Category: College and University

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Cal State Fullerton researcher helps students return to class after concussions

Article reposted from The Orange County Register
Author: 

Meaghan Beaudoin just could not figure out what was going on in her head.

Sure, she was once knocked unconscious while playing soccer at Cal Poly during the early 2000s. But a hospital told her she was fine because there were no blood clots in her brain.

But she was failing classes. She could not quite grasp what she was learning.

A couple of years into Cal Poly, Beaudoin got an answer: Second-impact syndrome from the concussions she got in high school.

“I don’t want my students to go through what I went through,” said Beaudoin, now the athletic trainer at Sage Hill School in Newport Beach.

Concussion and its symptoms can be hard to spot, but its impacts are far-reaching, especially for student-athletes. Furthermore, the athletes cannot fully dedicate themselves to rest or rehabilitation. They have classes to go and homework to finish.

Tricia Kasamatsu, a Cal State Fullerton kinesiology professor who joined the university in 2015, has been researching how high schools support student-athletes after a concussion.

She said that until recently, schools and researchers had neglected much of the so-called “return-to-learn” aspect of concussions.

“It’s still a gray area,” she said.

Kasamatsu had been working as a high school athletic trainer and biology teacher in El Modena High School in Orange, after getting her bachelor’s degree in kinesiology and her master’s teaching degree at Chapman University.

In 2010, a football player told her that he was struggling in his classes.

People around him didn’t know what to do. They wanted to help, but some of them wondered whether he was faking his injuries to slack off.

This experience motivated Kasamatsu to research how schools can best guide concussed student-athletes’ return to class. For her doctorate in education at Chapman, Kasamatsu wrote a dissertation on the topic.

She said many concussed students experience similar issues as students with learning disabilities.

The concussed students get headaches when they try to focus. They have a harder time remembering what they had learned. They face emotional distress, from their concussions and also often from the fact that they can’t play the sports they love.

“(Concussion) is a collection of emotional, physical and psychological stress,” she said.

The California Interscholastic Federation, or CIF, has a “return to learn” protocol, which recommends teachers give recovering students breaks and less homework.

“But the communication is left up to each physician or school,” Kasamatsu said.

Each person reacts differently to concussions, which Kasamatsu said further challenges schools. For instance, some students get a headache from projectors emitting bright lights. Others may struggle to read small prints on whiteboards.

Some students can recover in days. Others take months.

Kasamatsu is not interested in setting a rigid rule. Instead, she said she wants to help schools create a supportive infrastructure.

Kasamatsu works with athletic trainers across Southern California, updating them on the latest research and studying how they deal with concussed students.

“She is kind of my go-to,” Beaudoin said.

Chase Paulson, the head athletic trainer at Diamond Bar High School, said he encouraged Kasamatsu to study his school’s protocol and its impact on concussed students.

“I have a responsibility to make the profession better,” Paulson said.

Kasamatsu said her next research will examine how a support team — which includes, among others, teachers, athletic trainers, parents, nurses and academic counselors — functions in schools.

Local high school’s “return to learn” policy

Sage Hill no longer plays 11-man football.

Beaudoin said only about 20 players are on the school’s eight-man football team, which she attributed partially to a shift in how parents view football and concussion.

Still, Beaudoin said seven to ten students come to her every year with a head injury.

The school has a concussion management team that includes athletic trainers like Beaudoin, a learning specialist, an academic counselor and a concussed student’s parents.

The team works with the student’s physician and teachers to find the right learning accommodation, which can range from giving more time to complete homework to having a dedicated notetaker.

At the beginning of school year, she reminds teachers of the school’s “return to learn” policy. The teachers have become more understanding of the students’ needs, Beaudoin said.

But Beaudoin and Paulson said many challenges remain.

Diamond Bar High, like Sage Hill, has a concussion management team. The team checks student’s symptoms daily and communicates with the student’s physicians and teachers.

However, Paulson recalled a teacher calling him, asking if a student should get an accommodation for a test. Paulson said yes.

“I didn’t believe (the student),” Paulson recalled the teacher saying.

He added some students’ parents, because of language or cultural differences, can’t quite grasp concussion.

“That has been an ultimate challenge,” he said.

But Paulson said the teachers and parents have begun to understand his protocol.

“I can always be more conservative, but never more aggressive,” he said. “I have to make sure the kid has a livelihood.”

