College and University – Page 29 – Athletic Training Today

Posted on August 14, 2015August 14, 2015 by ATtoday

Athletic Trainers, nutritionists help the Cougs stay healthy

The heat can be overwhelming, even if you’re just outside for just a minute. So imagine playing football in full pads, which is what the WSU Cougars are doing right now in triple digit heat in Lewiston, Idaho.

It takes a team just to make sure these guys stay hydrated and healthy and the athletic trainers and nutritionists take the hot days seriously because they know a dehydration injury could spell disaster down the road.

“Water, water, water, you know push it on the guys and make sure everyone gets hydrated,” WSU student trainer Damon Garnas.

Garnas said when you’re dealing with the heat it’s serious business.

“They need to be hydrated so they are moving properly, they feel good you know, they are not getting too hot and not getting worried about heat exhaustion and other heat illness and stuff like that,” he added.

Garnas and his fellow tea mates are constantly on the move keeping the Cougs quench for thirst satisfied.

“We have two or three students at each one just to make sure that we are really pushing the water on the guys, making sure every single guy you know, no matter from the star players to the last guy everyone gets a lot of water,” he said.

Lindsay Brown is the coordinator of sports nutrition and says hydration is so key they weigh the athletes before and after practice looking for excessive fluid loss.

“Some of them can lose up to 10 pounds in a practice, those are the bigger individuals but we want to prevent that we don’t want them to lose more than two percent of their body weight,” Brown said.

She says if they notice a drastic change they begin a dehydration regimen.

Just know that the depth of the the team isn’t limited to the running backs but a whole army on the sidelines making sure everyone is playing at their best.

ORIGINAL ARTICLE:
http://www.kxly.com/news/north-idaho-news/trainers-nutritionists-help-cougs-stay-healthy-in-triple-digit-heat/34683470

Posted on August 14, 2015 by ATtoday

UC Berkeley football player sues university for alleged concussion-related issues

A former UC Berkeley football player has sued the University of California over alleged medical malpractice surrounding the prevention and treatment of concussions.

Bernard Hicks played for the Golden Bears from 2004 to 2008 and suffered from multiple concussions during games and practices, according to the lawsuit filed Aug. 3 against the Regents of the University of California. The suit claims that the university failed to take reasonable measures to prevent head injuries.

According to Hicks’ attorney, Matthew Whibley, the university did not inform players of the long-term neurological diseases associated with concussions and subconcussive injuries to the head.

“The university is the players’ caretaker,” he said. “We think it would be fair for them to at least inform the players what they’re getting themselves into.”

Although Cal Athletics could not directly comment on Hicks’ case, it released a statement saying that it bases its care on the “best and most up-to-date clinical guidelines” and that “the medical care we provide our student-athletes meets or exceeds the standards in collegiate and national sports medicine.”

Since leaving the football team, Hicks has sustained “permanent and debilitating” neurological injuries that have caused depression, suicidal shots, dizziness, memory loss, and blurred and double vision, according to the lawsuit.

A May 2014 study in the Journal of the American Medical Association found a significant correlation between the number of years an athlete plays football and smaller hippocampal volumes and slower reaction times among collegiate football athletes.

Defendants in the case include Hicks’ then-head coach Jeff Tedford, team physician Cindy Chang and head athletic trainer Ryan Cobb. The complaint says that had Hicks been informed of the numerous neurological diseases associated with his injuries, he would have refrained from playing or rested longer.

Whibley said that although the dangers of concussions are starting to become public knowledge, players are “less likely to believe those third-party statements than if they heard it from their own team doctors and coaches.” If a concussion is suspected, players are removed from practice or competition and cannot return before a medical evaluation. The plan gives the team physician final clearance for a player’s return to the field after an incident.

Cal Sports Medicine’s current concussion management plan specifies protocol for coaches and health-care providers in the event of a concussion. According to the concussion management plan, all student-athletes are provided with written education material on concussions annually and must provide a signed acknowledgment of understanding its content.

Hicks’ attorneys, however, alleged that his coaches and trainers neglected to warn the players of the dangers of concussions “in hopes to get them to continue to play.”

The lawsuit is still in its early stages, and Whibley says his team has not yet spoken with Cal Athletics.

ORIGINAL ARTICLE:

Former UC Berkeley football player sues university for alleged concussion-related medical malpractice

Posted on July 27, 2015August 7, 2015 by ATtoday

Sports medicine experts applaud new spine injury guidelines

The National Athletic Trainers’ Association recently released new guidelines for treating athletes with potential spinal cord injuries on the field, a decision applauded by a sports medicine expert at Baylor College of Medicine.

“The NATA made significant changes to what was previously recommended and practiced with an injured athlete at a sporting event,” said Dr. Theodore Shybut, sports medicine expert and assistant professor of orthopedic surgery at Baylor. “These new guidelines are based on science and expertise. While these practices fortunately apply to only a small subset of injuries encountered at sporting events, practicing these recommendations provides optimal care to athletes with potentially devastating injury.”

