West Virginia High School Student Aides Put Athletic Training Lessons to Use

While most will be focusing on the game, a group of young women will be on the field, ready to help atheles right away.

Steven Lough joined the Ripley Vikings ten years ago and established the school’s athletic program in 2010.

He said students learn hard work and determination

“The ability to go place to place ability to change time frames to work extra hours. Some coaches will say we start at 3 o’clock and will be done by 9 o’clock,” Loug said.

Lough said many students are athletes and have to complete hours outside of their own practice, like Laurel Miller, who is also a cross country runner.

To him, the five seniors taking the course this year stand out,

but the class can be intimidating.

“I think the most intimidating is seeing an injury they haven’t seen before such as a fracture or seeing someone just laying there, not knowing what to do at that point,” Lough said.

Miller ran into that a few weeks ago during a cross country meet.

“This time last year I would have had no idea what to do,” Miller said.

Miller was running when she came across a girl who had fainted on the trail and no one had stopped to help her.

she tried asking the girl if she was okay.

“I asked her to move a finger if she could here me and she didn’t move. So at this point I knew something was wrong, so I ran back, got my coach got help and waited with her until the ems got there,” Miller said.

Miller said class prepared her and helped her act quickly.

“What if I hadn’t of stopped. Would anyone else would have? And it’s just one of those things that’s scarry to thing about. But I’m definitely glad that I stopped,” Miller said.

Lough was named atheletic trainer of the year for the state in 2012 and 2014.

Miller said she’s interested in studying sports medicine or physical therapy when she graduates.