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Caring for Student Athletes at Pacific University Oregon

Article reposted from Pacific University Oregon
Author: Anna Robaton-Winthrop, Video by Robbie Bourland

In August, members Pacific University’s Boxer football team arrived on campus fired up for the fall season and new academic year.

But before any of them stepped onto Ledbetter Field for practices, they first paid a visit to Pacific’s Dental Hygiene Clinic, where their peers in the dental hygiene program took impressions of their mouths.

Under the watchful eye of faculty members, the dental hygiene students used the molds to make custom-fitted mouth guards onsite.

A few days later, freshman football players filed into the basement of the Stoller Center athletic complex. There, they got free, pre-participation eye exams from students in the doctor of optometry program, who were supervised by Dr. Fraser Horn ’00, OD ’04, the College of Optometry’s associate dean of academic programs and an expert in sports vision.

At Pacific, caring for student-athletes is a community affair.

The university has 24 intercollegiate athletics programs, which compete as members of NCAA Division III. It also has the only college of optometry in the U.S. Pacific Northwest, and its College of Health Professions prepares students to work in a variety of fields, from dental hygiene to physical therapy and psychology.

“We have all these resources at Pacific, so why not use them to our advantage?” said Head Athletic Trainer Eric Pitkanen, who has worked to ramp up the level of care that student-athletes receive through internal and external partnerships.

Among college athletes, sports-related injuries are fairly common. Each year, thousands of college athletes sustain injuries, whether concussions or sprained ankles, that lead to missed practices, competitions and in some cases classes. During recovery, some struggle with anxiety and a loss of identity.

“We are trying to provide a level of care that is equivalent to Division I schools and better than what other Division III schools offer,” said Pitkanen, who was an athletic training intern at Vanderbilt University, a Division I school, before he joined Pacific in 2010. He also spent six months as a training intern with the Denver Broncos.

The mouth guard clinic for football players was the result of a new partnership between Athletics and the School of Dental Hygiene Studies. The idea for the clinic — which may be offered to other Boxer teams in the future — grew out of a senior capstone project by dental hygiene student Zachery Young ’17. The project focused on mouth guards and sports safety.

Custom-fitted mouth guards are a big step up from the inexpensive, plastic mouth guards used by many young athletes. That’s partly because they provide more cushion and fit snugly, making them more likely to stay in place. They’re also more comfortable, so players tend to wear them longer.

“In terms of straight-up protection, it’s the best you can get,” said Associate Professor of Dental Hygiene Kathryn Bell, one of several faculty members who supervised the mouth guard clinic.

The pre-participation eye exams for football players were also intended to reduce the risk of sports injuries by identifying players who need vision care before the start of the 2017 season. Players who needed additional evaluation and/or treatment were referred to Pacific’s EyeClinics for comprehensive exams.

Some players who wear glasses — and tend to take them off during games — might get prescriptions for contact lenses. Others might be candidates for vision therapy or sports vision training.

Vision therapy is an effective treatment for many common eye disorders, such as lazy eye and blurry vision. Meanwhile, sports vision training can improve depth perception, peripheral awareness and other visual abilities.

“One of the things we pride ourselves on at the College of Optometry is maximizing visual performance,” said Fraser Horn, who co-founded Pacific’s Sports Vision Club for optometry students when he was a student himself. The club provides screenings to Boxer athletic teams throughout the academic year.

“The better players can see, the better they can perform. And, we may also reduce their risk of injury,” Horn said. As head athletic trainer, Pitkanen has also leveraged his relationships within Pacific and the surrounding community to assemble a larger and more well-rounded sports medicine team than the one he inherited.

Horn is the newest member of the 12-person team, which also has three physicians (including an orthopedic surgeon and two sports medicine experts), two chiropractors and a physical therapist. With the exception of Pitkanen and four other athletic trainers, team members are volunteers.

See related story on safety tips for young athletes from members of the sports medicine team.

“We ask ourselves: how do we take care of students, make their lives better and enrich their collegiate experience? That’s what we are trying to do here,” Pitkanen said, adding that he aims for a holistic approach to caring for student-athletes.

It’s not just student-athletes who benefit from the growing number of partnerships between Athletics and other programs. The 2017 mouth guard clinic for football players provided dental hygiene students with an opportunity for service learning. Optometry students also gained valuable, hands-on experience by participating in the preseason screening program for football players.

