Even if the high school athletic trainer doesn’t make the team poster, Chris Bonnell is a part of 78 teams at Sycamore High School, from varsity co-ed bowling to freshman girl’s volleyball.

That’s because Bonnell is the school’s head athletic trainer. Together, he and his assistant athletic trainer, Rachel, oversee more than 800 athletes, and that’s not including members of the marching band, dance square or theatre.

It’s a normal Saturday and from 8 a.m. until 11 p.m.; there’s not a second a sport isn’t going on for Sycamore athletics: starting with diving and ending with ice hockey.

“There’s always a benefit for us to be here,” Bonnell said, “so we can protect the athletes because the coaches, they’re into the game.

“They’re not probably looking a lot of times, watching him specifically because they have to watch all five guys, so us being here takes that pressure off of them and allows them to focus on coaching and lets us take concern of the athletes.”

Another major part of it is building a relationship with the athletes. They’re also a benefit to the coaches.

Greg Lazaroff is the freshman boys basketball head coach at Sycamore.

“They’re really a safety net for me,” Lazaroff said about athletic trainers. “When I have an athletic trainer that’s in the practice with me or sitting on the bench for a game, it’s a safety net because I know if there’s any sort of problem or an issue with an athlete in their health or their status, I feel good that I can just focus on the game operation and my trainer can help me with everything else as it relates to the player’s health and safety.”

Four months ago, David Randall, the head JV boys basketball coach, moved to Sycamore from a school in Vermont where only 27 percent of schools have a full-time athletic trainer, according to data from the Korey Stringer Institute.

“It was really hard,” Randall said. “As a coach, you have to be CPR-certified, concussion-tested, but you also had to be the first line of defense for any injury. Having a trainer is -- it just takes a big portion of your stress right off.”

Even on days when there aren’t any games, an athletic trainer’s job is far from done. They may attend practice, follow up on injuries, work to rehab an athlete or even update Emergency Action Plans.

The first and only time Bonnell sits all night is to send an email. Then he’s right back up to clean the training room.

On this night alone, he’ll walk five miles. That’s nothing compared to a Friday night in the fall, when he walks 13 miles.

So back to that old adage: There may be no ‘I’ in team, but there’s no safe team without an A.T.