RAPID CITY - Nicole Hahne has worked with high school and college athletes in a variety of sports and knows she'll need to bring all that experience to bear as the new athletic trainer for the Rapid City Rush.

Hahne, celebrating her 29th birthday today, joined the Rush for the team's inaugural Central Hockey League season.

"I've always wanted to get back into the athletic population," Hahne, of Rapid City said. "I know it's going to be a lot of work at first, but I'm up for the job."

That job will be strenuous.

Hahne will work with players before, during and after all practices as well as all 64 home and away games during the season.

She'll work with local doctors and trainers from other teams in treating and rehabilitating injuries, and also coordinate insurance coverage for players.

"I'm going to be married to the job for a while," she said.

Rush coach Joe Ferras said he is pleased to have Hahne join the team, and while he knows better, he still hopes the injury aspect of Hahne's job will be minimal.

"Hopefully, not very many (injuries)," he said. "Obviously, it's a very physical sport with high speed and big kids. There's always going to be injuries. It's almost unavoidable."

Hahne grew up on the family ranch near Trail City, about 20 miles southwest of Mobridge in north central South Dakota.

She ran track and played basketball at Timber Lake, where she graduated in 1998. She first attended the University of Mary in Bismarck, N.D. and eventually earned a degree in sports medicine-athletic training from South Dakota State University in Brookings.

"My mother is a physician's assistant. I always had an interest in the medical field," she said.

Hahne said she was an athlete in a family of athletes. She knew what her career path was going to be when she attended a rehab session with an older sister who had injured a knee playing college basketball.

Hahne knew she had found her niche.

"I said 'that's what I'd like to do,'" she said.

She worked as an athletic trainer at Watertown High School and also worked in Colorado and Texas before joining the staff of Black Hills Health and Wellness Center in Rapid City in June of 2007.

Concidentally, Hahne first became familiar with the CHL while living in Amarillo, Texas.

"I attended some of the Amarillo Gorilla games when Joe Ferras was coach of the team," Hahne said. "I've always had an interest in it since then."

Hahne expects to help treat the gamut of injuries associated with a high-speed, high-contact game.

"You deal with a lot of ankles, knees, concussions and shoulders," she said. "I'm making sure I'm on my 'A' game for that."

Ferras said trainers are some of the unsung heroes of any sports team.

"The athlete today is different from years ago. These are finely-tuned athletes, and although they play professional hockey for eight months of the year, getting into shape and maintaining their conditioning is a 12-month job," he said.

"Being a professional athlete, the job is so precious, you have to maintain yourself to the best of your ability to keep peak performance," Ferras said.

"That helps also in rehabbing injuries. If you're in better condition and physically strong, it'll help with the healing time."

Ferras said he "pounded the pavement" to find someone with Hahne's experience after an earlier candidate was close to accepting the job, but later backed out.

Ferras consulted with National American University and South Dakota State and also with local physicians to find Hahne.

"We're very happy to have Nicole on board in our organization. We're very happy that she's local, and it's great for her to have her first entry into pro sports come in South Dakota, where she's from," Ferras said. "We're very fortunate to have her and we're very grateful."

Hahne's expects another aspect of her life experience resume to come into play as a trainer for a pro hockey team.

She dated a rodeo bronc rider for a time.

"You see all kinds of injuries in rodeo," she said.