“Having the hands-on, experience of making mouth guards is great. It’s something I will use in my practice after I graduate,” said dental hygiene student Anh “Justin” Mai ’18.

“I will be taking this knowledge [about mouth guards and sports safety] and bringing it to my patients in the future.”

Zachery Willits ’14, OD ’20, who played football for Pacific as an undergraduate, was among the optometry students who took part in the vision screening program. He saw it as an opportunity to gain experience and impress upon football players the importance of vision care.

“When I was playing football, I didn’t realize the importance of having an eye exam,” Willits said. “But now that I’m an optometry student, I recognize how important my vision was to both success in the classroom and on the field.”

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COUNTING ON ATHLETIC TRAINER RANDY BOSWELL, BOTH HERE AND AFAR

Article reposted from The Coeur d’ Alene Press
Author: Jason Elliott

For the past 25 years, if there’s one thing athletes at North Idaho College can count on, it’s that head athletic trainer Randy Boswell is looking out for them.

Now, some of the top wrestlers in the nation are finding out that same thing.

No matter if it’s a match at Christianson Gym, or for the gold medal in the world championships in Paris, Boswell is looking out for them.

BOSWELL RECENTLY returned from the wrestling world championships in France where the United States won the event for the first time in 22 years, topping Russia in the gold medal match.

“It’s an opportunity to work with the best athletes in the world,” Boswell said. “I get a chance to use my skills that I’ve learned, as well as share my knowledge with other countries, it’s win-win. I’m not shy about where I work either, so everyone that I come in contact with knows where I’m at.”

Boswell served as the head athletic trainer for the wrestling team, performing the same services he does at NIC.

“My role kind of expands a bit each time I travel with the team,” Boswell said. “It’s always comforting to know that these coaches trust me to be a part of this group. I traveled with this same group five weeks ago to Spain, and at that time, we didn’t have a doctor with us, so I had to perform some of those duties.”

For each USA Wrestling event, the group accepts applications of sorts from trainers nationwide. Boswell was selected as head trainer, and he worked with three assistants.

“There’s a lot of people that want to do it each time out,” Boswell said. “And I’m flattered to be honest each time I’m selected. Every time you go, the coaches and athletes can evaluate you on your performance. So I must be doing something right.”

Speaking of doing something right, Boswell pointed at the final bout of the weekend, a 213-pound match between Kyle Snyder of the United States against Abdusalim Sadulaev of Russia, which clinched the title.

“If we lose, we take silver and if we win, we take gold,” Boswell said. “Kyle was losing with 30 seconds to go, and wins it. The crowd went crazy, and you couldn’t have scripted better than that.”

American Jordan Burroughs, who won a fourth world championship, was another that Boswell has formed a connection with.

“It’s the third time I’ve been with him on this trip,” said Boswell of Burroughs. “It’s fun. When they come and look for you and trust you to take care of them, that’s something special.”

Since returning, Boswell added that he’s been approached by well-wishers, congratulating him on being a part of the team.

“It’s nice,” Boswell said. “The folks that know the wrestling part of things know it’s a big deal. It’s the first we’ve won in 22 years. To be part of a team that made history, it was a phenomenal experience.”

WHILE IN Paris, Boswell did take some time to see a few sights.

“When I’m on these trips, I’m on call around the clock,” Boswell said. “You’ve got to be cautious with your time, but I did take a couple of hours off to see the Eiffel Tower. But if guys are going to work out, I’m not taking off to go sightseeing. I work hard, and I think that goes a long way.”

His position with USA Wrestling is all volunteer, with no pay involved. This is the fifth time he’s been selected by USA Wrestling, the second as head trainer.

“When you’re selected, you go to the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colo., and spend a couple of weeks with the program,” Boswell said. “You can rank the top five tours you’d like to go on and a committee decides where you go. The coach gets the final say-so, but it’s also the intangibles, if you’re going to be a good teammate, work hard, and have good chemistry. Fortunately, I’d worked with these coaches before as an assistant trainer and they knew what I was about.”

And don’t worry Cardinal fans, Boswell isn’t going anywhere.

“My first love is working at the college, and everyone I work with knows that,” Boswell said. “I love what I’m doing, and I’m not in a hurry to sit in a rocking chair.”

