Who doesn’t love planning for the future? The sports medicine class practiced a very realistic athletic training budget challenge. 

Instructor Andrea Poffinberger created a budget challenge for her sports medicine class to set up an imaginary program. She divided students into groups of 3-4. Everyone had different scenario with a different budget. Some groups were assigned high school or a D-1 college with a budget ranging from $5,000 – $100,000.

“My group got a D-1 college as our assignment. We had 400 students, $100,000, and under 3,000 square feet limit for our training/recovery center,” said senior Maria Applegate. 

This budget challenge was great for seeing what it’s like having to purchase materials and equipment for a training facility. It really made you think about what was really necessary.

“I do believe that this project is beneficial because it showed some of us as students how much work and money really go into our athletic program. It was a real eye-opener for some of us,” said Applegate.  

Along with the budget challenge students had to design a dream training room, either as a paper sketch or using online resources.

“I would recommend the budget challenge for future students. Even though it was a lot of work, it really showed how hard and sometimes challenging it is when it comes to athletic programs,” said Applegate.