Six Kilgore High School student-athletes graduated with scholarship offers to continue their playing careers, and athletic trainers are some of the key behind-the-scenes people contributing to their successes.
It is the kind of job, athletic trainer and KHS health science teacher Cheyenne Kirkpatrick said, where it is a good thing to not be recognized.
“There’s more good stories now of the athletic trainer was there and did CPR and saved their life or they got a concussion and they kept them off the field, so it never grew into that huge story of this player died from whatever,” she said. “You stay that behind-the-scenes hero that your coaches and players know about but most of the people don’t see or realize.”
The thanks comes from seeing the players get better and return to playing, KHS athletic trainer and teacher La’Tamera Fry said.
“It’s a fun career, sometimes a stressful career, but a very rewarding career also,” Kirkpatrick said. “You get to know that when that athlete goes through some of their lowest times after suffering a big injury they want to be back on the field, you help them rehab and get stronger and get back out there and they’re doing the game they love, helping the team win, back and successful, that you played a part in that.”
When describing the job, Kirkpatrick quoted head athletic trainer Darrell “Red” Ganus calling it an “iceberg career” where people only see about 10 percent of what they do.
“It’s kind of the care and prevention and rehab of athletic injuries, but that’s just a little bitty component,” she explained. “You see the athletic trainers and the student athletic trainers giving them water on the sidelines and a Band- Aid covering up an injury. They’re the ones that set up the water on both sides before the game; they’re the ones that after the game have to clean all that up. Sometimes it’s equipment: Is a helmet fitting right? Is there a screw loose? You’ve got to find that and tell the equipment manager we need something fixed there. Sometimes you’re playing counselor or psychologist in the training room whenever the kids just need a listening ear.”
The job includes making sure all the supplies are in stock and ready at a moment’s notice and sometimes working with coaches to create strength and conditioning workouts based on what muscles need to be targeted based on where players are getting injured more frequently.
“Sometimes you’re kind of the nutritionist,” she added. “Is everybody eating what they’re supposed to? Are they staying hydrated enough doing the weight charts? Are they losing a lot of water weight during two-a-days? Maybe this kid comes back and they’ve lost five pounds in water weight, well we’re going to pull them out of practice, and it’s hard but we don’t want you passing out on the field.”
Another aspect of the job is the paperwork with insurance, doctor’s appointments and physical therapists. Then, there is the actual evaluation of the injuries.
“You’re never really off duty,” Kirkpatrick, who also serves as head softball coach, said. “I remember whenever I was little, Red being at the little league softball fields and somebody would get hurt or you need something, he has his kit in his car. You always have some tape with you; you’re always watching the weather… You’ve got to be that weather man too. They’re normally the first ones there and the last ones to leave. You think coaches work long hours, the athletic trainers are normally here more.”
The jobs available to athletic trainers have grown beyond just sports settings, Fry said. Now, fire departments, police departments, circuses, rodeo organizations and some employers hire trainers to help prevent injuries and to rehabilitate personnel if an injury were to happen.
At KHS the trainers also double as teachers to provide instruction through athletic training classes. During the 2015-2016 school year, Fry said, there were 10 in the two classes.
“They know how to tape, your basic first aid at least, so that helps with all that chaos sometimes, especially on football sidelines,” Kirkpatrick said.
While athletic training classes are established at KHS – Fry was a student in the program – and students have gone gotten to help the professional trainers on the sidelines, students now have another introduction to the sports medicine career, along with other medical fields.
After receiving a grant, three years worth of discussions to get new health science lab equipment became reality. Kirkpatrick received the nine new lab stations – out of a possible 17 available – in her health science classroom during the spring semester, giving students a chance to learn about medical fields from dentistry to sports medicine and pharmacology.
“It just generates more thought,” she said. “You can talk about things, but until you can actually do them, they don’t really understand, so it just makes everything sink in that much more.”
The students get right to work at their stations when they enter the classroom, she said. At the pharmacology station students crushed up Vitamin C and mixed it with syrup to create their own cough syrup. Then, in the sports medicine unit, they learned how to strap a person to a backboard to transport following a back, neck or head injury.
“They’re engaged in everything they’re doing,” Kirkpatrick added.
Some of the labs help solidify students’ passion for a specific area, while others can steer students away from one area.
Some, though, help introduce students to and explain a career path they never considered, such as biomedical engineering. Most students did not know about the career field but learn through the lab it deals with creating and fitting prosthetics for people.
Kirkpatrick’s students spoke to eighth graders earlier in the year to explain what classes are available to them as they get ready to begin high school. One of her students gave a presentation of how to perform the Heimlich maneuver. The next day, she said, one of those eighth graders executed what she had just learned to get a peppermint out of her cousin’s throat and save the child’s life.
“It was from one of my students explaining to their class how to do that,” Kirkpatrick said.