DETROIT – Ariko Iso doesn’t consider herself a pioneer.
But as the first and only female full-time athletic trainer in the NFL, it’s difficult to think of her as anything else.
Iso is aware of her unique position. She also is aware that others may put her in some sort of spotlight. And, even in her fourth year with the Pittsburgh Steelers, she senses that others believe she doesn’t belong in a predominantly male occupation.
Yet, Iso refuses to consider herself a spokesperson for her gender in the field.
“This is a league that’s been here for a long time,” she said. “There are a lot of qualified male candidates for the same position. The only thing I can do is to keep up my job (performance) so people don’t say, ‘Oh, look what happens when you hire a female.’ That kind of thing I really don’t want to go through. Doing my job well is the only thing I can do, because I can’t push other teams to hire females.”
In a way, however, her presence with the Steelers has prompted other women to apply – to the Steelers.
“I review all the applications and resumes,” Iso said. “We probably get 100 or 200 resumes a year and more than half of them are from female athletic trainers.”
Iso spent five seasons as head football athletic trainer at Portland State University. She gained NFL experience by working as an intern for the Steelers during the team’s 2000 and 2001 training camps.
So impressed was head trainer John Norwig that he decided to hire Iso full time. The internship, she said, made all the difference in her hiring.
“Most of the trainers in this league have gotten to where they are by doing internships,” she said. “Not many people get hired just by a resume alone. Most of the time, it’s somebody who has spent a year interning or has spent time with your team or another team.”
A drawback for many women is a lack of physical strength to work with athletes who can be twice their size. Yet, athletic training means more than stretching hamstrings and popping shoulder joints back in.
The coaches and players see us as medical professionals,” Iso said. “There are a lot of doctors the players see who could be male and female and they don’t care because they’re doctors. I think the athletic-training profession is also trying to establish that we are health-care provider.
“Yes, I’m shorter, I’m probably weaker and maybe I might be causing a burden to people who are helping me, but I do my best not to compete with the males and just do my job.”
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