Kimberley Faterkowski, also known as Mama Fats is the head Athletic Trainer at Cypress Springs High School who faces many trials and tribulations daily but endures through her amazing willpower and patience. She has served as a teacher and a role model for 22 years and deserves a lot of recognition not only this month for National Athletic Training Month but all year long.
During her middle school years, Mama Fats was a bit rebellious and tended to always be in trouble. So on one fateful day, one of the coaches in her middle school made her work with them as a sort of manager so she could stop being in trouble all the time. What initially started as a way to keep her out of trouble turned into a real interest so she became an Athletic Trainer when she entered high school and has been doing it ever since.
Mama Fats has been in the game for many years and her patience has been tested time and time again. The way she motivates herself to come back every day is by looking at this dream as a calling or a purpose for her life. If she didn’t view it this way there would be no motivation to come back to this high school and help all these student-athletes every day.
Mama Fats keeps her patience by connecting with her emotions and embracing herself to the students’ trainers, as well as using breathing techniques to not get too overwhelmed.
All the mentors in her life keep her motivated on a daily basis as well because without them she wouldn’t be doing what she loves every day.
Another issue Mama Fats faces daily is people not understanding her job title of Athletic Trainer. Students, coaches, and other faculty members go to Mama for many things, but she preaches every day that we are not an information center and that we don’t know everything. According to her, another misconception people have is that “we’re just water people.”
She dislikes this rumor because they do more than just hydration, they help and care for the health of each athlete on a daily basis which leads to another mistake people make: people thinking they are babysitters.
“Yes we take care of athletes, but they can’t just hang around in the Athletic Training Room because we are not in charge of them, their coaches are. “
This can be very aggravating for Mama to deal with but she keeps her cool and moves on as usual.
Mama Fats has rarely thought of pursuing any other field of work because she loves what she does so much. She says she wouldn’t pursue anything else, she only wants to be an Athletic Trainer but if she had to choose something she would be a stay-at-home wife with no kids while her husband works and makes six figures.
The 2023-2024 school year has by far been the hardest for Mama Fats partly because of the departure of her long-time coworker, Doc which at times has left her overworked, overwhelmed and stressed.
Student trainer Jaydon Hamilton has seen how these things have affected Mama Fats firsthand, and as much as she tries to help she can only do so much with limited knowledge of the field.
“ She has worked nearly every day since July and she hasn’t received a real thanks in a while. She may not realize it but I truly do appreciate everything she does and how much she has helped me learn and grow as a person since I started doing this my freshman year,’ Hamilton said. “ I look up to her and aspire to be like her because of how she handles all of these hardships, and if she ever did decide to quit I would wish her the best in her future endeavors.”
When you see Mama Fats show her thanks for all she does because she is the Captain of the Team behind the Teams.
