The Inside Track takes a closer look at the names and faces behind Racing Louisville — from technical staff to the supporting cast running our city’s top-tier professional women’s soccer club. Click here to read other editions.
Helping people has always mattered to Michaela Clay.
So it comes as no surprise that athletic training became her career path. Since March 2025, Clay has served as an athletic trainer for Racing Louisville FC, acting as a key point person for the players’ general health.
For Clay, the role at Racing carries extra meaning — she’s a native Louisvillian, like a few other members of the club’s support staff, including player care coordinator Lilly Andres and assistant coach Kiley Polk. Add to that the fact that before joining Racing, Clay worked as an athletic trainer at the University of Louisville — her alma mater — with the school’s swim and dive team for just over two-and-a-half years.
“I always wanted to work in more of a service discipline, I would say,” said Clay. “So I knew I wanted to help people. Growing up, if a family member went to the hospital, I was always kind of there watching.
“… [Athletic training] felt like a good way to marry my love for sport and helping people. I think that’s a traditional standpoint that most athletic trainers have.”
As an athletic trainer at the club, a lot of what Clay does is behind the scenes. To put it simply: she is the liaison between the player and the physician. One of her main tasks is tracking player health and performance changes — in addition to what many fans may see: running onto the pitch to quickly evaluate a situation, a skill Clay says is built over time.
“It’s been a lot of fun,” Clay said when reflecting on her time at the club to date. “I also say the biggest jump from college is that everything is more so under a microscope. Details are always important, but big details are looked at a little bit differently at this level. I’m definitely more into looking at volume.
“… It’s all more in-depth. Working more so with the performance team has been great. [We were] a little more siloed at the colleges I was at before. … There’s somebody for every department [that] we have here.”
The opportunity with Racing seemed like a new challenge that Clay was fully prepared to take on after years working in the collegiate game. After earning a bachelor’s in exercise science and sports administration from UofL and a master’s in athletic training from Spalding University, Clay gained experience at several Kentucky-based colleges.
Clay’s early time as a certified athletic trainer, which began at Northern Kentucky University, was unlike many people’s introduction into the industry. Due to COVID-19, her first year was cut short, while her second was all about COVID return-to-play — a period of time she believes really changed the way athletic trainers had to function within a team.
She moved from cross country and track and field at NKU to the same sports at Western Kentucky University, before returning to Louisville to work at Bellarmine University with men’s soccer, softball and wrestling.
That journey eventually led her back to UofL, and now into professional sports with Racing, where she has grown into a dependable fixture of the support staff.
“From the moment I got here, Michaela has been so welcoming and has helped make my transition smooth,” said Racing’s new head athletic trainer Summer Jones, who joined the club full-time in July. “She is an incredibly hard worker, reliable, and has an acerbic wit that keeps everyone laughing. She is just a great person to have around the training room.”
Clay, following many years in college athletics, has developed a clear sense of what sets professionals apart.
“Especially at this level, professional athletes know their body the best,” Clay said. “They can usually tell you when they’re not feeling fully recovered, what their normal sleep ranges are [and] their medical history, way more so than a college athlete. Being able to listen and really depend on the voice that they’re giving you about what’s going on [is critical].”
Working in sports demands long hours away and constant attention to detail. But for Clay, that’s part of what she loves about it — the collaboration and relationships built along the way have made her time at the club all the more meaningful, a daily reminder that the work, at its core, is still about people.
