Category: Athletic Training Student

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High school football players try to beat the heat

KPLC 7 News, Lake Charles, Louisiana
Southwest Louisiana is hot. Cookies could be baked in cars, eggs fried on sidewalks. Advisories say to limit sun exposure, but hundreds of student-athletes are battling the heat every afternoon preparing for football season.

At Oakdale High School, cheerleaders are able to move their practices inside the auditorium. Chanting indoors is much preferred to standing in the 104 degree heat, but for Warrior Football that’s not an option.

Head Coach Randall Gordon not only has an athletic trainer on standby, but he says the real MVP’s are the student-trainers, who volunteer to spend their afternoons at practice handing out bottles of water.

“The student training staff, they go around to each drill bringing a little 6-pack of water so they can get water throughout the whole practice,” said Gordon.

Jessica Veillon is an athletic trainer with the Center for Orthopaedics. She serves four area schools and says keeping players safe isn’t an easy job in triple digit temperatures.

“Bring ice towels out and during water breaks put ice towels on their necks,” Veillon said is just one way to keep players’ body temperatures down.

Gordon also has some unconventional methods.

“We have a little sprinkler set up off the practice field,” said Gordon.

The make shift “cooling station” provides much needed relief during these hours-long practices.

“It’ll make you dizzy and confused,” said Veillon about the heat, “and if you start missing plays a lot, you kind of have to think that might be a reason.”

“What we do, too, is after practice we have some big tubs setup for ice baths, because what happens is when you start losing all your water and get dehydrated, the next day is really a tough day,” said Gordon.

Of course, “the next day” means another day of practice for the Oakdale Warriors, and for most high school football teams.

ORIGINAL ARTICLE:
http://www.kplctv.com/story/29755359/high-school-football-players-try-to-beat-the-heat

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Athletic training major interns with professional soccer club

Athletic training major Kyley Mickle had a challenging new internship this summer – she’s the only woman on the athletic training staff at the Major League Soccer team D.C. United.

It hasn’t been easy. The senior noted that players often flock to the male staff for treatments and tapings.

“I have had to work harder to gain the players’ trust that I can effectively employ these methods just as the other staff can,” Mickle said.

Instead of getting frustrated, she approaches the challenge as an opportunity. “It sort of lit a fire under me to outwardly show my confidence in my abilities, which is something that I have struggled with in the past,” she said

Although she says she has struggled with showing confidence, Mickle, who is from Port Allegany, has a lot to be proud of. Last summer she was an intern at the extreme sports camp Camp Woodward (usually only rising seniors are hired as interns). She was asked to return to Woodward this year and comes highly recommended by both her Pitt-Bradford professors and high school teachers. She cites her recommendations and networking skills as the keys to successfully securing the internship at D.C. United.

Through this internship Mickle is being exposed to the best of the best in athletic training. As you might imagine, a professional team’s training program looks a lot different than the program at Camp Woodward, or even the program at Pitt-Bradford.

“D.C. United has massage therapists who come in daily,” Mickle said. She went on to list all the elements of a professional athletic training program: “A team chiropractor, a team acupuncturist, a laser therapy unit… (electronic muscle stimulation) and ultrasound units, a full weight room…the list goes on and on.”

The team even has something called an AlterG treadmill, which Mickle explains is a treadmill “that can decrease the amount of gravity pulling you to the Earth so that you can run or walk without having to bear your full body weight.”

Obviously being at D.C. United is an incredible opportunity. Mickle is getting to experience the best equipment and work alongside world-class trainers, but with such an opportunity comes a lot of pressure. When a sport is someone’s livelihood, making sure players are healthy and injury free is even more important. Players get frustrated if a treatment isn’t working as well or as quickly as they hoped. They question trainers’ skill and treatment plan.

And then there’s the internal pressure. “Knowing that your treatments, rehabs and decisions can determine the future of your athletes’ careers can make you work that much harder in providing the best care that you can for them,” Mickle says.

How does she handle the stress? She embraces it. She challenges herself to be confident. She keeps up with her responsibilities, which range from performing ultrasound treatments, massages and neuromuscular stimulation to racing onto the field in between drills with water to keep players hydrated. And she learns as much as she can. For example, at D.C. United, trainers use an evidence-based approach.

In this approach, it is important to be familiar with the current research in the field of athletic training. “It is one thing to conduct your rehab protocols and tapings directly from textbook methods, but it is another thing to read up on what methods actually have the most benefits,” Mickle explains.

Mickle’s mentors have encouraged her to keep up to date with research in the field by seeking out and studying research articles. “Kyle Sherry and Gabriel Manoel, the assistant athletic trainer and physical therapist, respectively, have preached … about reading research article after research article. I have a collection of close to 15 articles in my notebook from them,” she says.

It is good practice for her upcoming capstone research paper. She’s been considering several different ideas for that, like discussing the titanium bracelets many baseball players wear or, she says, “doing a Mythbusters-type paper about chocolate milk being a good post-recovery drink.”

When she returns to Pitt-Bradford in the fall, Mickle will have a lot to share with her classmates in the athletic training program. She has seen techniques they’ve studied in lecture actually practiced on professional athletes. Pitt-Bradford’s program prepared her for the challenges of her internship, and now, the program will benefit from her experience with a professional team.

