Empowered Women Series: Flecicia Heise

Mrs. Flecicia. Mom. Mama Flecicia. Flecicia. Call her what you want, she answers them all. Flecicia Heise has been the athletic trainer at Palomar for almost three decades. She's been given a lot of names during that time and it is truly a reflection of who she is as a person.

When she first began in 1993, she was approached by a female coach who asked her about her intention with the athletes. Was she going to treat the female athletes as well or was she just there to treat football players the coach wanted to know?

Heise's answer?

"I was thrown back by that because I've always taken care of the athletes," Heise said. "I wanted to make sure that every athlete was treated with the utmost respect. It didn't matter what sport they play. It didn't matter what position they played. It didn't matter if they play or don't play. They're all treated the same."

While her title is Head Athletic Trainer, Certified, what she does goes beyond her job description. She treats all types of injuries from simple cuts to broken bones and torn ACLs to concussions. And while she is good at what she does, it's what she really does for the athletes who come to her in time of need that has a lasting impact.

Her training room is not only a place where athletes come in to treat their injuries, it is also a sanctuary where they open up in front of her about the struggles they have faced or are currently facing, especially for those athletes who come from a different state.

She takes on a mother role for a lot of athletes and any time an athlete is sent to the hospital, whether athletics-related or not and she knows they're there, she visits them and makes sure they are being taken care of. She also makes sure the athletes who are homeless have the right resources they need to help with housing and where to find new, clean clothes.

One of the things she loves the most about her job is the relationships she has built over the years. Heise still talks to athletes who played at Palomar years ago and that's what she loves social media. 

"I see them growing. They have families, their kids are growing," Heise said. "And I always say that once those kids come to Palomar I'm going to be gone. I haven't had any kids yet, but I'm getting close."

When she was younger, Heise and her sister wanted to be in a band. She wanted drum sticks. One night her parents took them out to dinner at a nice restaurant and gave them boxes for them to open. 

"My mom and dad pulled out these boxes for my sister and I and they were both the same size and we kind of looked at each other and I'm sure we're both thinking the same thing," Heise said. "'How are drumsticks going to fit inside this little box?' And we open them up and it was actually softball gloves."

Her mom and dad were so excited they had signed the girls up for Bobby Socks and they were going to be the coaches of the team and that next week was Hat Night so they got to find out who was going to be on their team and who they would be playing against.

"I just kept thinking where is the drum set," Heise said. "And then it clicked that I'm not getting a drum set."

Every day Heise would practice fielding balls, hitting, and pitching for hours and on Sunday's she would pitch for three hours because her dad told her that everyone should know how to pitch. She played on multiple travel softball teams at a time and continued to play in high school. Heise was recruited to several NCAA Division I schools, but she was having shoulder problems. 

By her freshman year of college, she already had two shoulder surgeries. That's when she decided to stop playing because she wanted to be able to lift her arm above her head when she was in her 30s. 

"My first time in rehab I was given a sheet of paper and told to do all the exercises on the paper and when I was done to come back and get an ice pack from the freezer," Heise said. "I didn't know I wasn't supposed to do half the things that were on that sheet."

Heise ended up tearing the stitches so her rehab process was much longer, but she came back and continued to play softball. After a year she decided to stop playing.

Her second time in therapy she went to ACIC Physical Therapy in Irvine and had a much better experience. While there, everything piqued her interest. 

"I kept asking questions and my physical therapist kept telling me to shut up and focus on my rehab," Heise said. "Eventually he ended up offering me a job there and I worked there as an aide for about six, seven months."

She was offered the head coaching position at her old high school for the softball program. The same day she was offered a position at El Toro High School to be their athletic trainer.

"I thought to myself, I've never done that before," Heise said. "I've done the coaching for softball, so I chose athletic training and I've never looked back."

Heise continued to work at the clinic and had her own patients. She would utilize the skill set she learned in the physical therapy clinic at the high school and vice versa. While at the clinic she met Alison Aubert, someone who she looked up to and wanted to be. Aubert eventually left the clinic and became an athletic trainer at a community college in Northern California.

After Heise got married she moved to Escondido and she remembers driving past Palomar on the freeway and asking her new husband what that place was.

"I said, 'What's that P over there?' And he said, 'Oh that's for Palomar. There's a community college over there.'" Heise said. "And I asked, 'Do they have sports?' And he said yes and I go, 'Okay, well I have to keep an eye on that because I'll probably work there one day.'"

When the position finally opened up, Heise was working at Grossmont Hospital with injured workers. She hated that job. That's when Aubert called her.

"When the job at Palomar opened up she was the first one to call me and tell me that I better apply for that job," Heise said.

Almost 30 years later, Heise still loves what she does and she never says she's going to work.

"Every day I get up, I always say, I'm going to school, not work," Heise said."My dad's walks taught me to learn something new every day. Never be too proud of who you learned it from. Always be open to that."