Athletic trainer Dawn Kurihara chats with John Wallwork while taping up his ankle at BYUH. Photo by Craig T. Kojima, Star-Bulletin

Dawn Kurihara was your classic underachiever. She didn't care - and didn't think she ever would care - if she graduated from high school.

"I cut classes left and right," said Kurihara. "I had a bad attitude, and I didn't like authority one bit. I was a big-time tita. I'd forge passes and make excuses to get out of class."

She lived a charmed life.

"I got away with it," she said. "A lot of my friends got busted, but I never did."

Kurihara told her parents when she was in the eighth grade that she was never going to college. That seems like a long time ago.

Now 39, Kurihara is preparing to participate in the 100th Summer Olympics as a nationally certified athletic trainer for the U.S. fencing squad of six men and six women.

As for college, she attended Brigham Young University-Hawaii and received a secondary school physical education teaching degree. After that, she went to Cannon Business College and obtained a computer programming degree before deciding to go back to BYUH to pursue a masters degree in athletic training.

She is now the head athletic trainer and an assistant professor in her field at BYUH.

Sports, she figured, was a natural field for a woman raised in a family of athletes. And after the Olympics, Kurihara said, she might even pursue her doctorate in sports psychology.

Now the former tita, who used to occupy herself with devising ways to get out of responsibilities at school, is spending her time getting set for the biggest responsibility of her life.

She knows that she will be counted upon as a factor in the U.S. fencing team's medal fortunes in Atlanta. There is a lot to know about the sport, but Kurihara said she had some contact with the U.S. and Canadian teams when they passed through here en route to Seoul in 1984.

"I've also talked with trainers who handled fencing," she said.

Kurihara said fencing injuries she can anticipate treating usually involve the shoulders, ankles, groin and hamstring. "It has a lot to do with the position of the arm as they hold their weapon - always at a 90-degree angle to the body," she said.

Kurihara said she'll approach her athletes with sensitivity during competition and never do anything to break their intense concentration in competition.

"The more you know an athlete, the better. You see how the little things you say affect them and the timing," she said.

Kurihara has handled a variety of U.S. team assignments as a nationally accredited trainer, including swimming, gymnastics, water polo and ice hockey.

Kurihara said the joy of being a trainer is seeing an athlete she cares about succeed. "Watching them achieve is what's all about," she said.

If they get a medal, Kurihara said she'll feel a part of the victory. "I would shed a tear, because that type of thing really hits the spot for me."

Age: 39
Education: Aiea High School, Brigham Young University-Hawaii, Cannon Business College.
Olympics: Her first trip.
National: 1994 U.S. junior hockey team selection tournament; 1995 U.S. Olympic Festival.
International: 1990 World Swimming Championships (Australia); 1990-96, trainer for U.S. junior women's water polo team (England, Holland, Germany, Turkey, Brazil, Cuba, Canada); 1991 Junior Girls' World Softball Championships (Australia).