TACOMA, Wash. – If you watched a Los Angeles Chargers home game this season, chances are you saw a Pacific Lutheran University alum.

No, this former Lute isn't wearing a jersey or a referee's shirt, rather Kayla Ozawa is working as an athletic trainer for the National Football League team.
 
Ozawa is interning for the Chargers as she works on her master's degree in athletic training at Azusa Pacific University in Azusa, California, which is east of Los Angeles.

"I always told people I wanted to work in professional sports," said Ozawa, a former PLU track and field athlete. "I didn't think it would ever happen and now here I am interning with the Chargers. Anything is possible."

Ozawa graduated from PLU in 2020 with a B.S. in Kinesiology. While at PLU she was a member of the track & field team, competing in the pole vault, javelin, and sprints. 

Ozawa is at practice Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. She works all home games and trades off going on road trips with other interns. She worked the Chargers game in Denver earlier this season and will travel to their game Dec. 26 at Houston.

Her practice days begin at 5:30 a.m. setting up the training room, with treatment beginning at 6 a.m. After treatment is done, she helps set up the field for practice. This includes making sure there are enough hydration stations and everything is iced down.

Before practice starts, she sneaks in some homework time. During practice her main job is hydration – so she walks around with water for the players.

After practice, she helps ice down everything, cleans up and then heads home at 2 or 3 p.m.

On game days, she helps set up the field and does whatever is needed in the training room. During the game she does wound care, hydration, and keeping the sideline clean.

"Luckily, I haven't seen any terrible injuries so far," she said. "I try to observe as much as I can. That is my main priority – learning. I'm always trying to see what the staff does and how they handle those situations."

Her mantra of always trying to learn isn't lost on those around her.

"The No. 1 thing is she really cares about the athletes and giving them the best treatment possible," said Todd Yamauchi, PLU's head athletic trainer.

"When she was here, she created an environment that was open and accepting so student-athletes gravitated to her. She cared about their outcomes, so they trusted her in a way. She also did things without being told. She was always looking for things to keep her busy."

Ozawa, a Hawaii native, became interested in athletic training in high school. Her friend's dad was a trainer and Ozawa attended a workshop he was running. She got to go to a cadaver lab and practice taping. She also was injury prone in high school, which led her to visit the trainers often.

At PLU, she started working in the training room her sophomore year, working with the football team for three years.

"Football is different than tennis or track or soccer," she said. "Having that prior experience was really helpful so I knew what to expect when starting this internship."

There are two other PLU alums working on their athletic training master's degrees right now with Ozawa, including Sara Thompson and Meagan Mansfield.

Mansfield is interning with San Diego State University football, while Thompson is interning with the University of Southern California's volleyball and basketball teams.

While Thompson didn't compete in sports at PLU, she does offer a unique perspective on Ozawa after working with her in Parkland and now in California.

"Kayla is very thorough. She is not a person who misses a step or messes up very often," said Thompson, a 2020 graduate with a degree in Kinesiology Exercise Science and a minor in Hispanic Studies. "She pays attention to detail, takes all the experience she has and applies it.

"She is the go-to person in our class when people have questions. She is a rock for our program for sure."

And she plans on being a rock for the Chargers the next month – at least.

"Whenever the season ends is when my internship is over," she said. "I'm hoping February (after the Super Bowl)."