Longtime Hempfield Area athletic trainer Lisa Brose isn’t letting anything prevent her from watching the high school softball team compete in the state championship in State College on Friday — not even her retirement.
Brose of Irwin has worked in the district’s athletic training office for 35 years. She retired June 2.
With each new sports season, the district’s three athletic trainers are assigned to different teams. But softball has always been reserved for Brose.
“I’ve been a part of every WPIAL and every state championship team since I started,” she said.
That is 10 WPIAL titles and four state titles, to be exact.
Over the years, Brose has become part of the team — taping ankles and helping athletes stretch before practices and games. She has taken the team bus to postseason games — administering electrical stimulation treatment to athletes on the way — and joined the players for celebratory postgame meals.
Her one request in retirement was to finish out the softball team’s season as their trainer.
“I didn’t want to leave this team on June 2 and go the state route without them,” Brose said. “I asked them if I could finish.”
The district will be hard-pressed to find an athletic trainer as dedicated as Brose, said Athletic Director Brandon Rapp.
Rapp, who was hired by Hempfield in 2020, was familiar with Brose in his previous role at Norwin School District. She is a constant, familiar face among Hempfield athletics, Rapp said.
“She works late nights and early mornings and long practices and just shows up and never looks for any recognition — just does whatever it takes to support our students and our coaches and our programs,” he said. “To do that for the length of time that she did is pretty special, and I think that’s difficult to come by.”
Sports-playing background led to career
Brose grew up in Finleyville, Washington County, and graduated from Ringgold High School. Playing sports including basketball, volleyball and track throughout her youth inspired her interest in athletic training.
“When I went to college, I wasn’t sure what I wanted,” she said, “but I loved being around sports, and it just seemed like a natural progression for me.”
She graduated from Slippery Rock University with a degree in exercise science in 1990 and went on to work one year at a sports medicine clinic in Pittsburgh. Brose joined Hempfield Area in 1991 while pursuing a master’s degree in athletic training from Pitt.
A highlight of her career was working with softball athletes alongside Bob Kalp, who served as the team’s head coach for 25 years before stepping down in 2021. He died at age 80 in March.
“I really enjoyed working all the years with Mr. Kalp,” she said. “It was a very structured program, and I feel that (coach) Tina (Madison) has just stepped in right where he left off. It’s been a great continuation of his legacy, and I’ve enjoyed every bit of it.”
Athlete: ‘She’s been a constant source of support’
Hempfield Area softball catcher Ella Berkebile cannot imagine Brose being absent from the team’s dugout.
Berkebile, who graduated two weeks ago, has received care from Brose for arm pain and bicep tendonitis since her junior year.
“She’s been a constant source of support through recovery, even just talking to us through difficult times,” Berkebile said. “She’s always shown her support to the softball team. She’s always there.”
Fellow 2026 graduate Emily Bozek — who has broken her arm three times in six different places since she was in eighth grade — has relied on Brose’s athletic training expertise throughout her time at Hempfield.
“I’ve gotten hurt in two of the three playoff games that we’ve had, and Lisa is always the first one to run over to make sure I’m OK,” Bozek said. “Even if it’s just a little bump, she always wants to make sure you’re OK and doesn’t want you to take the risk of getting hurt.”
Athletic trainers, Brose said, toe a delicate line in working with injured athletes.
“It’s devastating to an athlete not to be able to finish their season or miss a few games,” she said. “We try to work through it and just continue to be positive and have them work as hard as they can to get back on that field.”
Trainer reflects on her sons’ athletic careers
Brose also cherished the opportunity to watch all the football practices and games of her two sons — Braden Brose, 25, and Fintan Brose, 23 — who graduated from Hempfield Area.
“It is a stressful moment as a mom to be an athletic trainer, watching your kids play a sport where they could get pretty hurt,” she said. “But I still had to remember that my job wasn’t just to the two individuals who were on the field. It was to all of them.”
Upon graduation, the brothers played football at the University of Delaware. Fintan received news in April he was invited to rookie camp — a three-day camp used to evaluate drafted rookies and undrafted free agents — with the Las Vegas Raiders.
Brose still looks fondly on her sons’ childhood days of tagging along to watch their mom at work.
“That was their most favorite place — to go visit Mom at work,” she said. “Whether they were at a soccer game or at a basketball game, they were running around and getting to enjoy being around the love of sports.”
Brose looks forward to spending more time with family and traveling in her retirement.
“I’m still open to exploring new opportunities,” she said, “and we’ll see what happens.”