![\"Rachel](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/0023e4ca-614.jpg\"\/)
\nRachel Boner said the experience she gained in the professional world of baseball has been enlightening<\/p>\n
Rachel Boner has spent the last year working with the Boston Red Sox. A long way from TUS in Athlone, from where she graduated in 2024.<\/p>\n
“I never thought about working in baseball before, I barely knew what it was,” she laughed.<\/p>\n
“But sometimes the opportunities are there, and you have to take them,” Ms Boner explained.<\/p>\n
The 24-year-old from Ailt an Chorr\u00e1in in Co Donegal started a course in Athletic and Rehabilitation Therapy in TUS Athlone in 2020.<\/p>\n
As part of the course, she completed a placement in third year and spent a semester in Arizona with the Seattle Mariners.<\/p>\n
Athletic training in Ireland is still developing and not widely recognised, making it difficult to find professional opportunities in elite sports.<\/p>\n
Ms Boner said that is why she decided to look overseas.<\/p>\n
Her placement there sparked an interest and a desire to explore further opportunities, she said.<\/p>\n
“I got to know all the players, the staff. There were long days and you get familiar with everyone.<\/p>\n
“Everyone was so helpful and they could see I was enthusiastic about it all, so maybe a month after I finished, I got an email from one of the coaches, saying I could go back, if I wanted to,” she said.<\/p>\n
The Donegal woman decided she would apply for the PBATS International Internship Programme and in 2024 she began work as an Assistant Athletic Trainer with the Boston Red Sox.<\/p>\n
These internships provide hands-on education, mentorship, and experience with professional baseball athletic trainers across Minor League Baseball and Major League Baseball.<\/p>\n
“I don’t really think I knew exactly what I was going into until I was there.<\/p>\n
“I arrived during Spring training, so it was crazy busy.<\/p>\n
“We’d have early start and our job was making sure everyone was staying healthy and helping get players back to playing if they did pick up an injury,” she said.<\/p>\n
“I’m from a small village in Donegal – but if you’re willing to put the work in and put yourself out there, there are opportunities.”<\/p>\n
She said the players were mainly from South America and were trying to make it in baseball.<\/p>\n
Much of her job was on development, she explained, to ensure the players rise through the ranks and get to the major league.<\/p>\n
“This was their first time in America and their first exposure to all of this, so my job was to help give them a healthy routine to keep going, because it’s a very intense environment,” she said.<\/p>\n
Rachel Boner said she has always been interested in sport and science and the experience she gained in the professional world of baseball has been enlightening.<\/p>\n
“There are particular injuries that are more common in baseball than maybe what you’d see here.<\/p>\n
“There are a lot of upper limb injuries, so the elbow, the UCL (Ulnar Collateral Ligament) injury is one of the worst a baseball player can get and there are a lot of shoulder stuff.<\/p>\n
“Hamstrings too but they are common in every sport,” she said.<\/p>\n
‘Definitely worth it’<\/p>\n
The Donegal woman said it was an intense job but worthwhile.<\/p>\n
“It’s not as glamorous as it seems, but it’s definitely worth it.<\/p>\n
“I’ve learned a lot and built a lot of new skills. In the US sportspeople are treated so well so it’s great being exposed to that,” she said.<\/p>\n
She also said there are more females getting involved in the area.<\/p>\n
“It’s so nice to see more for females getting involved in it, because it’s traditionally a very male dominated area,” said Ms Boner.<\/p>\n
The 24-year-old could have stayed on with the Boston Red Sox but she has decided to continue her studies and complete a Masters in Physiotherapy.<\/p>\n
\nRachel Boner said the experience she gained in the professional world of baseball has been enlightening<\/p>\n
She is currently studying at Liverpool University.<\/p>\n
“I want to use the knowledge I gained working in the States with Red Sox and apply it in more environments.<\/p>\n
“I might go back to a baseball environment again, and hopefully in more of a long-term rehab position, like post-surgery,” she said.<\/p>\n
For now, the Donegal woman’s focus is on her study, but she will be keeping an eye on the Red Sox when the league starts next month.<\/p>\n
“I used to get asked a lot if there was baseball in Ireland,” she laughed.<\/p>\n
“I’m a Red Sox fan now,” Ms Boner added.<\/p>\n
‘Take any opportunity that you can’<\/p>\n
In the coming months students across the country will be considering their options after school and Rachel Boner has this advice.<\/p>\n
“Definitely keep an open mind, take any opportunity that you can.<\/p>\n
“I was very fortunate. I had a lot of support from my family and TUS in Athlone, and nobody ever questioned me going to work in baseball”<\/p>\n
“I’m from a small village in Donegal – but if you’re willing to put the work in and put yourself out there, there are opportunities,” she said.<\/p>\n
Dr Lynn Allen is Programme Director and Lecturer on the Athletic Rehabilitation Therapy course in TUS, Athlone.<\/p>\n
Interest in the course, which educates students in musculoskeletal injuries and conditions, has grown significantly in recent years, according to Dr Allen.<\/p>\n
“There are four programmes in the country that are credited to our governing body and TUS has one of them and interest has grown significantly in all of them.<\/p>\n
“In year four of our programme, all of our students undertake a full semester, and it’s called their clinical immersion placement:<\/p>\n
“From that then they get immersed in the normal day to day practice, whether it be in at physio practices here in Ireland or internationally.<\/p>\n
“We have a lot of links in America with different universities in the States,” she said.<\/p>\n
Dr Allen added: “They also have the PBATS International Internship Program, which Rachel completed.<\/p>\n
“It was after the PBATs internship, she began as an Assistant Athletic Trainer with the Boston Red Sox.<\/p>\n
“It shows you the opportunities that are out there for people. This highlights the links with professional baseball.”<\/p>\n
She said there are opportunities and links to many other professional sports.<\/p>\n
“The profession is an internationally recognised profession, and it’s huge in the United States and in Canada as well and in the UK, it’s growing in popularity as well.<\/p>\n
“Because it is global, we have so many international links and we can send students to a variety of different clinical contexts”<\/p>\n
“It’s not just about the sports and the athletes and stuff like that,” she said.<\/p>\n
Dr Allen said Ms Boner is an inspiration for other students.<\/p>\n
“There’s not too many people that are able to say, well, I worked on a player, who is worth a few million dollars there today,” she laughed.<\/p>\n
“It’s such a rewarding career and there are huge opportunities to travel the world with it.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rachel Boner has spent the last year working with the Boston Red Sox. A long way from TUS…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":299501,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-299500","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299500","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=299500"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299500\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/299501"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=299500"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=299500"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=299500"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}