Pull, wrap, and rip. Pull, wrap, and rip. The act of taping takes immense precision that comes with years of taping wrists, ankles, thumbs, elbows and more. Liberty’s head athletic trainer, Morten Orren, has become a taping guru as he protects our athletes from injury.

If you have ever taken his class or received any treatment from him, you know that he just goes by Mort. Not Mr. Mort, and definitely not Mr. Orren. That’s his father’s name. Mort does everything from taping athletes to setting up the water jugs in the gym, to giving the athletes treatment options for sport specific injuries.

Mort, for those that don’t know, is a pretty awkward individual, but in a very funny way. He tries to keep his classes relaxed, but with a serious attitude. He always starts class off with a “Deep Thought” which is a fun little saying and really has no rhyme or reason. Then he shows the class some funny video, such as Sports Center’s Not Top Ten or a video of a (sad, yet hilarious) sport specific injury. Mort’s unique personality and sense of humor is what separates his Sports Medicine classes from any other class at Liberty.

But while Mort is a funny guy, I have seriously learned a lot from his class. I’ve taken Sports Medicine 1 and 2 and am currently in Sports Medicine 3. Don’t let his sense of humor fool you; to be an athletic trainer, Mort is required to know pretty much everything about the human body, including how everything is structured and how it works.

But what I really like about the class is that I learn things that will help me later in life. I’m not saying that I don’t learn anything in my math, science or English classes, but the things I learn in Sports Med just seem to stick. For instance, if someone comes up to me and says his knee hurts, I can tell him all the different structures that might have been injured: the ACL, MCL, LCL or PCL. I even know the different tests you can perform to test the severity of the injured ligament.

So, I would like to thank Mort for all he does for the athletics programs here at Liberty. It is a huge commitment to get to school at seven and then not leave until sometimes as late as ten o’clock by being present at every football, basketball, baseball, soccer, and softball game. So, thank you, Mort, for helping keep not only me healthy, but all of the athletes at Liberty.