Most programs assume there is a shortage of certified athletic trainers. There isn’t. There are athletic trainers all over the country, and plenty of them. What is actually happening is that a growing number of qualified ATs are turning down the jobs that traditional school and club sports programs are offering. Long hours, coverage across multiple teams, and compensation that has not kept pace with the responsibility of the role have made the traditional path less appealing, and ATs who have other options are taking them. For programs, the open position and the empty sideline look identical to a shortage. The fix, though, is different, and it starts with looking for candidates in places the traditional job posting never reaches.
Programs are turning to hybrid coverage instead, the same approach behind how one program closed its coverage gap without a new hire, because it solves the staffing problem today by offering athletic trainers a role that looks nothing like the one they already turned down.
Why It Looks Like a Shortage, But Isn’t
An open position that sits unfilled for months feels like proof that the athletic trainers simply are not out there. That read is understandable, and it is also incomplete. The certified athletic trainers exist. What is scarce is a version of the job that fits the life a lot of them want, one with predictable hours, a manageable caseload, and a career path that does not require sacrificing every evening and weekend to a single school’s athletic calendar.
Plenty of Certified Athletic Trainers, Just Not Enough Jobs They Want
Certification numbers have grown steadily, and the national pool of licensed athletic trainers is not thin. What has changed is where those trainers choose to work. Clinical settings, industrial and occupational medicine, and now virtual and hybrid athletic training roles all compete for the same talent, and many of them offer steadier hours and clearer boundaries than a traditional school sports program. Athletic trainers are not disappearing from the profession. They are choosing employers that built a better version of the job.
What Turnover and Burnout Are Really Telling You
Athletic trainer burnout is real, and it compounds every time a program loses someone and redistributes their workload across the staff who stayed. But burnout is not evidence of a labor shortage. It is evidence that the traditional structure, one trainer covering every team, every season, on call for every practice, asks more of people than most are willing to give indefinitely. Every departure under that structure adds pressure to the trainers who remain, which accelerates the next departure and reinforces the assumption that the field itself is running dry.
What Waiting on the Wrong Diagnosis Actually Costs Programs
Treating this as a supply problem instead of a job design problem has a cost, even when nothing visibly goes wrong right away.
Coverage Gaps That Land on Coaches and Administrators
When a trainer position sits vacant, the responsibility for spotting injuries and makingreturn-to-play calls does not disappear. It lands on coaches and administrators who were never trained or credentialed to carry it. That shift often happens quietly, without anyone formally deciding that a coach should be making clinical judgment calls, which makes it harder to catch until an incident forces the question.
Liability and Missed Injury Risk When Positions Sit Vacant
Every month a position stays open is a month without documented clinical oversight, which is precisely what exposes programs when an injury is missed or mishandled. Staffing athletic trainers is not just an operational goal, it is a liability safeguard, and it does not get easier by re-posting the same job and hoping for a different applicant pool.
Why Traditional Hiring Alone Won’t Solve It
Posting the same full-time, on-site role and waiting for a stronger applicant pool is not a strategy anymore. It is a bet that the athletic trainers who already passed on that version of the job will eventually change their minds.
Competing for the Same Pool With the Same Old Job
Every program is fishing from the same pool of certified athletic trainers using the same job description, and larger programs with bigger budgets usually win that competition. Smaller and rural programs are left furthest behind. Even a generous salary increase does not necessarily fix the problem, since the structure of the role, not just the paycheck attached to it, is often what candidates are avoiding.
Why Job Postings Aren’t a Staffing Strategy Anymore
A job posting assumes the right candidate is out there and simply has not applied yet. For most programs today, that assumption no longer holds, which is why a scalable athlete care model matters more than one more round of recruiting for a role candidates have already shown they do not want.
A Hybrid Model That Gives Athletic Trainers the Job They Actually Want
A hybrid model sidesteps the hiring race entirely by adding licensed coverage without requiring a full-time, on-site hire. You can see the hybrid model built for exactly this problem to understand how it applies to a program facing an ongoing vacancy, and how it opens the door to athletic trainers who had already ruled out the traditional role.
Virtual Athletic Trainer Roles as a Career Path, Not Just a Coverage Fix
Virtual athletic trainer roles are not a workaround for programs alone. They are a genuine alternative career path for athletic trainers who love the clinical work but do not want to build their life around a single school’s practice and game schedule. That is the pathway WaveOn Health provides, and it is why coverage can be added or scaled as athlete count and season demands change, without the lead time of a traditional hire. A program can expand coverage ahead of a busy tournament season and scale it back during a quieter stretch, something a traditional full-time hire simply cannot do.
How This Model Reduces Burnout for the Staff You Already Have
Adding virtual coverage does not just fill a vacancy. It takes pressure off the athletic trainers and coaches already carrying more than their role was designed for, which directly addresses the burnout that pushed the last hire out the door in the first place.
Building a Coverage Plan That Works With the Market You Actually Have
A workable plan does not assume the hiring market will cooperate or that candidates will eventually accept a role they have already turned down elsewhere. It builds coverage around the staff and resources a program already has.
Auditing Where Your Current Coverage Actually Breaks Down
Start with an honest audit of when and where medical coverage is thinnest right now, whether that is practices, travel, or off-season training. That audit shows exactly where hybrid coverage should be layered first. Most programs find that the biggest blind spots are not the marquee events everyone already plans around, but the routine sessions that happen without a second thought week after week.
Getting Started Without Disrupting the Season
Hybrid coverage can be added mid-season without disrupting the schedule your program already runs, since it layers on top of existing staff rather than requiring a transition period.
Frequently Asked Questions About the Athletic Trainer Shortage
Is there really an athletic trainer shortage?
Not in the way most programs assume. There are certified athletic trainers across the country in meaningful numbers. What programs are actually running into is a shortage of jobs athletic trainers want to accept, since many are choosing clinical, industrial, or virtual roles over the traditional school sports position.
What causes athletic trainer turnover?
Athletic trainer turnover is driven by long, unpredictable hours, physically demanding work, and compensation that often lags behind the responsibility of the role. Many trainers manage multiple teams and seasons with limited support staff. Over time, this workload leads to burnout and departures that leave programs scrambling for coverage, and reaching for a new hire who wants the same conditions the last one left.
How can schools recruit athletic trainers if there isn’t a real shortage?
Schools can widen their options by pairing part-time or virtual athletic trainers with existing staff instead of holding out for one full-time hire willing to accept the traditional workload. This approach fills coverage immediately while recruiting continues, and it reaches athletic trainers who had already ruled out the traditional role.
What can schools do if they can’t fill an athletic trainer position?
Schools that can’t fill a full-time, on-site athletic trainer position can use a hybrid model that adds virtual athletic trainers for evaluations, care planning, and recovery monitoring. On-site staff continue handling supervision and emergencies. This keeps licensed medical judgment in the loop without waiting on candidates to accept a version of the job they have already passed over.
It Isn’t a Shortage of Trainers. It’s a Shortage of Jobs They Want.
The athletic trainer shortage is really a mismatch between the job programs are offering and the job athletic trainers are willing to take, and programs that keep waiting for the labor market to correct itself are the ones most exposed when the next season starts. A hybrid coverage model gives you a way forward now by offering athletic trainers something the traditional posting never did. The programs that adapt earliest are the ones that stop treating this as a hiring problem and start building a coverage plan around the jobs athletic trainers actually want.
See the youth sports growth data behind this shortage for the full picture, then talk to our team about your staffing gap to build a coverage plan that doesn’t depend on athletic trainers accepting a job they have already turned down.
