A Shared Love for Helping Others

Gary and Ash­ley Hack­mann are a mar­ried cou­ple who have ded­i­cat­ed their careers to car­ing for stu­dent-ath­letes and help­ing them stay safe while reach­ing help­ing them reach their full poten­tial. They are both cer­ti­fied ath­let­ic train­ers at Quin­cy Med­ical Group (QMG).

Hav­ing the same career gives them a unique under­stand­ing of one anoth­er. Gary has been with QMG since 2002 and Ash­ley joined five years lat­er in 2007.

The idea of becom­ing an ath­let­ic train­er first piqued Gary’s inter­est in high school after talk­ing to his high school bas­ket­ball coach. For Ash­ley, she was inspired by her expe­ri­ence with a trainer.

“I suf­fered a sig­nif­i­cant knee injury while play­ing bas­ket­ball in high school,” she said. ​“I formed a close bond with my phys­i­cal therapist/​certified ath­let­ic train­er through my rehab process. She’s still a men­tor of mine to this day.

The two met through a mutu­al friend at Tow­er restau­rant in Quin­cy in 2004 and, as they say, the rest is his­to­ry. In June, the cou­ple will cel­e­brate 15 years of mar­riage. Although their sched­ules work­ing as ath­let­ic train­ers can be a bit hec­tic, they have found a bal­ance that works.

“We under­stand each other’s jobs and every­thing unique that comes along with it. We work lots of nights and week­ends. If one of us has a lot of games in a par­tic­u­lar week, the oth­er one of us picks up the slack at home and vice ver­sa,” Ash­ley shared. ​“We often go sev­er­al days in a row with­out hav­ing a true night off togeth­er but it’s just some­thing we accept and under­stand. We don’t har­bor any ill will towards each oth­er about it.”