woman in a leadership role who’s done amazing things and is telling me in 2003, ‘Hey, the sky’s the limit.’”
However, not all young women are provided empowering figures in their lives who encourage them to follow their dreams of working in sports. Sierer is well aware of this reality and is committed to doing all that she can to defy it. To do so, Sierer believes it comes down to visibility.
“As we move forward, you’re seeing more and more women on the sidelines in a variety of different roles, not just athletic training and physical therapy,” Sierer said. “For us, it makes it real. It makes it real for that young professional to be able to say there is a path and it is realistic for me to get into those positions where years past it might not have been.”
Sierer is well-established in her career but hasn’t forgotten about the young women who’re still trying to break into the world of athletic training. As she continues to provide leadership and blaze the path for athletic trainers of the future to follow, she’s reminded of the inspiration that allowed her to push through Iron Man racing.
“The mantra we always had was relentless, forward motion,” Sierer said. “Just keep moving. You’re talking about 140.6 miles, tons of training, and it’s just keep going and you’ll get there. The more I thought about it, the more I thought this is applicable to my career path.
Like finishing an Iron Man, Sierer knew she also wanted to work in sports — she just had to get there. The same is true for all women who’re committed to going the extra mile in pursuit of their dreams.
“Continue to move forward; take that next job that’s going to open up a new skillset,” Sierer said. “Take that new job that moves you out of your comfort zone and brings you to a city that you’re like, ‘I never thought I’d be here,’ to get to that final point. Keep moving forward. And when you get there, look back and help somebody else pave that same path. Give back. Bring them forward.”