Faces Of Nantucket: Tyler Konopka

When a sporting event is ongoing, the last thing players, coaches, and fans think about is who and where the athletic trainer is… until an athlete is on the ground in pain and in need of medical attention. On Nantucket, that is where Tyler Konopka comes in, the high school’s athletic trainer.

“We're always there on an athlete's worst day,” Konopka said. “We're not there all the time when they're celebrating a win or something like that. We're not jumping on the huddle saying, “Yeah let’s go!’ when they’re winning games. You're the main person on the field when a kid is in tears and stuff like that.”

His days are long and go largely unnoticed while he works behind the scenes, until he is thrust into the spotlight when a player needs support. If you’ve been to a high school sports game on island and never seen or noticed Konopka, that game went well for all involved.

But Konopka knows that he needs to be prepared for the worst and that his days can quickly be anything but routine. Any day could be the day where a student athlete is in the midst of one of their most painful and frightening moments.

"If you're an athletic trainer, you need to have a good rapport with all your athletes, all your coaches – because you're the first person that they're seeing when they're down on the field," Konopka said. "If you're not ready to deal with that whole situation, you know, kids are smart, they get a sense of it. Thankfully, I haven’t seen anything too bad since I came here. I’m pretty desensitized to a lot of stuff, but I need to be prepared for anything.”

Konopka, 31, moved to the island in December of 2021. He grew up in Wallingford, Connecticut and graduated from Castleton University. He always wanted to pursue a career in physical therapy, but his school’s athletic trainer growing up – Lindsay Barbuda – encouraged him to look into being an athletic trainer while he was enrolled in a physical education intern course with her.

Konopka has grown to love the job and has fully embraced his role. He has become a beloved fixture at sports games amongst students, their parents, and coaches, and has strengthened many of those connections with his social media page’s on Instagram and Tik Tok where he is known as “Trainer Ty.” When he has free moments throughout his day, he will post witty, funny videos detailing daily dilemmas and situations athletic trainers find themselves in with creative twists.

“I thought I have somewhat of a comedic mind, so I thought I would blend that a little bit with the profession,” Konopka said. “We (athletic trainers) don't always get painted in the most positive light. So I began posting a little bit more of the other side of athletic training that athletes don't see, or parents don't see and making little jokes about it here and there. Just trying to keep it light while raising awareness of the profession and what it is.”

Konopka arrives at the high school at 8 a.m. and sometimes doesn’t get home until 8 or 9 p.m. at night, depending on how long evening practices go. His days begin by working with athletic director Travis Lombardi and assistant athletic director Matt Hunt to answer emails, process paperwork, collect athlete physical requirements, and completing baseline tests for students. He checks in with school nurses to make sure no students went to them with an injury and regularly communicates with the coaches about any injuries picked up at practices while he isn’t in the area, or during road games.

In the late morning/early afternoon, students may need to be taped and treated before jumping on the ferry for road matchups since many schools off island do not have trainers. At home games, he makes sure there are hydration stations at the fields, packs a giant bag with medical supplies, and drives his cart around to stop from game to game to ensure everything is going smoothly and his services are not needed.

Since arriving on island, Konopka has held various side jobs as well. He has taught tennis lessons and worked in the food service industry during the summer. He fills in as a substitute teacher and physical education teacher whenever needed at the Public Schools. This summer, he will be working at the Westmoor Club as a trainer.

“I love my job so I am working a lot, but I would say when I am not working, I love hanging out with friends, working out in the gym, and just being outside honestly,” Konopka said. “You can’t beat the nature in general on the island. I’d like to play tennis a little bit more too.”

For the first three years on island, Konopka was in the Army Reserves as a 68-whiskey combat medic. He would go off island one weekend per month for training but was able to juggle that responsibility with his athletic trainer responsibilities with the help of Hunt (who continues to be a licensed trainer) and Lombardi. He completed is five years of service in June of 2024.

“The guys that hired me, Travis and Matt, we don’t have to tell each other what we are doing. We know where we need to be and what we need to do. It is second nature,” Konopka said. “Now here we are five years in, it is great working with them and things move very smooth.”

Konopka said the highlight of his career while working on Nantucket was watching the boys lacrosse team win the Division 4 MIAA State Tournament on June 15^th, 2024 against the Sandwich Blue Knights 7-6.

"It was awesome to see a program go from being pretty good in previous years and then to see that growth and to see that athletic development and just the perseverance of that group and that coaching staff,” he said. “As an athletic trainer, you're around sports 24/7, and that's kind of the ultimate goal of every one of your teams, and to finally see that was cool. I've seen teams come really close. Semifinals, quarterfinals, all that stuff. But to finally see a team, seven years into my career, do that was really awesome.”