The two main changes relate to technique for spine boarding the athlete and to timing of removal of the athlete’s protective equipment. In terms of protecting the potentially injured spine, in the past, a technique called logrolling was used to position the injured athlete onto a back board for transfer. Also, protective equipment such as helmet and shoulder pads was typically left on the injured athlete, with the thought that they provided stability to the cervical spine during transport. In addition, equipment was left on to avoid potentially aggravating the injury on the field with the thought that removal in the theoretically more controlled hospital setting would be best.

The new recommendations stem from studies that evaluated spinal motion during simulated injuries in cadavers and found that an eight-person lift better minimizes the motion of the cervical spine. The recommendation is to perform this type of lift if possible instead of logrolling. The NATA guidelines also emphasize a change in terminology from “spinal immobilization” to “spinal motion restriction” recognizing that complete immobilization is not possible during transfers and equipment removal.

“It’s important to realize that in cases where the injured athlete is face down you have to get them face up to ensure airway access and properly assess the athlete; in those cases, you may have to logroll them. Also, the eight-person lift is only possible if you have enough people who are trained to do this safely,” said Shybut. “The logroll is not something that you absolutely cannot do, but the eight-person lift is the preferred technique because less c-spine motion occurs.”

The new guidelines now call for safe, controlled removal of equipment such as shoulder pads and helmets of the injured athlete prior to transfer.

“The rationale for this change is that the people who are the best equipped to remove the equipment, understand how the equipment works and are able to remove it with the least amount of trauma, are the sports medicine providers on the sidelines,” said Shybut. “Hospital based providers are not necessarily experts at removing sports protective equipment. In addition, if for some reason EMS needs to get access to the athlete’s chest during the transfer it’s difficult to do with the equipment on.”

Shybut emphasizes the importance of having a good team of sports medicine experts on the field during athletic events to help with these types of injuries. He stresses the need for emergency action planning so that the care team can rehearse equipment removal and spine boarding to prepare in advance for encountering spine injuries.

Baylor’s sports medicine team has developed emergency action plans and has recently trained providers in practicing emergency transfers and equipment removal in line with the NATA guidelines.

Shybut also highlights online resources are available from NATA and from the American Orthopedic Society for Sports Medicine via the Stop Sports Injuries program.

ORIGINAL ARTICLE:

The new guidelines now call for safe, controlled removal of equipment such as shoulder pads and helmets of the injured athlete prior to transfer.

Baylor’s sports medicine team has developed emergency action plans and has recently trained providers in practicing emergency transfers and equipment removal in line with the NATA guidelines.

Shybut also highlights online resources are available from NATA and from the American Orthopedic Society for Sports Medicine via the Stop Sports Injuries program.

Posted on July 27, 2015 by ATtoday

Meet Brynn Lewis, Cal Rugby’s Athletic Trainer

If you just started following California rugby recently, you’ve seen a lot. Since 2013, the Golden Bears have racked up an overall record of 56-6 (.903) in 15s and won three straight national collegiate championships in Olympic 7s, the version of the sport going into the next Summer Games.

But Cal rugby goes back much further, to its 1882 origin, a history that has accrued staff with remarkable longevity. Jack Clark, in his 33rd year, is only the sixth head coach in the team’s 134-year history.

When the Bears won their first 7s title at the 2013 Collegiate Rugby Championship and the team performed the unparalleled honor of raising one of its own onto the players’ shoulders to celebrate, it was the athletic trainer, David Stenger, who was raised high to recognize his dedicated skill and service as he headed into retirement after 40 years of service.

But who would be taking Stenger’s place the following season as the lead presence in the training room, on the sideline and pitch, at every training session and on every road trip as the Rugby Bears go through the rigors of one of the most demanding sports on the planet in representation of their University and commitment as student-athletes to the No. 1 public institution in the world?

What kind of person would it take to fill the shoes of such a legend?

Those shoes have been filled and that mantle passed to Brynn Lewis MS, ATC, a former varsity collegiate softball player who came to Cal from Seattle by way of Brooklyn, N.Y., where she earned her Bachelor and Masters degrees while competing for Long Island University. Since the start of the 2013-14 year, Lewis has managed the athletic training needs of almost 70 male student-athletes with rugby, coordinating their care with the world-class staff that spans from Witter Rugby Field down to the Simpson Center for Student-Athlete High Performance, its training quarters, and by extension into the operating rooms and throughout the daily lives of members of the team.

Lewis actually hails from Woodinville, Wash., where she played three seasons of varsity softball at Woodinville High School before going to LIU, where she remained a solid hitter and infielder, and became a member of the Northeast Conference Academic Honor Roll. Soon after she came to Cal in 2011 and started working with Stenger in both men’s soccer and rugby, Lewis saw the legacy that he had created.

“I was lucky my first year, when I was an intern under Dave Stenger,” she said. “He had already cultivated this team and this system within the training room and with the coaches. I was able to learn from him and see how he operated in that system and figure out the role that he took on and figure out ways to problem solve and how to communicate best with the athletes and the coaches. I took a lot of tips and I did a lot of watching and listening with him to learn different strategies to handle situations and to be the manager within the system in the training room for the athletes.”

Stenger recalled how Lewis put forth the effort to earn her place on the team: “She worked hard, was very knowledgeable in rehab, learned the game well, was very concerned about the players and was accepted well by the players themselves.”

