GoYeo Storytellers: Jill Rondini

One of the many words one can use to describe an athletic trainer is nurturing. It is an act that Oberlin College Director of Sports Medicine Jill Rondini not only does with the hundreds of student-athletes she cares for, but it is also something that she does on a daily basis through her Christian faith and relationship with Christ. 

Rondini’s innate desire to serve others goes well beyond her 21-year career in athletic training - it goes around the world. Since 2003, she has participated in over 20 mission trips across the globe and has done at least one every year since 2006 except for 2020 due the COVID-19 pandemic.

During her most recent trip at the end of May, Rondini had the unique opportunity to blend her two passions together in El Salvador where her journey to Central America featured three days of leading sports medicine seminars.

Through her local house church, she is connected with a sister church in El Salvador called Hungry Church, whose motto is “loving people who others are afraid to love”. The church was started by a former gang member from the States who was ultimately deported, but even in El Salvador people were afraid to accept him due to his checkered past. He noticed this was a problem for many people with similar backgrounds to him, but whose lives had been transformed through their faith in Jesus.

Hungry Church has since grown into providing more than just food, shelter, and a place to worship for those in need and Rondini was put into contact with a man who happened to be the president of the American Football Federation. Together, they hatched the plan for her to make the trip south and put her expertise to use.

“Every athlete and coach who participated in the seminars was so involved and was excited to learn,” she noted. “Oftentimes here in the U.S. players and coaches aren’t always actively engaged because they know they will likely have an athletic trainer available to them. But there they couldn’t get enough and it was really refreshing to have a large group of people who wanted to learn and take care of one another.”

Rondini, who on this trip also witnessed a local woman convert to Christianity and be baptized, also found her journey to Christ later in life.

Rondini, like many athletic trainers over the past year, was experiencing some burnout due to the increased workload surrounding the pandemic but says this was the exact ‘vacation’ she needed.

“It was so joyful connecting with so many amazing people and to serve is much more refreshing to my spirit than just going to sit on some beach somewhere.”

In addition to overseeing the entire sports medicine operation, she provides direct care for the men’s and women’s soccer, men’s and women’s swimming and diving, and men’s lacrosse teams and has often told people, “I was born to do this job.”

Through her mission service and her work with the men’s soccer program, the bulk of Rondini’s international trips have been to Brazil with a few of those being alongside Head Men’s Soccer Coach Blake New who thinks fondly of his co-worker of 17 years.

“Jill is a good friend and colleague, and although I give her a hard time about babying my guys over the years, it is just her nature to want to help,” Coach New said. “I am very happy that Jill has found opportunities to share her faith and reach out to those in need around the world.”

Before Rondini jumps back full speed into the fall sports preseason in mid-August, she will be making a return trip to El Salvador to continue to share her sports medicine knowledge and will have the opportunity to work the sidelines for two American-style football games as well as a new soccer league that is vital to the community because it will be a driving force in encouraging reconciliation between active gang members, as well as providing an alternative to gang life for many in the community.

If you wish to support Rondini on her upcoming mission, you can do so by making a donation on this page and selecting “Jill Rondini Missions” in the drop down menu.