Photo by Saavri Biswal

Ever since Theresa Maksim, the former athletic trainer, left Pinewood, physical therapist Stephanie Yano has embraced the role of helping athletes recover from injury.

Yano has a background in special team orthopedics and rehabbing injuries sustained in game or practice. She has been helping out at Pinewood since 2018 but works full time at a clinic as a physical therapist. Yano came to Pinewood after it was recommended by Pinewood alumni and her basketball teammates at the University of California, San Diego. Since then, she has helped countless girls basketball players at Pinewood recover from injuries on a part-time basis.

Though it has been three years since arriving at Pinewood, Yano still looks forward to seeing the warm faces of students every day.

“Everyone’s really nice and you guys all do your exercises, which I always really appreciate,” Yano said.

Junior Skylar Chui, a member of the girls basketball team, has worked with Yano since 2019.

“Steph is very professional, but at the same time very easy to talk to,” Chui said.

Chui also described Yano as someone who is generous and wants the best for everyone on the girls basketball team. However, the main thing Chui emphasized is Yano’s ability to bring joy to training sessions. For example, Yano plays music during training sessions and even turns them into games to mix things up.

Yano makes training sessions fun and joyful is because of her experiences with injuries. Yano recalled how tough recovering from a knee surgery, both mentally and physically. This challenge of recovering from injury is what led Yano to become a physical therapist.

“I want to help other people get past those tough times in life [so they can] do the thing that they love,” Yano said.