'Trojan Legend' Ream in 37th Year Providing Care as TC Central's Athletic Trainer
By
Tom Spencer
Special for MHSAA.com
September 25, 2026
Traverse City Central’s athletic trainer Amy Ream is exemplary – if not becoming the exception.
“I've been doing it for the 37 years,” Ream said. “It's probably not the norm anymore – especially being at the same location.”
Ream graduated in 1987 from Central Michigan University with a bachelor’s degree in sports medicine. Her first job was with the Trojans, and it likely will be her last.
Ream also has earned a teaching certificate since joining the staff and added teaching sports medicine classes at Central and Traverse City West to her daily duties.
“It’s been very rewarding ... seeing somebody that has torn their ACL and then the next year, they're able to come back … or someone struggling with an ankle sprain and taking them a couple weeks versus a couple days and they come back,” Ream said. “That's part of the reason why we do it. Being around the kids, they bring all the energy and they’re a joy to be around.”
John Sonneman has been near the Trojans for the past 61 years as a teacher, coach, athletic director and administrator. Nowadays, he’s the very recognizable voice of the Trojans as the public address announcer for football, soccer and track.
Sonneman has seen Ream, whose services are contracted through Munson Medical Center, pretty much do it all since she came on board.
“Amy is a real gem – she's a real pro,” said Sonneman. “She handles herself so well with the students. If you need a ‘ball boy’ she's the ball person. If you need somebody in volleyball to run a line or something like that, she'll do it. She isn't just a trainer.”
The Central coaching staff agrees. Fourth-year Central soccer coach Gavin Richmond can’t imagine getting through a game without Ream on the sidelines. Ream serves all of Central’s home varsity and junior varsity soccer matches.
“Amy’s always happy, she's always smiling, and the kids all love her, and she's just an incredible human being,” Richmond pointed out. “It's a privilege to work alongside her. I really love it when she's out there on the sidelines with us. It gives me a kind of sense of comfort knowing that anybody that might get hurt is going to get looked after. She's just a true, true, true professional. She’s a Trojan legend.”
Ream has a very busy schedule, attending all Central home football contests, including for freshman and junior varsity. During the same season she’s at Central’s freshman, JV and varsity volleyball home matches.
Ream sees athletic training as one of the best work-life balance careers. “Most of the time you can still have a good work-life balance, which is really nice,” she said.
This winter she’ll support boys and girls wresting, basketball and ice hockey before taking on the Trojans’ lacrosse, baseball, softball and track programs in the spring.
“I don't normally see tennis or golf, but I am there if they need some help,” Ream acknowledged. “I am at the school during sixth hour. There are some kids that come in for treatment if they don't have sixth hour, for taping or whatever, so that they're ready to get out.”
Ream won’t single out a sport as her favorite. But she will admit leans toward football in the fall, hockey in the winter, and softball in the spring.
“Spring depends on the day, but my kids played softball, so its softball,” she admitted. “And, we’re definitely getting more into boys and girls lacrosse.”
Being an athletic trainer has provided Ream opportunities to work at Ford Field, Little Caesars Arena and Comerica Park. Central’s basketball team played an exhibition game at Little Caesars, and West and Central played an outdoor hockey game at Comerica. But the Trojans reaching the MHSAA Division 2 11-Player Football Final at Ford Field in 2021 stands out most.
It happened while COVID-19 restrictions were still in place, and Ream said the pandemic led to schools reducing their athletic training staffs around the state. The sports medicine class she teaches is aimed at recruitment.
“We're trying to recruit – we always already need athletic trainers,” Ream said. “After COVID, athletic trainers were let go and some of them went on to different careers.”
With COVID restrictions in place, Ream was at Ford Field as the Trojans fell to Warren De La Salle Collegiate. That marked the final game of a stellar playing career for Central’s Josh Burnham.
Burnham and Ream embraced after the tough loss during which Burnham had put the Trojans on the board midway through the fourth quarter with a five-yard touchdown run. He also had eight tackles. Burnham went on to play four years at Notre Dame, helping the Irish reach the college football playoffs. He’s using a fifth year of college eligibility to play this season for Indiana, the reigning national champ.
If Ream had a bucket list, getting back to Ford Field would most likely be on it. She has hopes 25-year coach Eric Schugars can lead the Trojans to a return trip. Central did qualify for the playoffs last year and are off to a 2-2 start this fall. The Trojans will look to improve their playoff chances when they host Midland Dow, also 2-2, Friday at Thirlby Field.
Ream has no immediate plans to retire, but the Trojans are nonetheless prepared for it to happen someday. Justin Thorington, the Trojans athletic director, is a 2003 graduate of Central and recalls vividly Ream being a big part of the school’s athletics during his time as a student.
“I love Amy, and I want her to stay as long as she wants to stay and not any longer than she feels like she needs to stay,” Thorington said. “If she told me ‘Hey, I'm hanging ’em up at the end of the year,’ of course we would be like ‘what are we going to do? How are we going to replace her?’ But we would just be so happy for her. I hope she stays another 10 years if she wants to.”
