Dear Defender Editorial Staff,

I would like to clear up some incorrect information that appeared in the latest edition of The Defender, in a story about understaffing in our Athletic Training department. While we appreciate the attention paid to our wonderful AT staff, which is charged with the well-being of more than 400 student-athletes, much of the information in the story was wrong.

It is true that the department is currently down one member with the departure of Kayla Ciampa, but this did not occur on Sept. 24, as the reporter asserted; it happened nearly three weeks later, after press time, greatly changing the urgency of the timing the story portrayed. The story discussed the 90-day hold on rehiring being a major hurdle, and made it sound as though the administration was not supporting this position being filled. That could not be further from the truth, as Director of Athletics Chris Kenny ‘86 and Vice President for Student Affairs Dawn Ellinwood both confirmed in the piece that the search for Ciampa’s successor would begin immediately.

The headline and cutline for the first photo further sensationalize this issue; no student-athlete is quoted as being “frustrated”, and Head Athletic Trainer Renee Breault never says she was “overwhlemed” [sic], nor is the assertion that she was short staffed at the time of the story correct. We also believe that the “Gretta Stigliano” quoted in the story is really women’s soccer player Greta Ricigliano ‘20.

What we hope to accomplish with this letter is to make sure our student-athletes – nearly one-fourth of the College’s population – understand that we are continuing to provide the safest and most supportive atmosphere for them that we can, and a story that has this many falsehoods undermines that effort. We aim to return our AT staff to full strength as soon as possible while we continue the pursuit of supporting our student-athletes, and administrators at the College are playing a positive role in that effort.

Thank you for your continued coverage of our student-athletes and Saint Michael’s Athletics.

– Josh Kessler ‘04, is the Director of Athletic Communications at Saint Michael’s College