As they joined forces throughout the year to administer to their teams’ needs, Stenger also offered Lewis his advice on dealing with a high-performance culture such as Cal rugby: “I told Brynn that she shouldn’t feel put upon by being challenged, because that’s the goal of what we’re doing: we’re challenging each other to get better.”

Having completed two years in her new position capped by the 2015 national 7s title at the CRC, Lewis has risen to the challenge. Said head coach Jack Clark, “Brynn has been terrific in her role. She has taken the reins from a legendary Cal athletic trainer and learned very quickly. What I need is expert level information and timely communication, and she delivers.”

As a former collegiate varsity athlete whose LIU team went to the NCAA Regional Finals her senior year, Lewis was able to understand the mindset and command the respect from student-athletes and staff who knew that she had walked in the players’ shoes, too.

“I’ve been on a team and understand the demands of time, the responsibility and the pressure,” Lewis explained. “The players appreciate that I know what comes with having to make a game-time decision, what goes into preparing for games and a season, and that I have that experience.”

It was her point of view as an injured athlete that opened Lewis’ eyes to the professional field of athletic training. “I tore my ACL in high school when I had just turned 16, and was able to come back from that and still get recruited,” she recalled. During her freshman year she suffered another knee injury and “that’s how I learned about the profession of athletic training, because I came into college wanting to be a physical therapist, and then I injured myself, got to know my athletic trainer and realized, this is what I want to do, I want to work with athletes and I want to work with people at a high level. Over time it took on my interest as a student and not just as an athlete.”

Fortunately for Lewis, at LIU she was already at an accredited program and was able to progress from her Bachelors curriculum through a Master of Science in Sports Science & Athletic Training in five years. She then passed the boards for national certification and became a Certified Athletic Trainer. Her first hired position was as a two-year intern at the University of California working with track & field and cross country, and women’s water polo.

Going into her second year on staff, Lewis said, “I wanted something completely different, something challenging. A new position opened up to assist Dave Stenger with men’s soccer and rugby, and no one had really done that yet. I wanted to do it because I feel like the best way to learn is to get out of your comfort zone.”

What Lewis found in the Cal rugby team was a culture in which nothing is ever taken for granted.

“Their status is known as a team that values accountability,” she said. “When I stared working with them, that was always something that Dave ingrained in me, that I should expect a lot from the guys because a lot is expected of them from the coaches and you should keep a system all the way across the board so that when they walk into the training room, it’s not like that all of a sudden that goes away. It’s consistent in the training room, the classroom and on the field with their coaches. That was ingrained not just from Dave to me but also by listening to coach Clark’s team communications. I knew that would be the expectation all the way through.”

With rugby, Lewis soaked up everything she could learn like a sponge – not the proverbial magic sponge of rugby lore, which cures everything and nothing – but like a dedicated professional intent on learning best practices from a proven product while offering her own input to keep getting better. The fact that Stenger would be retiring and his head rugby position come open would come as a shock to her.

“I didn’t know until the very end of the season that he was going to be leaving. He was the only athletic trainer coach Clark had ever had at Cal. That is a huge role to step into. As we went through the interview process to see if I was the right fit, coach asked me about the things I saw that worked here and where I saw room to improve them. I have tried to find ways to enhance the things we already have, techniques and methods of communications, trying to improve a system that was already very good.”

Lewis knew that Hall of Fame head coach Jack Clark was a two-sport athlete at Cal and a national team player before his coaching career began. She knew that working with him would entail “high expectations for team and staff and self. That’s somewhat daunting to come into, but it’s also nice, because I know that he trusts me enough to put me in that role and he has high expectations for me, which is intimidating but also very satisfying.”

Working with Clark and Tom Billups, whose coaching extends to the team’s strength & conditioning program, has been a rewarding and collaborative process for Lewis. “We talk on a daily basis, multiple times a day. We can talk about everything and it’s always a team effort to talk about every athlete has a plan, has a system, and we’re all on the same page trying to get them to meet their goals.”

“In our design,” added Clark, “Brynn works directly with Tom and our physicians to knit our strength & conditioning, physical and medical assessments, preventative athletic training and rehab efforts into a seamless, coordinated function.”

While the coaches may be perceived as father figures, Lewis can at time sense an invitation to be a sister and a mother to the players. “Some of the guys from out of the country that don’t have someone to go to with certain questions, little things like renting a house, signing a lease, taxes,” she said. “When we get to the point where they’re asking me those types of questions, I try not to become too much of a mother. That would be a big role to 70-something guys. But when they come in the training room, we talk about their injuries and the real world as well.”

Lewis may never have left her nation’s shores for school, but moving from the Pacific Northwest to the East Coast for college does give her some street cred with the students who feel like fish out of water far from home. And when recovering student-athletes are using the underwater treadmills and other resources at the Simpson Center for Student-Athlete High Performance, everyone takes comfort in knowing they have the best care a team can offer.

“We’re really lucky to have the high-performance center. Especially for people returning back from a surgical injury, the resources there are huge” Lewis said. “But I try not to get caught up in the bells and whistles. At a previous time, we didn’t have all those things and people still came back from injuries. So we use not just these latest tools but other ways we can get them back to functional movement and progress them back into sport.”