Tom Spencer is a longtime MHSAA-registered basketball and soccer official, and former softball and baseball official, and he also has coached in the northern Lower Peninsula area. He previously has written for the Saginaw News, Bay County Sports Page and Midland Daily News. He can be reached at [email protected] with story ideas for Manistee, Wexford, Missaukee, Roscommon, Ogemaw, Iosco, Alcona, Oscoda, Crawford, Kalkaska, Grand Traverse, Benzie, Leelanau, Antrim, Otsego, Montmorency, Alpena, Presque Isle, Cheboygan, Charlevoix and Emmet counties.
PHOTOS (Top) Traverse City Central trainer Amy Ream escorts an injured Traverse City West player off the field during Thursday’s game. (Middle) Ream prepares ice for Central’s James Crigier during a junior varsity game at West. (Below) Ream and Josh Burnham embrace after the latter’s final high school football game, at Ford Field. (Top photo by Jan-Michael Stump/Traverse City Record-Eagle. Middle photo by Tom Spencer. Football photo by TC Rick Photo.)
NFHS Hall of Famers: Multi-Sport Experience Makes Major Difference
By
The NFHS Voice
National Federation of State High School Associations
July 28, 2026
The theory that athletes in high school need to specialize in one sport in an out-of-school program to progress to the next level was not the theme from the five athletes inducted into the National High School Hall of Fame last month in Salt Lake City, Utah.
At a press conference preceding the 43rd Hall of Fame induction ceremony, five former extraordinary high school athletes – all of whom later excelled at the college, professional and for a few Olympic levels – delivered resounding messages about the importance of playing multiple sports within school-based programs.
Joe Carter, who was a four-sport standout in football, basketball, baseball and track at Millwood High School in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, long before his stellar pro baseball career, said he might never have been a successful pro baseball player without his multiple sport career at Millwood.
“If I had played baseball all year long, I wouldn’t have been a professional baseball player because I would have burned out,” Carter said. “Coaches will tell you that if you don’t come out for football in the spring instead of playing another sport, you will be passed up. This is not the case because if you’re good they will find you. I will take an athlete who played two or three sports over an athlete who just played one sport because those guys know how to take advantage of a situation and know how to adjust.”
Jordan Larson, a three-sport participant at Logan View High School in Hooper, Nebraska, before settling into volleyball and leading the University of Nebraska to an NCAA championship and playing in four consecutive Olympics, also pointed to multiple sports as a reason for success.
“I can’t emphasize it enough – playing multiple sports helped me personally,” Larson said. “It helped me adapt and adjust as I got older. I can’t recommend it enough from a young age.
“Playing multiple sports helped shape me health-wise from a longevity standpoint. There’s something to be said for the mind. If you’re on the grind in the same sport, burnout will come.”
Another volleyball standout in the 2026 class was Alisha Glass Childress, who also played basketball at Leland (Michigan) High School and who would later lead Penn State University to three consecutive NCAA volleyball titles and team with Larson on the U.S. squad at the 2016 Olympics in Brazil.
“Playing for your high school team is so important – it’s such a different experience,” Childress said. “Being in the same program for four years and getting to know the athletes you’re with, I felt like it was family.
“High school was a beautiful time and the beginning of a love affair with sports. I fell in love with the sport of volleyball but also tried a lot of different sports. I played basketball as well. For me, high school is when you start to have an understanding of yourself – reflecting on who you want to be or what you want to achieve.
“The life lessons you learn along the way are so important. The majority of the athletes on our team did not continue on to play past high school. The life lessons you learn as a high school athlete – being a leader, accountability, goal-setting – carry with you the rest of your life.”
Patrick Willis was one of Tennessee’s top two-way football players at Hollow Rock-Bruceton Central High School who also played basketball and baseball before his hall of fame football career with the San Francisco 49ers.
“Coming from a small town with two red lights, I would say the most fun I had growing up was playing sports,” Willis said. “Life can throw a lot of things at you, and to be able to adjust is amazing. In sports, we’re able to learn these things – the discipline, the toughness, the perseverance. I wanted to be a representative that anything is possible, and it’s not just the ones from the big cities or towns, but ones from small towns also.”
Another proponent of playing multiple sports was Krissy Wendell Pohl, the most dominant player in girls ice hockey in Minnesota history and the national record-holder in goals scored in a season who went to a stellar career at the University of Minnesota and won a silver medal at the 2002 Olympics. In addition to her excellence in ice hockey, Wendell Pohl also played tennis, baseball and softball.
“It was so special for me to be able to play multiple sports,” said Wendell Pohl. “For me, playing baseball, softball and hockey, you had different groups of friends, different roles on different teams, and all of that had an impact and you don’t realize it until later.
“High school is the purest form of sport. What you learn in high school, as you’re learning and growing and developing, those things stay with you. The people who impact you in high school – you will never forget that.”
We urge coaches today to take the message from these five outstanding athletes about playing multiple sports to heart and make that option available to athletes in their schools.
These vital programs help to shape young student-athletes into successful parents, citizens and leaders of our nation for years to come.