Jason Elliott is a sports writer for the Coeur d’Alene Press. He can be reached by telephone at (208) 664-8176, Ext. 2020 or via email at jelliott@cdapress.com. Follow him on Twitter @JECdAPress.

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FORMER NORTH ALABAMA ATHLETIC TRAINER CHARGED WITH SEXUAL ABUSE

Article reposted from WHNT 19
Author: 

Another allegation of sexual misconduct has come out of the University of North Alabama Wednesday. This one involves an indictment handed down against a former athletic department employee.

Nicholas Alexander turned himself in at the Lauderdale County Detention Center, charged with sexual abuse.

Prosecutors say Alexander was indicted for having inappropriate sexual contact with a student athlete.

University of North Alabama officials say allegations were brought to their attention in March.

It was at that point the university launched a full investigation and removed him from the campus. University leaders say he was also banned from further contact with students.

The investigation concluded Alexander violated UNA policy, and the case was turned over to the Lauderdale County District Attorneys Office.

He resigned before UNA was able to terminate his employment.

When asked if more student athletes were possible victims, prosecutors declined to comment.

Nicholas Alexander has been released on a $25,000 bond. He is expected to be arraigned on the sexual abuse charge in September. ​

“The University of North Alabama is committed to providing a safe and nurturing learning environment for all students.  A professional and well-trained staff addresses claims of sexual misconduct.  Students impacted by sexual misconduct are provided strong resources and excellent support.  After receiving allegations of Nick Alexander’s misconduct in March, UNA immediately removed him from campus and banned further contact with students.  UNA reached out to the student and investigated.  The investigation concluded that Mr. Alexander violated UNA policy.  He resigned before UNA was able to terminate his employment.  The matter is now with the District Attorney, and the University is providing its fullest cooperation.​”

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UMD HOCKEY ADDS TWO RESIDENT ATHLETIC TRAINERS AS PART OF NEW MEDICAL MODEL

Article reposted from Minnesota Duluth Bulldogs
Author: Minnesota Duluth Bulldogs

The University of Minnesota Duluth has expanded – and enhanced – its sports medicine support for the Bulldog men’s and women’s hockey programs by adding two resident athletic trainers for the 2017-18 season. Resident athletic trainers are similar to resident physicians who seek training in a specific area of medicine.  With the addition of two residents, the two UMD hockey teams will now be provided health care by three certified athletic trainers.  Dr. Susan Hoppe, EdD, ATC, a member of the UMD athletic staff for the past 14 years, will be overseeing the Hockey Sport Performance team. Joining her will be Kevin Lennon, ATC, a former graduate assistant athletic trainer at Sacramento State University, and Jordan Ellis, ATC, CSCS, who recently completed his Master’s degree in athletic training from the University of Nebraska-Omaha. Lennon will work and travel with the women’s team while Ellis will do likewise with the Bulldog men.

“There are several benefits to the student-athletes including additional personnel to assist them with prevention and treatment of injuries as well as guide them through rehabilitation of injuries including use of the hydrotherapy pools,” said Hoppe, who took over as UMD men’s hockey athletic trainer in 2004-05.  “Student-athletes will also always have someone to attend diagnostic appointments with them.  This increased level of care continues to show UMD’s level of commitment to our student-athletes.”

But ramping up the level of care is not the only positive Hoppe envisions from this new sports medicine model.

“I also think this is opportunity to give back to the field of athletic training,” added Hoppe. “These certified athletic trainers have a strong desire to increase their skills in relation to the sport of hockey.  I have always enjoyed teaching and I see this new model as a win-win for resident athletic trainers to elevate their skills and for the student-athletes to benefit as well.”

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Behind the scenes, athletic trainers keep players moving

Article reposted from KALB
Author: Allison Bazzle 

Determined, dedicated and resilient. These are all qualities many athletes possess.

But, behind the scenes there is an athletic trainer that helps bring these qualities to life.

Soccer Player Justice Robinson may be new at Louisiana College, but she has already found her way into the athletic training room.

“I actually had my ACL and Meniscus repaired,” Robinson said. “When they did that they noticed I dislocated my patella.”

Now, athletic trainers monitor her healing process before and after practice.