Lewis is newly married to Patrick Fuller, a fellow athletic trainer whose mutual expertise offers Lewis a valuable sounding board and support network at home. “He understands the time commitment and relationship you create with the team, the players and the coaches, so when I have to work weekends, he’ll come watch the game, we’ll find a way to grab a meal together,” she said. “It’s also very valuable that I can come home and bounce ideas off him. He’ll say, ‘I never would have thought of that,’ and then he’ll come home with a story from work that helps me see something else in a totally different way.”

The United States’ qualification to vie for medals at the 2016 Sumer Olympics has also made Lewis see rugby is a different way, knowing that today’s athletes have an opportunity to aspire for a spot on the U.S. National Teams.

“It’s exciting to see someone come in as a freshman. I think back to when I first got to New York as a wide-eyed kid, asking a bunch of questions, trying to figure things out,” Lewis said. “People come in here and come into themselves, successful men entering the world, and it’s really exciting to see that transformation and to know their goals can be met at the highest level – the Olympic level – is really exciting.”

Lewis and Stenger still have lunch every month or so, and Brynn said, “He’ll still have little tips and tricks that he’s been holding back on and he’ll release to me.”

Stenger called their ongoing lunches “a fun opportunity for both of us to keep talking about how we did things in the past and for her to form her plans for how she can do things in the future.”

Lewis remains grateful to everyone, especially to her predecessor and to the rugby coaches, for their help as she gains her footing as the next athletic trainer for the Rugby Bears. “It’s a huge honor because I know how difficult it is to remain in a college setting for so long,” Lewis said. “For Dave to become my mentor and coach Clark to give me this opportunity in a system that is so well organized, those were definitely huge compliments.”

Compliments are nice, but there are student-athletes who need her help. Brynn Lewis is already off to tackle the next task of the day in her vital role for Cal rugby.

ORIGINAL ARTICLE:

http://www.calbears.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=30100&ATCLID=210236591

Posted on July 26, 2015August 7, 2015 by ATtoday

AT Mike Goforth welcomes new ACC policy for pressbox observer

least three times last football season a Virginia Tech assistant coach stationed in the press box alerted medical personnel on the sideline to an injured player. The instances reminded Mike Goforth that as watchful as he and his staff try to be during a game, they cannot see everything.

That’s why Goforth, the Hokies’ associate athletic director for sports medicine, applauds the ACC for mandating that each conference team place either a physician or athletic trainer in the press box for every game.

Following similar stances by the Big Ten, Southeastern Conference and Pacific 12, ACC commissioner John Swofford announced Monday that league athletic directors had unanimously approved the measure.

“This team-specific medical observer will have the benefit of knowing the medical history of the players,” Swofford said, “because it will be someone who is involved with them on an ongoing and day-to-day basis. They will travel with the team and observe every game, home and away, conference and non-conference.”

The observers will not have stoppage power, in the form of a direct line to the game’s referee, but they will be connected with medical officials on the sideline.

In this time of bigger, stronger and faster athletes, of more violent contact, and of more scientific data on the enduring effects of brain trauma, the more precautions the better. You don’t want to encumber the game, or those who play it, but the harrowing tales of the last 20-plus years, involving athletes at all levels, make clear the sensibility of this measure.

Though a few meaningless weeks behind — it is the offseason, after all — on press box observers, ACC schools have long been on the leading edge of concussion protocol and research, and the University of Noth Carolina’s Dr. Kevin Guskiewicz serves on the NCAA’s concussion committee.

Brain trauma is most studied in Blacksburg, where Stefan Duma heads the Virginia Tech-Wake Forest School of Biomedical Engineering and Sciences. From safety ratings for helmets to sensors that warn of high-force collisions to a Department of Defense concussions study designed to aid athletes and military personnel, Tech’s academic research has been invaluable to Goforth and the medical team.

“We’re going to make this as proactive as we can,” Goforth said of the ACC policy, “and I think it will be a big help to us. …
“If you have the right culture around an athletic department, specifically the football program, this kind of thing already occurs. Last year on at least three occasions our coaches called down for me to look at somebody.”

Goforth declined to reveal the players involved but said the injuries involved a knee, concussion and ankle. Trainers on the field had noticed the first two, not the latter.

But coaches, or medical staff, can’t be expected to notice every possible injury. The game is too fast, especially with no-huddle, hurry-up offenses en vogue. Trainers are tending to players on the bench. Coaches are hatching strategy. Medical observers, perched on high and presumably equipped with binoculars and television replay, will be less distracted and more likely to notice anything amiss.

The ACC’s policy is only a week old, but Goforth already has created a one-page, game-day concussion protocol that includes the press-box observer. There’s a photo of Goforth examining the concussed Logan Thomas at the 2013 Sun Bowl and an edict that any player diagnosed with a head injury “is ruled out of the game and their helmet is taken by the equipment manager.”

An integral part of Frank Beamer’s football program since 1998, Goforth has decided that the Hokies’ press box watchdog will be an athletic trainer, since trainers have more frequent interaction with players than physicians and are more familiar with their medical histories. Moreover, Tech’s observer will be armed with not only medical background and insurance information for every player, but also the seat location of players’ parents – cell phone service in a crowded stadium can be spotty.

