For most of the last 15 years, Andrea Shene has been a familiar and comforting presence at Warren County sporting events.

She has left her formal role as Warren County School District athletic trainer, tendering her resignation in October.

“Can’t say enough about Andrea and her commitment to the WCSD athletic programs,” Director of Administrative Support Services Gary Weber said. “She will be missed.”

Shene was introduced to the school board as the trainer in 2005. At that point, she was not a district employee. The district and Warren General Hospital had an agreement to provide the trainer, Weber said.

Budget cuts hit the trainer position in 2010 or 2011, Supervisor of District-Wide Athletics Rick Gignac said.

For the next few years, the board occasionally talked about bringing back the position.

Dollars became less of an obstacle.

“We need to continue to work with Highmark,” Weber said. “We get a grant from them. They’ve been awesome to work with, in providing that grant annually that allows us to sustain that position.”

The board approved a trainer position — as a district employee– in 2016. Shene got the job.

There is a public side to the work. The trainer is expected to attended practices and games to be available to evaluate and treat injuries. Shene couldn’t attend them all — there are regularly multiple events going on at the same time in different locations, but she was expected to be at as many as possible.

“We didn’t have a lot of discussion with Andrea because she was out and about in the 800 square miles of the district,” Weber said.

The district would prioritize the kinds of events that involve high-impact, but, injuries can occur anywhere, in any sport. “They’re always available for emergency situations,” Weber said.

Those practice and game responsibilities would be the bulk of a full-time job, but there is much more that the trainer does that the public doesn’t see.

Shene was involved in the rehabilitation of student athletes recovering from injuries. She was the liaison between students and the medical community.

And, she was expected to prevent injuries. Shene worked with teams and individuals with their strength training programs. She was involved in hydration testing in wrestling, baseline concussion testing in many sports.

Those duties will now fall on the shoulders of Dane Renwick.

On Monday, the board approved Renwick as the district’s next athletic trainer.

The 2004 Warren Area High School graduate earned a bachelor’s degree from Mercyhurst University and a master’s from California University of Pennsylvania.

Renwick then spent eight years as the athletic trainer for Blairsville High School. “In 2016, I went to Pitt-Bradford as one of two athletic trainers there,” he said.

The opportunity to work at the high school level and in Warren County appealed to him.

“This is my hometown,” Renwick said. “It’s nice to be back. The small-town feel is nice.”

“You get involved in the community a lot more at the high school level than at the college level,” he said. “It’ll be a good change.”

He is also looking forward to a particular sport being part of his day-to-day. “It’s great to be working with football again,” Renwick said. The University of Pittsburgh doesn’t offer football at its Bradford campus.

He recognizes that Shene has been a trusted part of the district for a long time but, with his experience, he is not just walking in off the street.

“It’s big shoes to fill, but I think I can handle it,” he said. “Everyone has been very receptive so far.”

The district has also recognized that one trainer, no matter how qualified, is just not enough.

The board also opted Monday to add a second trainer position. In October, the personnel, athletics, and co-curricular activities committee considered and moved along a recommendation. “We recognize a need for a second trainer due to the large volume of activities in four different attendance areas,” according to the new position request form.

Renwick was not the only applicant for the trainer position. “We had two fantastic candidates,” Weber said.

Weber and Gignac expect to present a candidate for that position for board consideration at a special meeting on Monday, Nov. 22.

Having two trainers will ease the load and provide better services for the district’s student-athletes.

“We always would like to get as much coverage as possible,” Weber said.

“There are still going to be some events” that will not have a trainer covering, Gignac said. “But, we’re going to get out and see the kids a lot more.”

And, there will be two trainers working on those behind-the-scenes efforts that are so important. “The prevention and intervention is going to massive,” he said. “It helps the student athletes immensely.”