Bison Game Day: A circle of trust with head trainer, Bison players

Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources.

The Details

FARGO — North Dakota State was in the middle of a bye week last week and the lower level of the Fargodome adjacent to the Bison locker room was quiet as a library. That’s not normally how the head athletic trainer for the football team operates.

When Trisha Shannon graduated from Oklahoma State and decided that’s what she was going to do for a living, also gone was a Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. work day. Asked what her day-to-day hours are and she laughed.

No further explanation needed. If detailed and accurate, the job description would be endless from injuries to mental health to illness. She once spent six hours with one player at a local walk-in clinic because of sickness.

“It depends on what shows up that day,” Shannon said. “You definitely have a trust that they give you, just being that person for them. I’ve seen some of these guys at their absolute worst. They know I’m not ever going to judge them, I’m going to do whatever I can to get them over that hump. It’s an honor to have that but it’s sometimes hard to see people like that, too.”

The respect is a two-way street, like former quarterback Cole Payton, who was a fifth-round draft pick of the Philadelphia Eagles and is currently No. 2 on the depth chart. Shannon texted him happy birthday this fall.

“Seeing him live out his dream is amazing to me,” she said. “I love these boys, nothing makes me happier than seeing them go and do what they want to do.”

You would be hard-pressed, if not impossible, to find a Bison player who doesn’t give credit to NDSU’s 7-2 season to date heading into Saturday’s game at the University of Hawaii. The collisions of football come at a price. Kids get hurt.

“In all honesty, she does more for everybody on this team than everybody on this team even knows,” said Bison senior offensive guard Griffin Empey. “We had a bye week and she had every right to go, yeah guys, it’s my bye week, too. I’m going to go relax. Every single thing is about the players, the program and having us back as fast as we can to be ready for Saturday. She’s amazing.”

The move to the Mountain West Conference and FBS has been an adjustment. Gone are the Saturday afternoon games in the Central time zone, replaced by night games this season at Air Force, Sacramento State and New Mexico.

That meant arriving back in Fargo in the 5 a.m. range and for Shannon getting set for treatments a few hours later — less if she needed to immediately address an MRI or X-ray.

“You never know what you’re going to get,” she said.

Shannon calls herself a Type A personality and always wants to know what’s in store and going to happen.

“I had to get over that,” she said. “You can come in and do your treatments in the morning and then have four guys get hurt in practice and then you have to deal with that after practice or the next morning. It keeps you on your toes. ”

That’s when the business mode sets in. When she has to burst out onto the field to address an injured player, she says part of her brain shuts off and she goes into treatment mode.

Alyssa Goelzer / The Forum

“My students are kind of in awe of that the first time they see it,” Shannon said. “They say, why aren’t you freaking out? Their shoulder is out of place? But in my mind it’s my job to calm them down, make them feel safe and get them to a safe place.”

Head coach Tim Polasek said after the 31-7 win over UTEP on Oct. 31 that NDSU endured one of the most physically-challenging stretches he’s seen at the school. Shannon agreed, saying more players came in for recovery treatments.

“So I feel like they’re feeling it,” she said. “It’s been kind of new for all of us.”

The genesis of Shannon getting into the field dates back to high school when she got hurt playing soccer. It meant spending a lot of time around the team’s athletic trainer and add to that her mother requesting that if she didn’t pick a four-year degree it would be off to a junior college.

She earned a master’s degree in education from Central Missouri State where she worked with soccer and football and also worked two years as an assistant athletic trainer intern at Oral Roberts. The NDSU women’s soccer position opened in 2017. The reaction, however?

“I was like, I’ll never go there, it’s North Dakota, it’s cold,” she said. “But I came to my interview and I fell in love. I came home from my interview and I told my mom that if I don’t get this job I’m going to be devastated.”

She met with then head coach Mark Cook during the interview as well as NDSU administrators including athletic director Matt Larsen. The entire process, she said, felt like Oklahoma State.

She got the offer and three days later was driving north. She hasn’t left, spending seven years with Bison soccer.

The football job came open in 2024, Polasek’s first year as the Bison head coach. Shannon got a big assist from NDSU senior associate athletic director Scott Woken in pursuing the position, who convinced her to take it.

She talked with mentors from Oklahoma State on what football entails and if it’s something she should do.

“Leaving is always hard and I didn’t want to leave those girls and all the relationships that I built,” Shannon said of soccer. “But my ultimate dream coming out of college was to work Division I football so it kind of fell into my lap and I’m super thankful and lucky I got the opportunities that I got.”

In a sense, Shannon and Polasek have gone through it together. She got an FCS national title ring for the 2024 championship and both were part of planning in getting this team ready for an FBS schedule this fall.

“From Day 1, she made the comment of coach, don’t change, I like your straightforwardness,” Polasek said. “She has a very clear vision of how she wants it run in there but the most important thing is how much our players respect her and enjoy being in the training room with her. Her sacrifices go unknown.”

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Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources.

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• Jeff Kolpack

Jeff Kolpack, the son of a reporter and an English teacher, and the brother of a reporter, worked at the Jamestown Sun, Bismarck Tribune and since 1990 The Forum, where he's covered North Dakota State athletics since 1995. He has covered all 10 of NDSU's Division I FCS national football titles and has written four books: "Horns Up," "North Dakota Tough," "Covid Kids" and "They Caught Them Sleeping: How Dot Reinvented the Pretzel." He is also the radio host of "The Golf Show with Jeff Kolpack" April through August.

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