Such information used to be stashed in a trunk on the sideline. Upstairs it will be more easily accessible.

“You know Coach Beamer,” Goforth said. “Coach Beamer has never, ever put pressure on us about an injury. But he will pressure me about communicating with parents. It’s of utmost importance to him that Mom and Dad know what’s going on with that kid. Practice, game, whatever.”

On game day, Goforth also positions some Tech medical staff on the opponents’ sideline, where they operate an x-ray machine. The more eyes from the more angles the better, he figures, the same premise that inspired the Big Ten, SEC, Pac-12 and ACC — the Big 12 recently limited live contact drill to two days per week, including game day.

Goforth recalled Tech running back Lee Suggs’ torn ACL in 2001. With a clear view of the play, Goforth sensed the injury even before Suggs collapsed into a heap, and that knowledge informed his immediate treatment.

Indeed, for medical personnel, there’s no such thing as too much information

“I think we’ve got a lot of things in place,” Goforth said, “some good mechanisms to help us identify student-athletes that could be injured that we might not have seen. …

“If anybody can see how it happened, that gives us a clue about what might be wrong with them. Just to have another set of eyes that can say, hey I saw this person get rolled up on their right knee, so on and so forth, that’s a big help.”

ORIGINAL ARTICLE:

http://www.dailypress.com/sports/virginia-tech/dp-spt-teel-column-acc-medical-observer-20150726-column.html

Posted on July 24, 2015August 7, 2015 by ATtoday

ACC to add athletic trainers to press box

So many of the hurried changes to college sports have that barn-door-after-the-horse-is-gone feeling, a desperate attempt to forestall the wave of lawsuits and other athletic activism that has erupted in recent years.

Giving athletes the same cost-of-attendance benefits as students on academic scholarships was as sensible as it was long overdue, even if the athletic community at large had to be dragged kicking and screaming into the 21st Century and is still complaining about having to pay for it.

On Monday, the ACC announced it has adopted one improvement that is neither forced or overdue. It’s actually timely, and perhaps even forward-thinking: The conference’s application of the NCAA’s new medical-observer protocol for football.

The NCAA last week adopted an experimental rule allowing conferences to use a medical observer to monitor for injuries, not specifically but obviously potential concussions, with the power to stop play if necessary.

The SEC will use one athletic trainer to monitor both teams, in communication with the referee. The ACC’s athletic directors voted Sunday night to adopt a different protocol, with one member of the medical staff for each team in the press box, in communication not with the referee but his sideline.

The issue isn’t whether this is a good idea. It is. It’s a no-brainer. The issue is whether what the ACC is doing goes far enough.

The SEC – and presumably Big Ten, which co-sponsored the NCAA legislation – will let its observers halt the game if needed. The ACC decided not to give its observers that ability, which leaves a narrow time frame for an observer to identify a potentially injured player, communicate with the sideline and remove that player from the game.

“We didn’t really see the necessity in that,” ACC commissioner John Swofford said. “The medical observer should be able in talking to the sidelines to have a timeout called or pull a player from the game. But this is all experimental. We’ll see how it actually works in real time. If there needs to be some adjustment to that then we’ll see. This is where we felt was appropriate. It’s a little different than what some other conferences are doing.”

It doesn’t happen often that a clearly staggered player returns to the huddle without the medical staff on the sideline noticing, but it happens often enough that conferences have seen the wisdom of adding an extra set of eyes in the press box. And in those situations, it’s a fair question whether the ACC’s process will work quickly enough to help that player, especially in an era of hurry-up offenses and quick tempo.

In their meeting Sunday night to debate and approve the observer protocol, the ACC’s athletic directors decided not to go as far as the NCAA would allow, focusing on a team-based model instead of a neutral, officiating-based model.

“This seems sufficient,” N.C. State athletic director Debbie Yow said. “It’s a common-sense approach.”

North Carolina athletic director Bubba Cunningham said there are other benefits to the ACC plan.

“There’s so much chaos on the sidelines that it can be confusing,” Cunningham said. “Someone out of the chaos may have a better perspective, especially if they have a view of a TV.”

The far greater priority was having someone doing the assessments who was aware of each individual player’s medical history, which led them to the two-person, two-team model the Pac-12 used on a limited basis last season and is expanding to all games this season.

“The important thing to us was that our observer was connected to the history of the student-athlete,” Pittsburgh athletic director Scott Barnes said. “We need an observer who’s part of our staff and knows the issues involved. That was our primary concern.”

And while there’s some expense involved in bringing an extra staff member on the road, it’s relatively minor compared to the benefits.

Cunningham said North Carolina typically travels with two or three doctors and may reallocate one to the press box.

“There might be an extra hotel room,” Yow said, “but so what?”

It is a small price to pay for an improved level of player safety and a change that is, for once in college sports, as much proactive as reactive.

Read more here: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/sports/spt-columns-blogs/luke-decock/article27944956.html#storylink=cpy

ORIGINAL ARTICLE:

http://www.charlotteobserver.com/sports/spt-columns-blogs/luke-decock/article27944956.html

Posted on July 23, 2015July 23, 2015 by ATtoday

Meador observes 30th year as coordinator of athletic training services

Randy Meador, a native of Oxford, Ohio, is observing his 30th anniversary as the coordinator of athletic training for men’s basketball.

