RESERVE — On her last free day before starting her junior year at Riverside Academy, Mya Conner could have been doing just about anything.

She could have slept in, gone shopping or spent a day by the pool.

Instead, the bright young honor student was up at the crack of dawn to go to school, where she spent her morning sweating like crazy and assisting a bunch of boys go through football practice.

There was no place she would rather be.

Conner, a Beta Club and Student Council member, has been working as a trainer for the football team since she was a freshman. Actually, her title is videographer and her official job is to film the team’s practices and games and upload it to the team’s Hudl account.

Some days she does other things, though, like help out the athletic trainers.

This week she gave a visitor a ride back to the field house in the Gator utility cart.

“It’s not the typical job you’d think a girl would want to do, but it has to be done and I like doing it,” Conner said. “I just like to help people. I wanted to be involved. I’m not really very athletic, so I just chose to come and help people out. I like to be the backbone.”

Conner is one of several young women who volunteer their time as support staff for the Riverside football team.

Tabitha Tregre, Anne Rome, Alyssa Landry and Emani Murray also spent their last morning of summer freedom sweating in 90-plus degree heat and humidity for several hours.

“I had friends older than me (doing it) and they needed somebody,” Tregre said. “When I get older, I want to go into medicine, dealing with injuries and making sure that the athletes stay to the best of their abilities. So, I said, ‘this could be fun.’ It is fun, actually.”

Just like the boys and the coaches, they get up early and report to practice. Sometimes they report several times a day.

They are responsible for getting the coolers and drink bottles filled and brought out to the field, as well as returned at the end of the day.

Some, like Conner, handle videotaping so coaches and players can watch it later.

Others are learning about sports injuries at the side of Riverside’s athletic trainer, Ryan Trahan.

“I can’t do this job on my own,” said Trahan, who is assigned to the school through an agreement with Thibodaux Regional Medical Center. “As far as our practices are concerned, they handle a lot of the day-to-day things, the coolers, the water bottles, a lot of our equipment. They handle the bulk of it, which allows me to deal with the injuries, the prevention and those types of things that are necessary. After practice, they bring it in, they clean it up, they pick it up, they help me with ice bags and things like that.”

Trahan said the team counts on them.

“It’s definitely a responsibility thing,” Trahan said. “They’re just like the players. They’re asked to come out here and give their time. Just like the players, it’s not when I feel like it or when I have the time. This is a commitment. They are considered part of this team. You look at the roster and their names are on it, as well. We can’t do this without them.”

Conner said she originally wanted to be an athletic trainer, but there was no open spot. There was an opening for a filmer, though.

“I started doing that and I just loved it,” she said.

Conner hopes the job will help her with her people skills. She wants to be a pediatrician someday.

“Being back here helps me deal with people,” she said. “It gives me those social skills. I’m an only child so I don’t really have the best social skills. It gives me that sense of, do I really want to deal with this for the rest of my life? And I do. I like it.”

The ladies say the best part of the job are Friday nights, being on the sideline and close to the action.

The toughest part of the job isn’t the heat or the humidity. It isn’t even the smell a bunch of sweaty people emanates. It’s the losses.

“You grow kind of closer with the boys,” Conner said. “They become like your brothers so, you want them to go out and win. When they lose, we feel it too.”