From Donegal to the Dugout: Rachel Boner’s unlikely journey to the Boston Red Sox

Rachel Boner never really saw this coming. If you’d told her a few years ago that she’d be based in Florida, working with the Boston Red Sox, she might have laughed.   

But here she is, in the thick of it, tending to the injuries of a bunch of young lads trying to break into Major League Baseball. A long way from Burtonport. A long way from home.  

After an incredible journey that began with the PBATS International Internship Program, Boner is set to begin her career as an Assistant Athletic Trainer with the Boston Red Sox organisation.  

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“The way baseball works is they have the Major League and then they have the minor affiliate, which is a complex team based in either Arizona or Florida,” she says.   

“So, I’ll be working with the Florida team for the season. We get a lot of younger players, new drafts, a lot coming from South America who are trying to make it in baseball. The main focus down here is on player development and the aim is that the players try to rise through the ranks and get to the Major League.”  

The journey to get here has been, in every sense, a leap into the unknown.   

Boner had always been into sport and science. A curiosity about how the body worked and how it could be fixed when it broke down.   

While she initially considered physiotherapy, she landed on Athletic Therapy as a career path, studying at TUS Athlone, but never imagined it would take her into baseball.   

Athletic training in Ireland is still developing and not widely recognised, making it difficult to find professional opportunities in elite sports. This led Boner to explore options beyond her home country, ultimately discovering a unique opportunity in the US.  

By the time she was in her third year, she was on a plane to Arizona for a six-week internship.  

Boner spent her internship in Peoria, Arizona, with the Seattle Mariners organisation, diving into an entirely new athletic environment.  

“Three of us got sent to America for a six-week internship two years ago, and we got to experience working as ATs doing treatment, rehab, and exercises with all the players in Arizona.   

“The person leading the internship was mad keen to get more Irish people over here in the hope that it would spread baseball outside the US. They were happy enough with how I was doing, and, in the end, they offered me a job.”  

Now she’s in Fort Myers, deep in the madness of Spring Training in Florida.   

“At the minute, Spring Training is known for being absolutely crazy because there’s so many people down here,” she says.   

“Jobs can alternate all the time – setting up the field in the morning, making sure there’s enough water and medical kits. We usually start at 7am for a meeting and run through how every player is doing and what needs to be looked at.”  

And then it’s all go. Some players come in for treatment, others need injury prevention work. There are a few hours of field coverage, watching for knocks and strains and dealing with whatever crops up in the moment.   

The day ends with players coming in for recovery work and checking on their rehab progress. There are games most days, so the athletic training staff rotates between watching them and staying back at the complex.  

“It’s absolutely crazy how professional this place is, but it’s so good. The amount of work and effort and care that is put into looking after the players is just amazing. It’s something else.”  

From school on Arranmore Island to working with the Naomh Muire ladies’ team and Gaoth Dobhair senior men, from treating hamstrings in the rain in Donegal to tending to the shoulders of pitchers with 95mph fastballs, Boner has covered some ground.   

“I think coming from Cloughglass in Burtonport, I don’t think I expected to now be out in Florida doing what I’m doing,” she says. “It’s weird, I haven’t gotten too much time to be thinking about home yet because I’ve just been that busy with work.”  

And that’s probably just as well. The work is good. The next step? Who knows? But she’s here. And that’s all that matters for now.