Shelbie Harris
Staff Writer
If choosing to teach at Idaho State University over her hometown university of Boise State, coordinating the Bengal Triathlon which is now the largest sprint triathlon in the state of Idaho or owning not one but two tee-fetchin’ border collies doesn’t prove that Caroline “Smitty” Faure bleeds orange and black, it’s difficult to determine what might.
For Faure, who is an associate professor in the Department of Sport Science and Physical Education as well as the founder and director of the Center for Sports Concussion at ISU, choosing to teach at ISU came with no sweat to her psyche.
“I am a Bengal through and through,” said Faure. “I completed my undergraduate work here, I did all my graduate work here including both my master’s and my doctoral degree[s], and there’s nowhere I wanted to work more than ISU. I just love this place.”
A Boise native, Faure completed all of her primary education in her hometown before going on to play basketball at the College of Southern Idaho.
She then transferred to the College of Idaho on a soccer scholarship but said she didn’t enjoy it as much as she anticipated and it felt right to come to Pocatello and attend ISU.
After completing her undergraduate degree in mass communication, Faure worked in television for nine years as a sports reporter and sports director for KPVI, as well as working with ABC Sports.
“I knew I wanted to stay in Pocatello and the job in television really wanted me to go somewhere else,” said Faure. “I had some offers in much larger markets and after accepting one of them I realized I wasn’t happy after about three months.”
She said the timing and offer didn’t seem right. That, along with the fact she met Brett Faure, who is now her husband, contributed to her decision to remain in Pocatello.
Faure transitioned out of the television market and decided teaching was the right career choice for her to make.
After teaching at Grace Lutheran School and Highland High School, she decided to take it one step further and teach at the collegiate level.
“This was the perfect fit for me. I was very fortunate that a job opened up [at ISU] right after I finished my doctoral degree,” said Faure. “It was a real strong decision for me to come back to ISU.”
In addition to teaching at ISU, Faure is also an athletic trainer specializing in working with athletes who have suffered injuries while also being an advocate for safety in sports, especially for kids.
Faure said her job at ISU gives her the best of both worlds. It allows her to teach those individuals who are going to be working with athletes someday to remain involved with youth athletes, and also allows her to go to work every day and talk about sports.
“I can’t imagine that anybody has a better job than me,” said Faure. “I get to do this every single day and I’m sure every professor thinks this, but I have the most amazing students that are on this campus.”
Supplemental to her teaching, Faure is extremely passionate regarding her research endeavors with a major focus involving concussion research.
She recently conducted a study which found that although 97.5 percent of participants wore helmets that required weekly inflation of interior bladder systems, more than 40 percent admitted to never inflating the bladders throughout a 12 to 16 week 2013 football season.
“A lot of my research is really applied ideas. We try to find simple solutions to a common problem,” said Faure. “As a fan, you watch and see helmets pop off during games, or you watch helmets slide around and you think those helmets can’t be protecting those kids.”
Furthermore, Faure’s involvement with the Center for Sports Concussion involved administering roughly 1,400 tests throughout the fall 2014 semester, identifying over 100 concussions in junior high and high school student athletes.
When time allows for a little rest and relaxation, Faure enjoys spending time at her cabin in Island Park, camping and fishing during the summer and snowmobiling during the winter season.
After eclipsing more than 375 students at last year’s Bengal Triathlon, becoming the largest sprint triathlon in the state of Idaho, Faure, who is the event coordinator, said she is extremely pleased with the turnout for the event and believes this year’s event will bring in more than 400 participants.
Faure isn’t known around campus only for her athletic and academic involvement, but also the contributions from her two respected canine companions, Bristol and Pocono, or “Pokie” for short.
The two border collies received their names by inspiration provided by the location of the ESPN headquarters as well as NASCAR racing tracks, another hobby of Faure’s.
Bristol is six-years-old and has been fetching tees after kickoffs for the ISU Bengal Football team for the last four years now, while Pokie, being the up and coming replacement, is only one-year-old and plans to follow in Bristol’s footsteps once the time is right.
“Bristol will still be doing games but we will bring Pokie out here and there, once she loses a little bit of her ADHD,” said Faure.
In addition to loving her profession, both the aspect of teaching and conducting research, Faure also loves the fact that her husband, Brent, who is the director for outreach sports medicine for the Portneuf Medical Center Sports Medicine Institute is also involved in an athletic profession.
Her husband said every night is a date night for them and that if they were too opposite on the spectrum they would never be able to see each other. He added her research has taken his outreach program to a whole new stratosphere, and because of that they are able to stay up to date with current research, especially relating to concussions.
