Photo by Dan Cruz
Tate Merten works on a wrestler from Lafayette High School during the William “Red” Schmitt Holiday Tournament on Dec. 29 at Granite City High School. Merten now works for Multi-Care Specialists after working 22 years as GCHS’ athletic trainer.
For 22 years, Tate Merten has played a key role for the Granite City athletic department.
Merten worked as a trainer for all 20 teams at GCHS. He has worked with more than 50 head coaches and hundreds of athletes in every sport, except hockey.
But on Dec. 20, Merten’s long tenure as the school’s trainer came to an end. He has a new job at Multi-Care Specialists, a Granite City medical facility owned by Dr. Mark Eavenson, one of the physicians.
“The job is quite similar to the high school job,” Merten said. “It’s high-tempo. I still do a little rehab. The little difference is the population of patients is different. I still have alumni of Granite City athletes coming in. I see high school kids from different schools coming in. I see people who are in workers’ comp. I see law enforcement and firefighters. It’s a very wide range, which is a little more challenging. Now we’re trying to figure out how to help them and how to advance them.”
Merten got a nice sendoff during the Granite City boys basketball game against Collinsville on Dec. 19 at Memorial Gymnasium. His family members were in attendance.
“All of my kids and all of my grandkids were there,” Merten said. “That was a nice compliment from the officials who have been working on our games for a long time. There were very nice words from (Granite City athletic director John) Moad and (Granite City Principal Daren) DePew and (Granite City track) coach Tom Miller. It was overwhelming.”
The 51-year-old Merten started working at GCHS part time in 1995 while he was an employee at St. Elizabeth Hospital, now Gateway Regional Medical Center, before earning a full-time position in 2001. Merten has been in the athletic training business since 1988. He first got interested in the field while he was a student at Western Illinois University.
Merten’s first job was in the Detroit area. He earned an athletic trainer job in the Chicago area after receiving his master’s degree at Indiana State University.
In 1995, Merten headed to Granite City, where he was hired to work as St. Elizabeth Hospital and as GCHS trainer part time.
After getting hired full time, Merten became one of several Metro East athletic trainers. The others were Brett Kisro of Collinsville – now the athletic trainer at Freeburg – and Jack Edgar of Triad.
Merten got to work at the William “Red” Schmitt Holiday Wrestling Tournament on Dec. 28-29 as an employee for his new job.
“When I resigned, the window between the time I resigned and the time of the holiday tournament was a little small,” Merten said. “That tournament can be a brutal tournament. So Dr. Mark let me off on Thursday to work it because I felt that it would be unprofessional to leave the high school kind of hanging. So I worked that.”
Merten said even though he won’t be working as an athletic trainer as GCHS, he still plans to come to the athletic events as spectator.
“It’s going to be different, but it would be nice to sit in the stands with a bunch of parents I know and watch a game as a spectator and not be pacing on the sideline watching those who are coming back from an injury and see how they’re doing,” he said. “What’s going to be tough is if someone gets hurt, I probably would go down and help out. I can’t. But it would be more relaxing for me. I get to enjoy the sports and enjoy the competition.”
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