As the fall season wraps up and winter sports get underway, we want to recognize the people who were there for every practice, every game, and every ankle: our athletic trainers.
This year PRO SPORT athletic trainers covered Gig Harbor High School, Peninsula High School, Bellarmine Preparatory School, and Olympic College. At every one of those schools, our athletic trainer is the first call when an athlete gets hurt. When an injury needs more than sideline care, they have a direct line to our full sports medicine team: sports chiropractors, physical therapists, a sports medicine physician, an orthopedic surgeon, and imaging, all under one roof. One roof, one story, one huddle.
MEET OUR ATHLETIC TRAINERS ON THE SIDELINES
Megan Smart, ATC, LAT, MHA | Gig Harbor High School
Megan joined PRO SPORT in December 2022 and has been on the sideline for the Tides ever since. Before joining PRO SPORT, she spent more than a decade as a certified athletic trainer with Real Salt Lake, Brigham Young University, Seattle University, the military, the Pacific Rim Gymnastics Olympic qualifiers, and the NCAA March Madness tournament. Now she brings that experience to Friday nights in Gig Harbor. As she puts it: “It’s special to meet these little freshman kids and watch them develop as athletes and people over their high school careers. I feel blessed to be a part of their journey.”
Chelsea Espenberg, ATC, LAT, CAT(C) | Peninsula High School
Chelsea covers Peninsula High School athletics. She grew up in Kelowna, British Columbia, captained women’s basketball teams at the University of Winnipeg and Camosun College, and earned her Bachelor of Athletic and Exercise Therapy at Camosun. She holds credentials on both sides of the border, as a certified athletic therapist in Canada and a certified athletic trainer in the United States. Before joining PRO SPORT in 2025, she was head athletic therapist for the Victoria HarbourCats summer collegiate baseball club and worked with Pacific FC of the Canadian Premier League and Saanich Predators junior hockey. This fall she led the first season of our new partnership with Peninsula.
Michael Johnson, MAT, LAT, ATC | Olympic College
Michael is a Kitsap native who grew up in Kingston. After Washington State University and a master’s in athletic training at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, he spent years in Texas college athletics: first as head athletic trainer for 13 NCAA Division III programs at Sul Ross State University, then six years at South Plains College caring for NJCAA basketball, track and field, cross country, and rodeo athletes, including Olympians and national champions. He came home in 2023, helped launch Archbishop Murphy High School’s first sports medicine course, and joined PRO SPORT in 2024. Today he covers Olympic College athletics and works out of our Silverdale clinic.
Anastasia “Anna” Fairchok, LAT, ATC | Bellarmine Preparatory School
Anna grew up in Puyallup and earned her athletic training degree at Linfield College. The plan was medical school after that. She stayed in athletic training instead, for a reason she still gives today: “I love the experience of helping my patient population and building rapport with them before they’re ever even injured.” Before joining PRO SPORT in 2021, she provided sports medicine for the jockeys at Emerald Downs, which might be the most unique sidelines in the state. This fall she covered Bellarmine Prep athletics in Tacoma and worked with the school’s sports medicine students. It was an injury-heavy season, and what she’s proudest of is how her students grew in a few short months, and how senior athletes kept leading their teams through season-ending injuries. “Bellarmine is a special community,” she says. “It is a true honor to be able to witness the growth of all our student athletes as they transition leadership and teamwork skills from the field and into life.”