Kenton’s story begins on a small 30-acre farm in Harrington, Delaware, where hard work was a way of life. At 7, she and her older brother were allocated plots to grow bell peppers and learn life skills. Beyond operating a transplanter, moving irrigation systems under the summer sun and weeding gardens, the children learned finances and had to pay back expenses to their parents.
Both bought their first cars with that pepper money. The same farm-forged discipline would shape her approach to life.
In the athletic world, Kenton was a force. She was one of the first inductees into her high school’s athletic hall of fame, racking up 13 varsity letters across field hockey, swimming, diving, track, cross country and softball. In an era before girls’ wrestling, she practiced with the boys. A brief stint as manager of the wrestling team was cut short by her frustrations of not being able to be on the mat herself.
Yet hidden behind the competitive fire was a shy redhead navigating the world.
“I was so shy,” she said, recalling a revelation years later when she returned to her school as a teacher and athletic trainer. “I realized that in high school, I never looked down the hall with my head up. I looked at the floor. I was trying to hide.”
At 13, JoAnn volunteered as a “candy striper” at the local hospital, initially drawn to nursing. She served in the red-and-white striped attire that gave the volunteers the sweet-inspired nickname, rethinking her direction after watching doctors treat nurses dismissively.
In high school, when an athletic trainer started visiting two days a week, her calling became clear.
“I didn’t even know what an athletic trainer was, but I would see him looking at and treating, taping and bracing injuries. That’s really what started it for me,” she said. “I knew that that was something I wanted to do.”
She went on to earn her undergraduate degree from Wesley College, which has since been acquired by Delaware State University, in Dover, Delaware. Pursuing her athletic training certification through the internship route, she completed 800 hours of hands-on experience, all while attaining her bachelor’s in education.
That led Kenton to WVU for her master’s degree in athletic training, recommended by her undergraduate professor, Barbara Abbott.
As a graduate assistant, she juggled teaching 21 credits per semester while taking 21 credits of her own coursework, a heavy workload that included supporting Kinder Skills classes, programs where 3-to-5-year-olds build motor skills. She even had an office in Elizabeth Moore Hall with a secretary.
“When I was in the midst of it, I said to my parents, ‘If I can do this, I'm going to be able to do anything,’” she said. She wasn’t wrong, but she didn’t know the extent “anything” could end up being.
After graduation, Kenton returned to Delaware at the invitation of another undergraduate mentor. Her time was split between hospital sports medicine work and high school athletic training.
On her first day of meeting the football coaches, there was some trepidation. They’d been hoping for a male athletic trainer. One coach jumped out of his chair. He’d been Kenton’s middle school wrestling coach and PE teacher.
“Guys, we are good. We are so good. This is better than a guy,” he said. She went on to work there for five years. It was the perfect start to her career, until a November night in 2008.
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