Editors Note: This article was republished on Feb. 26 following a website transfer that removed it. The article was originally published on Jan. 28.
Eliana Cheng, exercise sciences student and intern for UC Irvine Athletics Sports Medicine program, starts her workday long before fans arrive and the first whistle blows.
On a typical morning at UC Irvine’s athletics facilities, water bottles are lined up, medical kits packed and athletes are filtering through the training room for pre-practice treatment. For Cheng, these moments are where classroom concepts turn into firsthand experience inside the fast-paced world of Division I athletics.
Cheng works an average of 15 hours a week alongside certified athletic trainers (ATs), physical therapists and physicians — assisting with men’s soccer and men’s tennis to gain hands-on exposure that few undergraduates experience through the sports medicine program.
Students can access the internship through the UCI Sports Medicine Club, which serves as a bridge from membership to clinical exposure with UCI Athletics. Club members can participate in observership, shadowing opportunities and apply for an internship to get connected with real-world professionals.
“Being on the sidelines, it’s completely different from just watching a regular game,” Cheng told New University. “Just the energy of being next to the guys, hearing what the coaches need from us, what the AT expects from us. It’s that hands-on experience that really makes it different from if you’re just in a lecture.”
The sports medicine internship program is designed to immerse students in the daily operations of athletic healthcare — interns assist with everything from setting up practices to providing soft tissue work, taping and operating treatment modalities under the supervision of licensed professionals. This season, interns traveled with the men’s soccer team for the first round of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Championships in Denver, to help the team with preparations and support.
“They help with anything from as small as laundry to as big as being on the sidelines at athletic events on the road, so it’s really up to the sports med intern how ingrained they want to be,” UCI Director of Sports Medicine and Performance Jaime Potter told New University.
Once accepted into the internship program, two to three interns are paired with one certified AT who oversees two athletic teams. These assignments stay the same for the academic year before interns are reassigned the following year.
For Cheng, her supervising AT encourages interns to be the athlete’s first point of contact — a pivotal exposure for Cheng, who plans to pursue a career in physical therapy or coaching.
While the internship offers experience, it also comes with limitations. Outside of not being able to diagnose or independently treat injuries for the athlete’s safety, an intern’s assignment to two sports for the entire academic year can limit exposure to other sports and different types of injuries.
“Soccer is very lower extremity [focused] versus other people that do water polo, which is all upper [body],” Cheng said.
Beyond learning techniques, the internship offers opportunities for students to strengthen their communication skills with other medical professionals.
“We do a lot of different things, but what we’re really good at is navigating and guiding professionals in the direction that needs to be done,” Potter said. “An athletic trainer is going to be your first responder and get you to the right place of help. We’re the people who understand what a Level I trauma unit is … so if I get something that I think needs to go to a Level I, I can easily have a conversation with an EMT.”
For Potter, UCI’s sports medicine program is about more than career pipelines; it’s about shaping how future healthcare professionals understand sports medicine.
“Ninety to ninety five percent of them are going into some type of medical field that is not athletic training, and that’s totally okay,” Potter said. “The point is for them to be in a space where we’re able to educate them on what our profession is so that when they are in their fields, they can continue to educate other people [on] who athletic trainers are and what we do.”
Students interested in the internship can find information through the UCI Sports Medicine Club’s Instagram account. Applications for the sports medicine internship are released annually at the end of winter quarter, with selected interns beginning training in the spring and receiving team assignments for the following academic year.
Mya Romero is a Features Intern for the winter 2026 quarter. She can be reached at myajr@uci.edu.
Edited by Avery Rosas and Joshua Gonzales
