S TU D E N T S IN ACT ION
T WO PE A S
IN A POD Athletic training students Liz Dub and Tyler Wheeler recall their weeks in the NCHC pod in Omaha with the Penrose Cup-winning UND hockey team. “When we did find out there was going
Conference (NCHC) “pod,” which in
were excited, so we started making our
to be a pod with all our teams, one of the
the final two months of 2020 housed
schedule changes and started prepping
first things I thought of was, ‘Can I get
eight teams’ worth of full-time college
more in the weight room to get guys ready.
my two senior students there?’” recalled
students as they juggled academics with
Then it just came fast.”
Department of Sports Medicine instructor
ice time, playing 38 games in 21 days in
and athletic trainer for the UND men’s
Omaha, Neb.
hockey team Mark Poolman. “I was pretty excited when I learned that they could come down there and work with the guys. They helped immensely.” A twenty-year veteran trainer with UND’s blade runners, Poolman was describing his and his senior students’ time in the so-called National Collegiate Hockey 6
North Dakota Medicine Spring 2021
The two seniors in question were UND School of Medicine & Health Sciences athletic training majors Elizabeth Dub and Tyler Wheeler, who accompanied the hockey team to Omaha.
Dub agreed: as great and productive as it was, the entire experience was something of a blur. “We all had to do a symptom check every day and show the staff as we walked in that we were good to go for the day,” she said of her introduction to the world of
“We heard about the bubble maybe around
Division I collegiate hockey during a global
the end of September,” Wheeler said. “We
pandemic. “Obviously everyone was in
