The person who runs onto the field when a player goes down, and rehabs them after. A 4-year degree and a national exam.
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What you earn and what it costs to get there.
Typical
$67,000
New grad, clinic or junior team
$46,000
Pro team or clinic owner
$103,000
Job Bank's national median is $32 an hour, about $67,000 a year full time, with a spread of roughly $22 to $50. Clinic jobs pay by the hour or per patient. University and pro team jobs are salaried and can pass the top figure, but there are very few of them.
$22 to $28 an hour
About $46,000 to $58,000 a year full time
Most new grads split time between a clinic and a team contract. Junior hockey and university teams often pay a modest stipend for a lot of evening and weekend hours.
$85,000 to $103,000
Head therapist for a pro or national team, or owning a busy clinic
Pro teams in hockey, football and soccer hire a handful of therapists each. They travel with the team and work almost every day of the season. Clinic owners earn from the business, not just their own hours.
Tuition, fees, exams and kit. Not rent, food or travel
The low end is the four year accredited degree at a cheaper school plus first responder and CPR courses, the national written and practical certification exam, and association fees. The high end is the same degree at around $9,900 a year, which is where the commonly quoted $35,000 to $40,000 tuition total comes from. The placements are the hidden cost but not a money one: hundreds of unpaid hours with teams and in clinics during the degree, taking your evenings and weekends.
Roughly $35,000 to $40,000 in tuition. Comparable to any 4-year degree, with the placements taking your evenings and weekends.
Depends on the employer
Universities and big clinics offer health benefits and sometimes a pension. Team contracts and small clinics often do not.
Travel with the team
Flights, hotels and meals covered on road trips.
Sideline access
You are inside the game, every game.
Extended health coverage for patients
Many insurance plans cover athletic therapy, which keeps clinics busy.
The exact path from high school to qualified.
A specific accredited degree, lots of hours on the sideline, then a national exam.
High school
Grades 11 and 12
Grade 12 English and biology, plus one of physics, chemistry or math. Sheridan asks for at least 65% in each.
Accredited athletic therapy degree
4 to 5 years
Programs accredited by CATA (Canadian Athletic Therapists Association) include Sheridan in Ontario and Concordia in Montreal, with a handful of others in Calgary, Toronto and Winnipeg. Anatomy, injury assessment, taping, emergency care and rehab.
Supervised hours
During the degree
Well over a thousand hours during the degree, split between field work with teams and clinic work with patients. This is where your evenings and weekends go.
First responder certification
Days
You must hold an emergency first responder level certificate, above standard first aid, before the national exam.
National certification exam
After graduation
A written exam and a practical exam run by CATA (Canadian Athletic Therapists Association). Pass both to use the title Certified Athletic Therapist.
Biology
Required. Anatomy is the foundation.
Physical education and exercise science
Physics
Biomechanics: how forces injure joints.
English
Charting and talking to athletes, coaches and parents.
No province has a legal licence for athletic therapists, so the national certification from CATA (Canadian Athletic Therapists Association) is the standard. Only certified members can use the Certified Athletic Therapist title, and teams, universities and insurers ask for it. Because it is national, it moves with you across Canada. Athletic therapists are not physiotherapists: physio is a regulated profession with a master's degree, and the two often work side by side in the same clinic.
Things you don't need, but that help.
Pro and national team work
Rare and competitive. Usually reached through years with junior and university teams.
Concussion management
Extra courses in assessment and return-to-play. Every team needs it now.
Strength and conditioning
A second certification lets you run the team's training as well as its rehab.
Clinic ownership
The main way to grow income beyond an hourly rate.
Bridging to physiotherapy
Some therapists go on to a physio master's for the regulated title and higher pay.
Playing experience
Coaches and athletes trust someone who knows the sport.
Volunteer hours with a team in high school
Being the student trainer for your school team is the classic start.
Comfort with blood and emergencies
You are the first responder when a neck or head injury happens.
A driver's licence
Team buses, away games, clinic to field.
Day to day, pros and cons, where you'd work.
Clinic in the morning: assessing a sprained ankle, guiding a knee rehab, treating a shoulder with hands-on work and exercises. Then to the arena or field by late afternoon. Pre-game is taping, warm-up and checking on injured players. During the game you watch every collision and run out when someone stays down. After the game, ice, assessments and a report to the coach on who can play next week. Home late. Weekends are tournament days.
The good
The hard parts
Like the field but not this exact job?
Things people don't tell you.
When a hockey player goes down and stays down, the person who jumps over the boards first is almost always the team's athletic therapist, not a doctor. They are trained to stabilize a neck or spine before anyone moves the player.
Students spend hours learning to tape ankles, wrists and thumbs so the joint is supported but the athlete can still move. An experienced therapist can tape an ankle in about a minute, and does it dozens of times before a game.
Athletic therapy is not covered by provincial health plans, but many workplace and student insurance plans cover it directly. Clinics treat weekend warriors and desk workers as often as elite athletes.
Last checked September 2026. Pay figures are typical full-time annual amounts in Canadian dollars, based on Government of Canada Job Bank wage data and published salary grids. They vary by province, employer and experience. Tuition is for domestic students.