Some might have recognized the same face on the sidelines of California football games and other sporting events at the high school. That face would belong to athletics trainer Scott Schlueter who’s been working with California athletics for the past two years.
Schlueter is a Jefferson City native, graduate of Helias High School and an athletics trainer with Capital Region Medical Center, which is contracted by California schools. He graduated from Lindenwood University in Saint Charles, Mo., and has six years of experience with Capital Region and working with area high schools.
“In order to become an athletic trainer, you must go to an accredited university that has an athletic training program,” Schlueter said. “They are a four year program with a bachelors of science, specializing in athletic training.”
His decision to become an athletics trainer was pretty simple to figure out for himself. It boiled down to his interests in the two fields.
“All my life I’ve been involved with playing sports, and as I got older, I knew I wanted to do something related with the medical field as well,” he said. “Athletic training just fit that bill with the sports and medicine.”
While at Lindenwood, he had to complete internships to get experience, and why not do that right across the Missouri River in Earth City, Mo., home of the St. Louis Rams football facility. Schlueter worked with the team’s sports management department during the two-a-days of training camp, then continued with the Rams throughout the season for their home games.
This is his sixth year working for Capital Region and area schools as an athletic trainer.
Schlueter’s job on the sidelines requires a strict protocol. As he gets to the injured athlete, the first job is to find out if it’s life-threatening. After he figures out it’s not, he has to assess which body part it is. There are certain test to identify what type of injury, and if he knows he can safely move the injured player to the sidelines, he can take further examination from there.
What’s the worst injury Schlueter has seen and have had to deal with? A dislocated elbow that happened earlier this season.
“Really in that situation, your instincts with your training just kind of kick in,” Schlueter said. “You don’t even think about it, you just go to work and help the athletes out.
“We brought him to the sideline and with that type of injury and the swelling, I immediately knew that we were going to take him to the ER to get x-rays and further examination,” Schlueter said. “I knew something was significantly wrong and there wasn’t much help I could give him other then send him to get other help.”
What he wanted to stress about another part of his job is prevention of injury, and that’s an area that most don’t see on the sidelines. Schlueter takes pride in injury prevention with exercises the athlete can do, which he calls “the ultimate goal”.
Schlueter has a challenging job keeping up with all of the athletes and their injuries throughout the year. From doctors visits to what the player and parents are telling him, documentation is his biggest aid. Obviously the process is a lot easier when he can work with Capital Region physicians.
“Ultimately, the parents can choose where they want to take their child,” Schlueter said. “A lot of it might be dictated by their insurance for that child. I’m always working closely with our Capital Region physicians, so I always recommend a physician here or there.”
ORIGINAL ARTICLE:
http://www.californiademocrat.com/news/2015/oct/21/athletics-trainer-takes-care-injuries-and-prevents/