Article reposted from BlueBag Media
Author: Gaylen Blosser
Brian Cheney, Greenville High School’s Athletic Trainer has made a positive impact in the health of numerous Green Wave athletes.
Born in Beaver Falls, NY, the Cedarville University Graduate attended Beaver River Central School with a graduating class of 72 students.
“I was born and raised there,” Cheney said of his New York home. “It’s a very small town; about 300 people in Lewis County, New York…about an hour and a half north of Syracuse, NY. It’s a big farming community, especially dairy farming.”
Cheney’s parents still reside in Beaver Falls where his father continues to teach ninth grade science at Beaver Central School.
After earning a four year Bachelor’s Degree in Athletic Training at Cedarville University, Cheney attended the University of West Alabama where he worked as a Graduate Assistant Athletic Trainer in the university’s High School Outreach Program while obtaining his master’s degree.
In his third year at GHS, Cheney can be seen at most Wave sporting events at home and often on the road, although most of his work and long hours go unnoticed and often underappreciated.
Athletes returning to the court or playing field following an injury are a direct result of the many hours of labor behind the scene of our certified athletic trainers. Trainers work many hours throughout the days and weeks getting our athletes back to full 100 percent health.
Each sporting season brings varying injuries requiring Cheney to carry different supplies to sporting events.
“Overall the injury incidents rate is going to be lower for most of the winter sports,” said Cheney. “A lot of the injuries that are going to be most prevalent are a little bit different. You see a lot more ankle and sometimes knee injuries with sports like basketball.”
“You see a lot more upper body injuries with wrestling that carry upper body intensity, but it varies from season to season from sport to sport,” continued Cheney. “Things that one season brings may happen at a very high rate injury wise may happen at a very low rate the next two or three seasons. It is very hard to predict.”
Cheney has an office located at GHS which also serves as the athletic training room…”they are one in the same,” Cheney noted.
From his office/training room, Cheney juggles his time between paper work, injury prevention and rehabilitation.
“It varies from day to day, week to week and season to season,” Cheney said of his duties. “During some parts of the year it’s going to be a lot more injury prevention, some parts are going to be more rehabilitation from injuries that have occurred, some parts are going to be more…just getting the athletes back to play completely from injuries they sustained. It’s going to vary widely as far as the amount of paper work. There is the number of injuries to take care of on a daily basis. That’s one of those things that is hard to predict.”
Cheney works closely with Dusty Yingst, Greenville Athletic Director and the entire Green Wave coaching staff.
“Having Brian here…it’s amazing,” said Yingst. “He’s here 10, 12, 14 hours a day. Many times he comes in after school and is here until the last kid leaves most nights.”
“The parents and the kids are comfortable with Brian,” continued Yingst. “He has a good rapport with the parents, our student athletes and our coaches. They can lean on Brian. They trust Brian’s judgement. Nobody is here to micromanage Brian. He does his job and he does it very well. Our coaches and .myself take whatever his professional opinion is and we go with it. He does a fantastic job.”
“All the coaches have been very easy to work with,” Cheney said. “They are very respectful of my opinion of different injuries on different athletes. They are great about understanding if there is going to be a lengthy return to play period for a particular athlete. They understand that for some significant injuries you can’t get the athlete back to play within two or three days.”
“Our coaches are very good about keeping up to date with the process and keeping that athlete involved in whatever capacity they are able to until they are fully healed and ready to return to their sport,” added Cheney. “Overall I have been very fortunate to work with a lot of quality coaches in my time here.”
While working for GHS, Cheney is contracted through Wayne HealthSports, the primary provider of athletic training and medical services for GHS.
Wayne HealthSports is a division of the rehabilitation and sports medicine services offered by Wayne HealthCare.
Wayne HealthSports program is in its fifth year serving Darke County student athletes and now has sports medicine partnerships covering Versailles, Ansonia, Tri-Village, Mississinawa Valley and Greenville schools.
Kurt Moneysmith (Ansonia), Brian Cheney (Greenville), Jered Rush (Tri-Village), Taylor James (Versailles) and Alyse Miles (Mississinawa Valley) now serve as athletic trainers for five of the county’s eight schools.
“If there is a big tournament, a big cross country meet or multiple events going on at a school where maybe one of our athletic trainers on staff is having a light day and we need heavier coverage for a particular event at one school, we do a great job of helping each other out when we are able to as far as getting all the sports for our contracted schools taken care of with as much coverage as we possibly can,” Cheney said of the five area Wayne HealthSports Athletic Trainers.
Wayne HealthSports athletic trainers work closely with area orthopedic surgeons, family physicians, podiatrists, and other medical professionals in the area. The goal of the program is to provide high quality athletic training services that will enhance the medical care for our student athletes.
The five Darke County Athletic Trainers work directly under Jim Beyke, Director of Rehab Services at Wayne HealthCare.
“We started with Versailles and then we added Ansonia and Greenville the following year,” said Beyke. “We added Tri-Village last year and then this current school year we added Mississinawa Valley.”
“Brian Cheney has been a great addition to our staff,” Beyke added. “This is his third school year. That builds familiarity with the parents, the athletes and the coaches. Brian has developed a good system of assessing the athletes, treating the athletes and also the referral base right here with Orthopedic Associates. Athletes are taken care of very timely and get back into their sport as soon as we can.”