Mr. Lap Hands Off Athletic Trainer Position

Mr. Lap Hands Off Athletic Trainer Position

Jason Ortiz, Writer

Taking Mr. Lap’s place as athletic trainer is Mr. Liam Korbul.  Since Korbul was hired as a full time employee and under the teacher contract, his hours and role as the athletic trainer are slightly different than in the past. 

Since his schedule is different we were unable to sit down to talk with Mr. Korbul in person but he did answer a few of our questions. 

Mr. Korbul was an Athletic trainer before at Delaware Valley Regional High School in Frenchtown, New Jersey and also at William Allen High School in Allentown, Pennsylvania. He went to Ithaca College for his undergraduate degree and was also on the varsity wrestling team. For his masters degree in athletic training he went to Temple University. 

He graduated from North Hunterdon High School in Annandale, New Jersey. When asked how it was adjusting to the High School sports schedule, Mr. Korbul said that it wasn’t very hard for him as he was a 3 sport athlete before back in high school and a college athlete so he was used to the late nights and weekends involved with sports. He also had two clinical rotations in the high school setting as a graduate student which had helped him prepare for the schedule changes. 

For Mr. Lap, we had asked him questions regarding his stepping down from the athletic trainer position. We had asked him how he was feeling about having much more time to himself and he said that it felt really good to be able to leave before 2:30 as this was the first time he had been able to do so. When asked why he decided to step down from the athletic trainer position, Mr. Lap had said that he had been an athletic trainer for 37 years at Audubon and a total of over 40 for his whole career. He believes that the end of his career is coming soon so he wants to wind down a bit for retirement. 

Before coming to Audubon Mr. Lap spent 4 years at Rancocas Valley originally as a part time athletic trainer, substitute teacher, and ran the weight room during the summer. After a couple of years he was hired as a full time athletic trainer which required him to teach 3 classes and oversee the weight room. Unfortunately, he wasn’t making what a 1st year teacher was making, despite being an 11 month employee with 2 certifications. A former Rancocas Valley coach who joined Audubon to be the boys basketball coach told him about the opening for the athletic trainer/teacher position at Audubon which he took.

While in college Mr. Lapp had never expected to become a teacher much less work at the high school level but he has enjoyed his time with us at Audubon and will miss the kids and all the other interactions. He believes that the transition has worked great and Mr. Korbul has been doing an amazing job as the new athletic trainer.