Associates will tell you he has done a wonderful job since taking over the position after serving one year as assistant trainer for football.Randy, who’s now 54, is a graduate of Miami University in Ohio. From there, he came to grad school at West Virginia University in 1985.Obviously, his degree was in athletic training. WVU celebrated its 40th anniversary of that program last weekend.

John Spiker, who recently retired from the university, was the founder and developer of that flourishing program. Meador indicates that he would not have done anything else in his career. “I’ve enjoyed working with young student-athletes very much, since starting with basketball at WVU.”

To bolster his vast knowledge about athletic training, he took courses in advanced athletic training at WVU while working here and received his graduate degree.Meador recalled that he worked very closely with John Spiker during the year when he was a graduate assistant in football athletic training on a daily basis.

“He’s very, very good,” Meador said of Spiker. “He knows all about athletic training.”

Meador has become well-versed with injuries athletes have suffered during his lengthy services at the university.

“I know what is expected of each athlete,” he said. “Football’s more of a contact sport than basketball is and that makes it different. I’ve seen more ankle sprains than any other type of injury.”

Randy and his wife Bev were college sweethearts at Miami of Ohio.

They have been married for 31 years.

They have two sons: Luke and Eli.

Meador will tell you that some of the student-athletes call him “Doc.” But not being a doctor, Meador prefers something more like Randy or Mr. Meador.

“Whatever, I want people thinking about athletic training.”

Meador said, “It has been a real joy working with the coaches over the years. Don Nehlen was the first coach I worked with when I came and assisted in football.

“They went to a bowl game that year and they all were very nice. The next year I moved to men’s basketball and I’m still there.”

He continued, “I enjoyed playing basketball and still do for fun during off-time. I was too skinny in high school. Our basketball team should be good again.”

He would have played basketball in high school and college but couldn’t because he was too skinny Randy said.

“But we had a team session where we like to play basketball for fun,” he recalled.

“I used to play with Garett Ford, Rocky Gianola and a lot of those guys who played the game well and for fun.”

Those included people from the physical education dept.

“It’s been a pleasure having a job where you work with these people every day. The athletic department is a great place to work and I know Morgantown is a great place to live.”

ORIGINAL ARTICLE:

http://www.bdtonline.com/sports/sports_columns/meador-observes-th-year-as-coordinator-of-athletic-training-services/article_16d2627c-30ee-11e5-bee5-c7304e6c6804.html

Posted on July 21, 2015July 22, 2015 by ATtoday

Athletic trainers tasked with protecting athletes

Sharon Winn has spent more than 30 years as an athletic trainer in the Denton school district and has seen the challenges that high school athletes face change dramatically. The most important and significant of those shifts involve the awareness and treatment of concussions.

Despite the pressure that the job entails, Ryan High School’s head trainer isn’t as stressed as one might suspect.

“It’s not as frustrating as you would think because I’m focused on the kids’ health and what’s best for them,” Winn said. “The parents and coaches want to know how long [a player might be out of action], but I don’t know that. It’s not in my magic bag of tricks. I can’t give a concrete answer because there isn’t one.

“It’s aggravating for the coaches, the athlete and the parents, especially for the ultra-competitive athlete. They want in.”

Winn recognizes that there is no fool-proof system for managing concussions and when athletes return to play. That gray area leaves athletic trainers sorting through emerging technology to find the best way to treat concussions, which rank among their biggest challenges.

The technology available for the diagnosis and treatment of concussions has improved dramatically. Even with a wealth of information, testing and treatment methods at their disposal, trainers aren’t taking lightly their decision of whether an athlete can return to play.

Trainers are in agreement that being cautious is in the best interest of athletes. That approach has trainers pulling athletes from games to protect players from themselves.

“It doesn’t matter what rule you have,” Winn said. “There are different interpretations. I don’t think there is any way you can say, that if this happens, then this is what to do. Different things arise. All trainers are in agreement, though, that if they show signs of a concussion they are coming out. It’s a state rule, not my rule.”

High school standards

The University Interscholastic League mandates that athletes must immediately be removed from play if they display symptoms of a concussion, providing trainers with a set of guidelines for how to handle injured athletes.

The UIL has a seven-day return-to-play protocol that mandates athletes cannot return unless they have experienced seven consecutive symptom-free days. If an athlete makes it five days but has a symptom on the sixth, the seven-day window restarts.

“With the UIL, if they exhibit symptoms, they are removed from the activity,” Winn said. “Sometimes in a huddle, especially in football, we’re watching for a hint. They won’t know the play or know what to do. They might say something outlandish. Our kids are getting good about pointing that out.”

Winn’s trepidation with allowing an athlete to return after a concussion is rooted in her understanding of long-term effects and varying symptoms from athlete to athlete.

“I don’t think we truly understand the long-term effects, and a lot of it has to do with the individual,” Winn said. “One kid may sprain an ankle and get right back up, but another kid may take weeks to get over it. Some kids can recover from concussion symptoms very quickly; some have the symptoms linger. I don’t know why.”

Trainers vs. doctors

Athletic trainers and doctors play critical roles in handling concussions and ensuring athletes receive the best care.

