{"id":78143,"date":"2026-06-09T08:51:32","date_gmt":"2026-06-09T15:51:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/?p=78143"},"modified":"2026-06-09T08:51:32","modified_gmt":"2026-06-09T15:51:32","slug":"firefighter-athletic-training","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/firefighter-athletic-training\/","title":{"rendered":"Fighting fire with a strong foundation"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last year,\u00a0<\/span>Megan Mulready<\/span><\/b>\u00a0injured her back and\u00a0had to call 911.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cA bunch of firefighters came up to my place and said, \u2018What\u2019s going on?\u2019\u201d Mulready said.\u00a0\u201cI said, \u2018Don\u2019t\u00a0you dare mess with\u00a0me.\u00a0You need to stay healthy so you can help other people.\u2019\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

That\u2019s\u00a0the same energy\u00a0Mulready, an athletic trainer and assistant clinical professor at NAU, brings to her latest professional endeavor: pro bono tactical athletic training for first responders.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Over the last year, Mulready and a handful of her NAU students have\u00a0dropped in on\u00a0the Flagstaff Fire Department\u2019s Firefighter Recruit Academy to lead recruits in basic injury-prevention exercises and share information on early signs of injury and dehydration.\u00a0It\u2019s\u00a0a universally beneficial arrangement: firefighters learn how to avoid the heartbreak and pain of injury; students who hope to become athletic trainers get hands-on experience at the very beginning of their careers; and the larger northern Arizona community stays safer with more firefighters on the ground.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

A longtime athletic trainer for collegiate athletes and a one-time intern with the Arizona Diamondbacks, Mulready said\u00a0she\u2019s\u00a0passionate about bringing the same standard of care to first responders.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI can get an athlete into a doctor\u2019s appointment within an hour,\u201d Mulready said. \u201cI can get them an MRI in\u00a0days,\u00a0I can get them booked for surgery within a week. I genuinely believe all people who put their lives on the line for our community deserve that type of access.\u201d\u202f<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

An injury-free academy<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/h3>\n

Mulready\u2019s partnership with Flag Fire began last\u00a0year, when\u00a0she proposed integrating optional athletic training into the department\u2019s recruit training with the goal of halving the academy\u2019s rate of injury. Fire department leadership responded with an ecstatic \u201cyes.\u201d\u202f<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"firefighter<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt worked,\u201d Mulready said. \u201cThe academy members had zero injuries last summer.\u201d\u202f<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Mulready attributes her success to the way she employs the simple but powerful tenets of athletic training: prevent and educate. Every week, she and her students break up the class of recruits into groups of four or five and run them through a basic strength, balance and flexibility circuit targeting the hips, core and upper extremities\u2014areas where firefighters tend to suffer injuries from repetitive movements like climbing ladders, lifting hoses, and yes, lifting injured people like Mulready. The assistant clinical professor gives her students a trial by fire, asking them to learn,\u00a0program\u00a0and\u00a0demonstrate\u00a0exercises for the recruits.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Natalie Hess<\/span><\/b>, a sophomore enrolled this semester in Mulready\u2019s course AT 200: Prevention of Athletic Injuries and Emergency Care, signed up to volunteer with the fire trainees to get more\u00a0hands-on experience with physical therapy and athletic training, two fields\u00a0she\u2019s\u00a0interested in pursuing.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThis volunteer experience allows us to have real hands-on experience for the injury prevention side of things,\u201d Hess said. \u201cIt helps us be involved and use what we learned in the real world. I am so grateful I get to be a part of it.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Fellow sophomore\u00a0<\/span>Alix Henning<\/span><\/b>, another AT 200 student, said\u00a0she\u2019s\u00a0enjoyed learning more about on-scene preventative care, not just how to respond once an injury has happened.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThis has taught me how to approach different classes of patients in order to find a rehabilitation program that is suitable for them,\u201d Henning said. \u201cWhen training an athlete, you can\u00a0somewhat have\u00a0an idea of what they will be\u00a0doing\u00a0and it is usually repetitive. With firefighters, they\u00a0don’t\u00a0know what it is they will be running into.\u00a0So,\u00a0it is\u00a0really important\u00a0to strengthen every aspect of movement to prevent injuries in the middle of\u00a0an emergency situation.\u00a0It is also important to remember that random scenarios will come up, so they need to have the ability to\u00a0modify\u00a0under pressure.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

More than motion<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/h3>\n

When\u00a0they\u2019re\u00a0not doing exercise drills, Mulready and her students teach the firefighter\u00a0recruits\u00a0a few basic health principles with a fire-focused slant. Take hydration, for example:\u00a0It\u2019s\u00a0important for all Arizonans who spend time outside, but\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0doubly so for firefighters, who move, lift and dodge things in intensely hot environments while wearing\u00a0nearly 100\u00a0pounds of gear.\u202f<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Megan<\/a>
Before coming to NAU, Mulready spent time as an athletic training intern for the Arizona Diamondbacks.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cSome collegiate football players have to pass a hydration check before they can go to practice the next day,\u201d Mulready said. \u201cWe weigh them in their uniforms and pads before and after practice, and if\u00a0they\u2019ve\u00a0lost 1-2% of their body weight, it means\u00a0they\u2019re\u00a0dehydrated\u00a0and they need at least a liter of water to replenish. Firefighters need the same kind of checks in place to stay safe.\u00a0I\u2019ve\u00a0been teaching them about electrolytes, quick-acting carbs and other things that can prevent sprains and cramps when they get dehydrated.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Moving forward, Mulready hopes to expand her athletic training services to the Flagstaff Police Department\u2019s training academy and to other first responder academies in the region, from Winslow to Sedona to Prescott. She also hopes to expand the training to include seminars on sleep,\u00a0nutrition\u00a0and recovery methods such as foam rolling and stretching.\u202f<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Ultimately, the\u00a0assistant clinical professor hopes that with her help, local first responders can do exactly what professional athletes do: stay injury-free\u00a0in order to\u00a0do their jobs well.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cMy goal is to take people who want to be in a very physically demanding job and give them the tools to be successful,\u201d she said. \u201cWhether you\u2019re in baseball or in firefighting, you\u2019re doing physical work and you need to protect yourself.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Northern<\/span><\/p>\n


\nJill Kimball | NAU Communications
\n(928) 523-2282 | jill.kimball@nau.edu<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last year,\u00a0Megan Mulready\u00a0injured her back and\u00a0had to call 911.\u00a0 \u201cA bunch of firefighters came up to my place and said, \u2018What\u2019s going on?\u2019\u201d Mulready said.\u00a0\u201cI said, \u2018Don\u2019t\u00a0you dare mess with\u00a0me.\u00a0You need to stay healthy so you can help other people.\u2019\u201d\u00a0 That\u2019s\u00a0the same energy\u00a0Mulready, an athletic trainer and assistant clinical professor at NAU, brings to her…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":95,"featured_media":78147,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-78143","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-campus-community"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78143","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/95"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=78143"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78143\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":78150,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78143\/revisions\/78150"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/78147"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78143"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78143"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78143"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}