Motivation Like Nothing Else

Athletic trainers for separate school districts, Stephanie and Forestt Bridges have gone many neat places and met awesome people

by LISA PORTERFIELD THOMPSON

photo by ALAMOND PHOTOGRAPHY

Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Stephanie and Forestt’s wedding plans were altered a bit but they tied the knot before immediate family members on May 30, 2020, in their front yard. (Photo by Cason Spinks)

Stephanie and Forestt Bridges moved to Texarkana for their jobs a few years ago; both are athletic trainers at separate school districts in the Texarkana region, and even though they had no prior ties to the area, they’re enjoying all Northeast Texas has to offer. 

“Texarkana is perfectly placed between our two hometowns [Hot Springs, Arkansas, for Forestt, and Paris, Texas, for Stephanie], so our families can come see us, and it’s not totally exhausting to go see them during the busy times of the year,” Stephanie said. “When we lived further South, we didn’t see our families much because Athletic Training is an incredibly busy job.” 

The couple met when they were neighbors at the same apartment complex, and hung out as friends for a while, but they quickly discovered that Forestt was teaching in Stephanie’s major so dating was prohibited.  “We officially started dating the summer Steph graduated from college,” Forestt said. “The first three years we were together, we lived in separate towns. We lived a couple hours apart, and it took us three years of long-distance dating to figure out how to make the distance dating thing work.

“Our only night off during the week was Wednesday,” he said, “so we used to drive toward each other and meet halfway at the Whataburger in Mt. Enterprise to have a date night. We used to get food and watch Netflix for an hour or two each week.” 

The Bridges with their nephew, Jax, on the sidelines at AT&T Stadium after the Pleasant Grove Hawks won the 4A-Division II State Championship football game last year.

The couple saw each other every Wednesday night that entire school year.  After pulling off the long-distance dating, the couple decided to make a more serious commitment to their relationship and began to look for jobs in the same town. They knew they did not want to work for the same school district. 

“This proved to be pretty difficult, since we weren’t willing to move to a big city,” Stephanie said. “Forestt got a call from Dr. Trey Mitchell, who had been a team doctor at Henderson State University while Forestt was in college, and he gave him a heads up that Texas High had a job opening.” 

Dr. Mitchell knew the two were looking for athletic training jobs because he had performed a surgery on Stephanie’s shoulder earlier in the year, and recognized Forestt in pre-op.  After Forestt applied for the job at Texas High, Stephanie found a job opening for a health science teacher at Pleasant Grove ISD. While in her interview, she asked about doing athletic training, in addition to teaching. She was immediately introduced to Athletic Director Josh Gibson, who agreed the school needed a staff member on campus daily for treatment and injury prevention. Within the week, both were offered jobs in Texarkana. 

“We felt very fortunate to find two jobs to suit us in Texarkana, because the town is perfectly placed between our hometowns and isn’t big city life,” Stephanie said. “We had been in Texarkana for three years when Forestt proposed. He planned the surprise, and it was very sweet—we had his assistant, Hannah, and a graduated athlete over for dinner one night before football season made our lives incredibly busy. I thought it was a typical back-to-school dinner.”

Athletic trainers from several area school districts come together to work as a team during the Gladewater Round Up Rodeo. Working the 2019 rodeo were: Doug Ollie (who works for Justin Sports Medicine and PBR full-time), Mandy Bibb (athletic trainer for Union Grove ISD), Stephanie, Forestt, Brandon Mayers (athletic training student at Howard College), and Red Ganus (athletic trainer at Kilgore High School).

Forestt lured Stephanie to the back porch under the guise of playing a joke on their friend, and Forestt asked her to marry him. In true Stephanie fashion, she thought it was a prank, and pushed him away. Amid laughter, she agreed to marry him, and the planning began. 

“We started planning the wedding and realized quickly that there are only three weeks a year that we’re both off work without sports coverage, pending baseball playoff runs,” Forestt said. “We needed to strategically plan the wedding timing, and chose May 30, because it was at least after classes, and the school year had ended.” 

During the Bridges family’s annual crawfish boil in Cabot, Arkansas, Stephanie and Forestt visit with his parents, Bill and Romosha.

Of course, the couple’s plans were altered because of the pandemic.  “COVID-19 created a ton of issues and obstacles,” Stephanie said. “We just rolled with the punches and changed and sacrificed some of the things we originally planned. We originally had planned to invite about 250 people but decided we didn’t want our wedding to cause the spread of COVID-19 so we just had the wedding party and our immediate family there. We decided to move the wedding to our front yard since we couldn’t have many people and save our venue for a later date to have a reception with all of our friends and family when things are safer for everyone.” 

The couple is looking forward to this upcoming school year.  “We are excited to get back to our students and see our athletes succeed on the field,” Forestt said. “We both really like helping people.  When a kid or a parent tells you how much they appreciate you helping them get back to their sport, it gives you motivation like nothing else does.” 

The Bridges’ days at work are filled with many responsibilities, both in the classroom and on the field. They’ve both been working in their respective district for the past four years.  “We both have to be at work about an hour before classes to do morning treatments on student athletes before they go to class,” Stephanie said. “We both cover the athletics practices/class periods throughout the day. Forestt teaches up to four levels of sports medicine classes, while I teach sports medicine and health science, and career technology classes including Phlebotomy and EKG Tech. Then we either have practices to cover after school or games, usually until 6:30 p.m. or so every night except Wednesday. During football season, we have Saturday morning treatments as well.” 

The Bridges devote a lot of time to making sure their student athletes are cared for, and their work is a priority. But, they also make some time to relax and enjoy life.  “With the very limited amount of free time we have, we both shoot competitive archery, hunt, fish, scuba dive, and love spending time with family and friends,” Stephanie said. “Normal newlyweds would say they plan to buy a house, or start a family, but we aren’t normal. We have already bought the house, and we don’t plan to have children.” 

Stephanie and Forestt standing at home plate at Texas Rangers Stadium during an athletic training conference in July 2019.

“Athletic training has opened opportunities for us to go to some very cool places, and meet some awesome people,” the Bridges agreed. “We have been able to access several professional playing fields and courts, like the time Forestt threw a pitch in the bullpen at Minute Maid Park, or when Stephanie shot a free throw on the rehab court in the Houston Rockets Athletic Training Room. It’s a new experience to high five the whole Houston Dynamo team, or have the highest paid bronc rider in the world thank you for stretching him. It’s fun to be watching a professional event and be able to say, ‘I know them.’”