This year, Hastings High School welcomed Coach Z. Mirza to Hastings as the school’s new athletic trainer. Athletic trainers work in schools to assist student-athletes with first aid, injury prevention, and recovery of injuries. Coach Z’s passion for athletic training sparked in high school. Sports were a huge part of his high school experience. As a three-sport athlete, he juggled football, wrestling, and baseball. His many afternoons playing sports growing up led him to interact often with his high school athletic trainer, and Coach Z thought it was a cool job to “be around sports and help people.”
Before attending school to pursue athletic training, he served in the United States Army for four years as a mechanic and combat paratrooper. He then attended Illinois State University where he obtained his bachelor’s degree in Athletic Training, followed by a Master’s in Sports Medicine from A.T. Still University in Arizona.
Coach Z’s prior experience as an athletic trainer mostly consists of working with professional basketball players. He started working as an athletic trainer for teams in the NBA G-league, which is the minor league of the NBA, and then worked as an athletic trainer for the Phoenix Suns and the New Orleans Pelicans. Not only has he worked in the United States but also in China for the Chinese Basketball Association. His prior experience working in schools comes from his job as the assistant athletic trainer at the Brearley School in New York City.
As the HHS athletic trainer, Coach Z has many responsibilities. He provides medical coverage for all games and practices for every Hastings sports team at the Modified, JV, and Varsity levels. He also orders, budgets, and tracks supplies for Hastings athletics. Another important part of his job is sharing injury prevention strategies with students and sports teams. One of the main reasons being an athletic trainer captivated Coach Z was how the job “is unique and is the only medical field where you can see the athlete healthy, watch the athlete get injured, help them do rehab, and then get to see the athlete go back and do what they love.” As he explained, athletic trainers “get to experience the whole spectrum” of seeing an athlete heal and go on to do amazing things in their sport.
Coach Z is very excited to be working at Hastings High School since it is his first time serving as the head athletic trainer at a school. Even if Coach Z never gets the chance to meet all the students in the high school, the advice he would give everyone is to sleep: “Sleep is crucial to recovery and it is so important to get your eight hours because as you sleep is when your body can regenerate and heal the most.” Coach Z is very excited to watch the athletes of Hastings High School grow and join the Hastings community!