“We don’t diagnose,” said Renatta Delello, who is in her 10th year as Denton High School’s trainer. “Doctors diagnose. Trainers evaluate. It’s a big difference. As a trainer, if a kid comes to me with a bone sticking out, I would say it looks like it is broken but let’s go get X-rays.

“A parent could come back and say I was wrong, so we either evaluate and refer, or evaluate and treat. That’s with any injury, regardless. It doesn’t matter.”

The distinction between “diagnose” and “evaluate” is used to protect trainers who must make decisions about the immediate status of athletes.

“A concussion is a tricky injury because you can’t see it and athletes look at it as if it’s not a real injury,” said Kris Ring, who is in her 17th year as a trainer at Texas Woman’s University. “‘I might be a little foggy but there’s nothing wrong with me.’ Part of the vernacular in sports leads to that. They got their ‘bell rung’ or they’re ‘shook up.’

“We need to get rid of those. We need to call it a traumatic brain injury.”

Much like Delello and Winn, Ring makes athletes’ health and well-being her top priorities.

“At the moment of injury, your first concern is that patient’s outcome,” Ring said. “We want to rule out anything catastrophic first. I’ve made the shift that I’d rather be safe than sorry. If there is any question in my mind if it’s a concussion or not, it’s a concussion. In recent years, that has become my mantra. Ultimately my job as an athletic trainer is to protect my athletes.”

The primary fear trainers have with sending an athlete back into play is second impact syndrome. If a concussion is undiagnosed and untreated and a second concussion occurs before the athlete can properly heal, the athlete’s vulnerability skyrockets. The result can be deadly, even if the second concussion was less intense.

“I think we really have to look at these athletes as more than a number on our roster,” Ring said. “You have to think about the long-term consequences. I know I can’t live with myself if I put someone back into practice and something happens to them. I’m not going to do that.”

Trainers often take the lead role in the decision as to when players return to action.

“After the seven days, if there is something that is not quite right, we’ll even have a sit-down conversation with the coach and tell them that they are cleared by our standards but this is what we still see,” Delello said. “If things just aren’t going right, I’m just going to send you to the doctor.”

Facing challenges

on the college level

The NCAA has guidelines similar to the UIL’s regarding players being removed from activity if they display symptoms of a concussion.

The University of North Texas has had a protocol for concussions in place since 2001. Dustin Hill, UNT’s director of sports medicine, said the school is cautious with its athletes who have suffered concussions.

“What we have now makes for a better environment for our kids,” Hill said.

Ring said that TWU also is cautious about returning athletes to play but wishes there was more leeway within the NCAA guidelines governing the time frame in which athletes return.

The concern some have with UIL and NCAA rules is the concealment of head injuries by athletes and their families.

“The athletes don’t like this decision,” Ring said. “They don’t like it at all. Once the athlete knows this is the rule, will it make the athlete less likely to report? I’ve seen that a lot. They can’t stand the rule. Athletes by in large are bulletproof. … It’s brutal. When you look at parents, anytime you say brain injury, they think their kid will never play again.

“On the other side of the spectrum [for the parents], their kid’s college scholarship is riding on a game, so put them back in there. They’ve got pressures from all angles. Plus, with the internal pressure, they want to be on the floor and in the game.”

The pressure isn’t limited to the athlete and his or her family. It also can be on trainers who are pressured to clear athletes who suffer concussions to return to play. Trainers at UNT and TWU said they have the full support of coaches and administrators who put the health of athletes first.

“We’re fortunate that our [athletic director] is one that puts health and well-being first,” Ring said. “We’ve never had a problem. We’ve been very fortunate with her level of seriousness with health, and it trickles down from there. As a department, you have to have total buy-in.”

ORIGINAL ARTICLE: http://www.dentonrc.com/sports/sports-headlines/20150711-trainers-tasked-with-protecting-driven-athletes.ece

Posted on July 21, 2015July 22, 2015 by ATtoday

Judge rules towson can’t bar football player from practice

Gavin Class, the Towson University football player who battled back from a near-fatal heatstroke, has won his bid to rejoin the team. A U.S. district judge ruled Friday that Towson must allow Class, a 22-year-old lineman, to suit up for the Tigers when they begin practice Aug. 9.

“I’m ecstatic,” said Class, a St. Paul’s graduate who had filed a disability discrimination lawsuit against the university in May after Towson barred him from outdoor practices with the team, citing the severity of his earlier injury.

In August 2013, Class collapsed during practice. His temperature rose to 108 degrees, which caused his heart to stop and his liver to fail.

After 14 surgeries at University of Maryland Medical Center, including a liver transplant, Class fought back into shape only to learn that Towson had determined he could not safely play for the Tigers.

On Friday, Judge Richard D. Bennett ruled otherwise.

“Despite the extraordinary comeback of Gavin Class, the Towson University football team physician [Dr. Kari Kindschi] has blocked his return to the field,” Bennett wrote. “The University shall be ordered to permit [Class] to return to active status as a full participant in its football program.