ORIGINAL ARTICLE:
http://www.upb.pitt.edu/templates/Beyond.aspx?menu_id=250&id=35206

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Student grips pro baseball internship like a fastball

After growing up in a country where baseball is a national passion, a University of Central Missouri student got an inside-look at what it takes to keep professional players in top condition while preparing for his own professional career.

Hoping to someday work in the Major Leagues, Takao Iwano, an athletic training major from Abiko, Chiba, Japan, was one of only seven individuals selected to participate in an internship program sponsored by the Japan Baseball Athletic Trainers Society in cooperation with the American Professional Baseball Athletic Trainers Society.

The experience took him to Arizona in early March, where he spent a week with the Kansas City Royals at their training facility in Surprise, and the Seattle Mariners in Peoria.

Iwano said the internship gave him an opportunity to see players that he watched on televised baseball in Japan and America. He was particularly excited about the opportunity to work with the Royals, which won the American League Pennant in 2014. He was in the dugout during games, and was “fist-bumped” by Major League players.

More than just a fun experience for a longtime baseball fan, this opportunity entailed long hours and lots of work. Iwano said he would be on the job by 5:15 a.m., performing tasks such as setting up the hydrotherapy station, and getting ice and towels ready for the players. He participated in pre-game, pre-practice, and field setups, in addition to working with professional Athletic Trainers to observe pre-game, pre- and post-practice treatments. Iwano interacted frequently with the certified training staff.

Brian Hughes, professor and athletic training program director, applauded Iwano for seeking out the opportunity with JBATS. Although students are required to participate in for-credit athletic training internships which are imbedded in the curriculum throughout each semester of their four-year program at UCM, he said Iwano’s experience was on his own, and for no academic credit.

Iwano paid his own expenses, including air fare and hotel costs. Hughes insisted, however, the investment and time were well spent for Iwano.

Iwano said this will not be the last time he applies for a baseball internship as he is looking to land another opportunity through PBATS next year.

ORIGINAL ARTICLE:
http://www.dailystarjournal.com/people/community/article_12bceda8-0e7a-5f45-9d16-f96101de1224.html

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Athletic training major interns at Kennedy Space Center

Jamie Peers’ summer internship took her a little south of Bloomington-Normal. Peers, an athletic training major in Illinois State’s School of Kinesiology and Recreation, spent her summer as an athletic training intern at the Kennedy Space Center RehabWorks in Florida.

At RehabWorks, Peers was responsible for evaluating acute and chronic injuries and assisting in the development and implementation of rehabilitation plans. “Within the first week, they had us performing hands-on patient care and participating in the evaluation process, and by the midterm mark we were able to make patient care calls,” Peers said. “It was great to get real-world experience while still having the coordinators nearby in case I needed advice.”

Peers’ patients ranged in age from 20 to 70 years old and worked as rocket scientists, security personnel, firefighters, and administrative assistants. Many of the patients led very active lifestyles and some of their goals included returning to recreational sports. This was a new population for Peers to work with, as her hands-on experience at Illinois State had been limited to working with 18- to 22-year-old football and baseball players.

“Having to adapt definitely strengthened me as an athletic trainer,” said Peers. “With this new experience, I have more confidence and a skill set that I did not have prior to this internship.”

Peers will be a senior at Illinois State this fall and would like to become a certified and licensed athletic trainer upon graduation. She is interested in pursuing a position in Division I athletics, but this internship has opened her eyes to the possibility of working in a clinic with a specialized patient population.

Peers encourages students looking for internships to think outside of the box. “Find something that will really challenge you,” said Peers. “Look for an opportunity that will give you the most real-time experience in your field of study.”

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Keene State Athletic Training Alum Mentors Students

As part of a student athletic training internship program, Keene State students attend all home games and practices of the Connecticut Sun, a team in the Women’s National Basketball Association. Keene State’s connection to the Connecticut Sun team is making an impact on current Keene State students through Scot Ward, a 1990 Keene State grad and clinical coordinator in the College’s Athletic Training Program, and Jeremy Norman, a 1992 Keene State alum who has served as the Sun’s Head Athletic Trainer for the past nine years.

“I want to provide Keene State student trainers with an opportunity to learn and work in a professional setting and make connections that could lead to potential jobs down the road. You can never give enough back to the place that helped develop you,” said Norman, a Ledyard, CT native.

“Jeremy has a lot of respect for what we do in our athletic training program and as a proud alumnus is willing to help us out,” added Ward.

Madison Macaruso, a 2014 Keene State alum who is now working as an assistant athletic trainer at the Community College of Rhode Island, followed by Makayla Clarke, a 2015 Keene State grad, who recently began a job as a physical therapy aide with South County Orthopedic Specialists in Rhode Island were a couple of the first students to take part. Kelsey Cognetta, a senior athletic training major from Stanford, CT is taking advantage of the internship this summer.

“I can’t tell you how happy I was when I learned I got the internship,” said Cognetta. “It’s a great opportunity.”

“I think the world of Kelsey,” said Bob Merrow, Keene State Head Athletic Trainer. “I think she has tremendous potential. Scot thought the internship would be a good fit for her, and her internship is being incorporated into her academic curriculum.”

“We’re very proud of our alumni connections,” said Ward. “When people have good experiences at Keene State we try to nurture those relationships and provide learning opportunities for our current students. “Students benefit from the experiences and the alums take pride in giving back to the College.”

ORIGINAL ARTICLE:
http://www.keene.edu/news/stories/detail/1438716830015/