Athletic trainer Carlos Bustamante ’14 makes a mean ice bag, and he’s passionate about providing top-notch healthcare.
Bustamante is a senior athletic trainer for the Washington Wizards, Washington, DC’s professional basketball team. He joined the Wizards organization almost a decade ago, and after working in a variety of roles, including as head trainer for the affiliate, NBA G League team Capital City Go-Go, he became an assistant trainer for main club in 2020.
“It’s been a ride,” he says. “I’ve just been super appreciative of the organization for believing and investing in me.”
Prior to his time with the Wizards, Bustamante was a student athletic trainer at the UW, where he assisted the Badger football, basketball, and cross-country teams. He also worked with the Georgia Tech Softball team and football team.
What is the role of an athletic trainer?
Athletic training is health care. The root of it all is that we are allied health care professionals who happen to be in sports. My job is essentially the well-being of the players and athletes. I’m the first point of contact. If something is happening that is emergency related, I’m the first responder on the scene, but [my job] is really encompassing — the treatment, the rehab, first aid, emergency care. It’s being an expert in many things so you can determine the right course of action, and it’s just being prepared. Good days are when nothing really happens, but when it does, I’m ready to respond. It’s interesting and the days are never the same, which I find super fascinating. You just never know what you’re going to get.
Is there anything you want people to know about athletic training?
I think number one is that we’re not personal trainers. Second is just the amount of work that an athletic trainer does. I think this is the reason why a lot of athletic trainers get so burned-out and end up sometimes switching professions. They’re not compensated as they should be. It’s still an ongoing fight [in the profession] as a whole, because the disparity is still large. My hope is that colleges can see the value of athletic trainers and compensate them as they should, because they’re worth a lot more than people realize.
What inspired you to become an athletic trainer?
Even before I knew what I wanted to do, I was involved in distance running. I got into cross-country and track. I was dialed in, but there was a point in time where I started dealing with a bunch of injuries. I was just trying to figure out what was going on with my body. I would go to the doctor, and they told me to rest, and it wasn’t really solving the problem. To add to the challenge, I come from a big family, a low-income family, so we didn’t really have the means to figure out what was going on. I just remember doing research on the internet, just trying to figure out — trying to become more familiar with human anatomy.
And really, the root of it all was my mom. If you get hurt, you get comforted, you know? Reassured that everything’s going to be okay. And I felt like that’s something that I wanted to do for others and combine that with my love for sports. I fell in love [with athletic training] so quickly, because I’m in a training room and working with some of the best athletes and working in professional sports. These are truly the best of the best, and sometimes I have to step back. It’s all I could ever ask for.
Why are you passionate about athletic training?
When I go to work, it doesn’t feel like I’m at work. It truly feels like I’m there for these athletes — for my colleagues. They’re some of the best athletes in the world, and they’re really trying to perfect their craft, and I see it the same way. I’m really trying to be the best version of myself. I’m continuously working on myself, so that I can be the most prepared, so that we’re not missing a beat. It just feels like it’s this ongoing journey to try to be better and better and better.
When you’re not really passionate — especially like at this level — if you don’t really care, then why should anyone really trust your expertise? I think it goes not just for the players, but for the staff, because everybody wants to ensure that you know we’re all on the same page. We’re in this together.
As someone who works with many athletes every day, how do you approach building relationships?
I think for me it was always about how can I show that I’m a trustworthy person before anything else. It was showing up on time, being there as much as I could, and then just being helpful with any of the tasks that were assigned to me. … We’re spending so much time together, and so these relationships are not built overnight. I’ve worked with countless of different types of personalities, and I think that’s what’s kept it challenging but also interesting. You learn more about yourself — how to work with others, and at the end of the day, you just want to help people. So, it’s just finding opportunities. It’s a process, but it’s been fun navigating it.
Are there any lessons you’ve learned throughout your career you’d like to highlight?
One of them is just simply be where your feet are. Looking back now, there are certain things that I feel pretty confident wouldn’t have happened if I hadn’t really taken pride in some of the simple things. An example is an ice bag. You see athletes wrap themselves in ice, or whatever. To me, presentation is a key. How can I make the best, most appealing ice bag? Over the course of my time in athletic training, players started noticing that, and if they know that this is the type of work that I do, they’re going to continue coming back to me. In the beginning [of my career], when I didn’t have that trust built and the athletes didn’t know who I was, it was an entry point to really show what I was capable of.
And I get a lot of questions about networking. I think it’s super important to network by doing the best of your ability where you are — where your feet are, because the people who are around you, your mentors, your preceptors, they’re the ones that can speak the best about your work. Networking just starts where you are.
What are you looking forward to?
I’m excited about our new trajectory for our team. We’ve had a young team for a while now, and it’s no secret that we’re starting to take this path to blossom a little bit. It’s been cool to be part of it from the beginning and to see it through and to see how it all really fits together. … As a medical staff, we’ve done our homework and we’re ready for all these moments. It’s an exciting time in sports, especially in the NBA, and we just want to see where it takes us.
