Justin Devoid represented Hartford High in soccer, basketball and baseball before his 2013 graduation. The Quechee native moved on to play four seasons for Colby-Sawyer College and coached with the White River Junction Post 84 junior American Legion team in 2016.
Later that summer, Devoid enjoyed a short stint with the New England Collegiate Baseball League’s Upper Valley Nighthawks. He pursued the hardball dream for another year before moving into athletic training, in which he’d majored during college.
Now in his first year as the certified athletic trainer at Hartford, Devoid follows in the large footsteps of the late Luna Ricker and of Jeni Frechette, who stepped down from the job after the 2018-19 school year but continues to teach health at the adjacent middle school. Devoid is also balancing his Hartford duties with those as Springfield High’s baseball coach.
The following is an edited transcript of a Thursday phone conversation with Devoid.
Valley News: What inspired you to be an athletic trainer?
Justin Devoid: My mother and grandmother were nurses and I had thoughts about being a doctor, but I struggled with my studies somewhat in high school. Then I thought I’d work in sports and I would talk with Luna, because I was interested in how she took care of athletes and got them back on the field quickly.
VN: You went to Colby-Sawyer with the idea of being an athletic trainer?
JD: They only have a master’s degree entry program there now but, back then, I was able to enter with athletic training as my declared major. Baseball was a big component for me, so the spring of my junior year at Hartford, I went down to Colby-Sawyer and saw a game and went to the training room to meet T.J. Smith, who became my advisor.
VN: Tell us about your path through college.
JD: I was taken aback by the 44 people in my introduction to exercise sports science class. Am I going to cut it? But once I did pretty well in that, I figured out (athletic training) was what I really wanted. I also confirmed that I didn’t want to be a doctor, because cellular biology and I butted heads. But the hardest part was trying to maintain a B average while playing baseball and sometimes missing three days of classes in a row.
VN: How did you learn your skills?
JD: This is a profession you learn by doing, so I did 50 hours of observation as a freshman and accumulated more than 800 hours of clinical experience as an undergraduate. I got to work at Kimball Union Academy and Saint Anselm (College) and did a strength and conditioning internship at Dartmouth before I signed with the Nighthawks.
VN: What did you do after your 2017 college graduation?
JD: I lived in California for a year and studied for my athletic trainer’s licensure exam. I passed it and moved back here and worked part time at Colby-Sawyer and at Saint Anselm. I also helped coach Hartford boys basketball with Steve Landon, so I saw (Hartford athletic director) Jeff Moreno and some of my former teachers pretty often. It was strange to walk through school and realize that we were on a first-name basis now.
VN: What’s it like tending to athletes in the same environment in which you played?
JD: Watching basketball games is hard, because I really miss playing. It will be the same with baseball. Seeing kids wearing the same uniform that my friends and I grew up wearing is nostalgic.
VN: What injuries did you suffer as a player?
JD: In high school, the worst was colliding with a baseball teammate while trying to catch a pop fly. I got a bloody nose, and Luna was right there. In college, I jammed my knee on first base while running in the mud, and it blew up like there were two softballs in there. I missed 18 games, and I still can’t feel the top of my knee.
VN: What have been the challenges during your first year of full-time work?
JD: Not having someone else to bounce ideas off has been difficult sometimes, but I’ve learned to be confident in my skills. I’m a little conservative at times, making sure athletes get X-rays or a doctor’s visit so that things don’t get worse.
I’m lucky we haven’t had any crazy injuries; most have been pretty straightforward. Honestly, the hardest daily thing is finding times for me to eat and trying to give equal time to all sports. That’s something you can’t always do, even though you want to.
VN: Describe your baseball coaching at Springfield.
JD: When I took over last spring, I was their third coach in three years and I didn’t want them to have to have four coaches in four years. So Jeff (Moreno) and I worked it out so I can work at Hartford in the early afternoons and then drive down to the Springfield practices and games. We have eight seniors and we were 6-12 last year and I don’t think anyone thought we’d win that many games. There are more young coaches coming into the job, and they’re more likely to make the field another classroom. We ask the kids their goals for the season and help them distinguish where the line needs to be drawn for discipline. I’m so upset about maybe losing this season (because of coronavirus), because our trajectory is on the rise.
Tris Wykes can be reached at twykes@vnews.com.