Steelers Trainer Ariko Iso Leaving For Oregon State

Ariko Iso, an NFL trailblazer as a female athletic trainer with the Steelers, has left the post to become head football athletic trainer at her alma mater, Oregon State University.

“Oregon State is where I started my athletic training education, and I’m looking forward to returning to the beautiful campus after being away for 15 years. I have many fond memories of Corvallis as a student and I’m ready to make more,” Iso said in an Oregon State press release. Iso had been an assistant with Steelers since 2002 as the NFL’s first and only woman athletic trainer. She had previously been head football athletic trainer at Portland State for five years.

“I have been blessed throughout my life with my career path working with so many great mentors,” says Iso, who worked in Pittsburgh with head athletic trainer John Norwig and assistant Ryan Grove. “… I leave a lot of great friendships behind, but I’m anxious for the new path that lies ahead and to make an impact by being a part of the progress of Oregon State’s student-athletes.”

Iso was inspired to pursue athletic training as a career when she sustained a knee injury as a 14-year-old basketball player in her native Japan and began a long rehabilitation. She graduated from Oregon State with a bachelor’s of science degree in health and human performance in 1993 and earned a master’s of art in physical education from San Jose State University in 1995.