The judge stayed the decision for 10 days to allow Towson to file an expedited appeal, if it so chooses, with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit in Richmond, Va. The university said Monday it intended to file that appeal this week. “After thoroughly reviewing the judge’s decision and conferring with our colleagues in the Maryland Attorney General’s office, we have decided to appeal the ruling,” a university statement read. “We expect to file a formal appeal in the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. As an institution, our highest priority is the safety and well-being of our students. This decision to appeal is consistent with that core value.”

Class’ attorney, Andrew Dansicker, called the court’s decision “groundbreaking” on several fronts.

“This is the first case in the country, that we’re aware of, where a federal judge has ordered a university to allow an athlete to play any sport against the decision of the university — and the first case where a judge has ruled that heatstroke is a disability,” Dansicker said.

Class, at 6 feet 4 and 255 pounds, is 50 pounds lighter than before the heatstroke. He was working out at a private gym when he got the news at 5 p.m.

“I sent out a big text [message] about it,” he said, adding that he planned to celebrate this evening by “hanging out with all the boys on the team.”

Class said he knows the court ruling doesn’t assure him a place on the roster.

“I’ve got to fight for my spot like everyone else,” he said. “Whether I make it or not, I’ll be happy, and grateful to God that he let me play again.”

His father, Jon Class, said that nearly two years later, his son “has achieved his goal of returning to football. That in itself was his goal.”

In his ruling, Bennett wrote that none of the on-field accommodations Class has asked for, including high-tech protective abdominal padding that the athlete produced in court, would strain Towson’s manpower or resources. Prior to each practice, Class would swallow a “thermometer pill” to allow a trainer to wave a hand-held monitor over his abdomen for three to five seconds every five to 10 minutes to check his core body temperature.
Class’ family has offered to pay the cost of the pill and equipment. For the first two weeks of practice, the trainer would come gratis from the Korey Stringer Institute in Connecticut, a leader in heatstroke treatment for athletes and the military.

“The evidence at the hearing [Tuesday] indicated that Class is at no increased risk [of heatstroke] if his requested accommodations are provided,” the judge wrote.

His decision, Bennett opined, will ensure that “individuals like Gavin Class, who suffered a catastrophic injury but was able to recover and can once again safely participate in a program, have the opportunity to do so.”

ORIGINAL ARTICLE: http://www.baltimoresun.com/sports/bs-sp-gavin-class-20150717-story.html

Posted on July 21, 2015July 22, 2015 by ATtoday

PAC 12 to cover athlete medical costs after graduation

As a gesture of goodwill and acknowledgment of the changing landscape of college athletics, the Pac-12 is looking to become one of the first conferences to cover the lingering medical costs of injuries sustained while in college.

“Hopefully this demonstrates to anyone that’s paying attention that reform is possible within a conference, within the NCAA, and that there are schools out there serious about it and will redirect a lot of resources toward it,” Pac-12 commissioner Larry Scott said, addressing the long-standing criticism that the NCAA has no regard for student-athletes’ needs after graduation.

Starting this fall, the conference will mandate that its member schools incur the cost of a student-athlete’s medical bills for at least four years after he or she leaves or graduates from the school, or until he or she turns 26 (whichever comes first).

But the dispersion of such monies won’t be easy for the Pac-12’s member schools to navigate. As of now, the responsibility to determine its own policies and mechanisms for determining which athletes will be eligible for the post-grad medical benefits with zero oversight from the conference itself. This means that there will likely be wide-ranging parity in paid expenses between member schools.

It’s a situation that has the Pac-12’s athletic directors and trainers concerned about the procedures and language in student-athletes’ medical charts.

“It’s such a difficult thing to wrap your head around because what’s continuation of a problem and what’s a new problem?” Arizona athletic trainer Randy Cohen told CBS Sports. “How do you handle people who continue to do activities and maybe you recommend they don’t continue doing that? We really want to take care of these kids. But at what point is it the risk of playing sports and having injuries versus we hurt you?”

That sentiment is just one of a few critical aspects that will need to be ironed out as conferences works out the kinks in the new mandate over the next years. Another — how will individual schools find revenue to pay out the cost of these insurance policies?

“The only issue is it will place some additional financial burden on athletic programs that are becoming more burdened with other benefits like enhanced snacks and full cost of attendance,” said Dave Roberts, USC vice president of athletic compliance. “In my view, you like rational order. You don’t like things that are confusing and difficult to apply and track. It’s well-intentioned. We’re hopefully going to have a program that benefits athletes and doesn’t become so economically burdensome that it drags down the program.”

Then, of course, there’s the tricky transfer rule: if a player transfers with a nagging injury, which school is on the hook for the cost of those post-graduate years of medical treatment? The Pac-12’s bylaws release the player’s original school from the financial responsibility, but California has its own set of laws that could mean that a transfer’s original school needs to pay up.

“I hate to say it, but it’s probably something that has to shake out in the future,” Roberts said. “I could see instances where we might be obligated to take care of a transfer who transfers away, but under the Pac-12 guidelines that wouldn’t be the case.”

While passing a bylaw that makes its member schools responsible for former student-athletes’ medical expenses is a valiant effort, the Pac-12 no doubt finds itself diving deep into murky waters to develop the structure of its payouts.

ORIGINAL ARTICLE: http://www.sportingnews.com/ncaa-basketball/story/2015-06-22/pac-12-larry-scott-former-athletes-medical-bills-pay-commissioner