Quinn Harper settles in back home

There's no place like home.

And Quinn Harper, a Kansas native and new Assistant Athletics Trainer at UMKC, is happy to be back.

She works mostly with the men's basketball team and the track and cross-country teams, treating injuries and illnesses under the team physicians.

"My day-to-day job is to take care of (athletes), evaluate them, do treatment, rehab and return them to play," Harper said.

Fortunately, there haven't been any serious injuries since she started in August.

Harper received her Bachelor's degree in Athletic Training from the University of Kansas (KU) in 1999. She started as a journalism major, but that quickly changed after her first semester.

"I wasn't really loving [journalism]," Harper said. "I obviously didn't give it much time, but I knew."

Then she toured the Athletic Training Facility at KU for a class.

"I was like, 'this is what I want to do,'" Harper said.

Harper was an athlete in high school. She played basketball, tennis and soccer. She was also on the track team.

"I always wanted to do something with sports," Harper said. "I don't know what else I would do."

Harper considered medical school, but she really wanted to stick with what she loves - sports.

She became a certified athletic trainer after graduating from KU, then moved to Arizona to treat student athletes at Tempe High School.

"It's a three-part exam, and you have to pass everything," Harper said. "You can't practice without being certified. ... Someone can't just come in and say, 'I want to be an athletic trainer.'"

She is also certified in CPR. She renews this certification annually.

"It's a good refresher," Harper said. "You never know when you're going to use it, unfortunately. (But) I've never had to use it."

She received her Masters degree at the Arizona School of Health Sciences in 2001.

After graduating, Harper moved to Rhode Island and was an athletic trainer at Providence College for eight years.

Five of those years, she treated men's hockey players.

But she wanted to come home.

"All my family lives out here," Harper said. "I've been living out East the last eight years."

And when the opportunity became available at UMKC, Harper accepted.

"I really like it here," Harper said. "The Athletics Department is pretty small, but it's really close knit, very supportive. Our Athletics Director, Tim Hall, is great. He lends a ton of support. And it's good to be back home."

mcowan@unews.com