“They make you feel comfortable, because as an athlete you never want to admit you are injured,” Robinson said. “So she just talked me through it, told me exactly what she was doing and how it’s supposed to help.”

Their job is vital to an athlete’s performance, but usually occurs behind the scenes.

Head Athletic Trainer Jon Hay said he always wants to get a player back onto the field.

“But, I’m also greedy,” Hay said. “I want to make sure that they are good for the rest of their life. Football, that is a sport, it’s a game. I want to make sure they have a good joint or body part not only for that sport, but when they graduate from here.”

Beginning at 7:30 a.m. to about 5 p.m. the athletic training room door is constantly revolving.

“We have a saying, we may doze, but we never close,” Hay said.

His day starts early in the morning and he stays until the last practice or game is over.

While the job usually requires over 40 hours a week, he said he doesn’t mind.

“It’s a fun job for me, there is no doubt about it,” Hay said. “Being with the athletes for home games and practices. When they come in here they may be pretty banged up, but they always kind of bring a little whit and humor with them.”

After playing football over the last four years, player Ryan Demattie knows he can count on Hay.

“I know I can call Mr. Jon up and be like hey would you mind coming and looking at this, and he has no problem at all,” Demattie said. “They are very accommodating to the athletes.”

Now, Robinson knows that too.

“Whether it be a blister, or like my knee,” Robinson said. “You need someone there that knows what they are doing, someone that can give you different options.”

In June, the Louisiana College athletic training staff was a co-recipient of the 2016-17 American Southwest Conference Athletic Training Staff of the Year award.

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Catching Up with Athletic Trainer Erika Ralston

Article reposted from goduke.com
Author: goduke.com

Athletic trainer Erika Ralston is in her first season with the Duke field hockey program after coming to Durham from Michigan State. GoDuke.com recently caught up with Ralston to talk about settling in at Duke and her role with the Blue Devils on and off the field.

GoDuke.com: To start things off, can you tell us about the path you took to Duke?
Erika Ralston: I completed my undergraduate degree at Ohio State – a bachelor’s degree in athletic training. And then I went to Michigan State for grad school, got my master’s in kinesiology and worked with the men’s and women’s cross country and track and field teams and the field hockey team.

GoDuke.com: How has your experience been in acclimating to Duke and Durham?
ER: It’s been awesome. Everyone is super nice and they’ve been totally accepting, especially with helping me move and showing me around. Over the summer, there were some of the freshmen and upperclassmen on campus, so I interacted with them for conditioning and stuff like that. I helped out with field hockey camp, so that was fun to get to know more people and see how everybody works together.

GoDuke.com: How has your time working with the field hockey program at Michigan State been helpful as you join the team here?
ER: Having the experience at Michigan State, I also had the opportunity to go to Germany with the U.S. U19 team. I really like the sport. Everyone I’ve met through the sport has been very nice, very sociable. I’m excited to get to do it again now as a full-time job.

GoDuke.com: What are you looking forward to about working with the team and staff?
ER: Just to really get to know everybody and to be a part of it. I know this team in the past has been very successful.

GoDuke.com: Away from the training room, what kinds of things do you enjoy?
ER: I have a black lab named Beau. He may make appearances around the area if he’s allowed. I really love food and trying new restaurants. So if anyone has any favorites, let me know because I will definitely try them out!

Quick Hitters
Favorite athlete: Jesse Owens
Hobbies: Outdoor activities, reading, foodie activities
Favorite book: All the Light We Cannot See
Favorite movie: Hot Rod
Favorite TV show: It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia
Favorite musician: Beyoncé
Hidden talent: Baking
Best advice you’ve received: Life is much easier when you learn to work with someone as opposed to working against them
Best thing you’ve done since you’ve moved to Durham: Find a place to live!
Best place field hockey has taken you: Germany

Follow the Blue Devils’ Athletic Medicine staff on Twitter at @Duke_ATHMED.

#GoDuke

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Athletic trainers are crucial to Alaska-Anchorage Seawolves’ success

Article reposted from The Northern Light
Author: Karolin Anders

Behind every successful sports team and every individual athlete stands a strong team of supporters. UAA’s athletic training staff is a strong component in that matter.

Chris Volk treating gymnast Louisa Marie Knapp after her ACL surgery. Photo by Karolin Anders.

Chris Volk, head athletic trainer at UAA for 24 years, just announced her retirement for October 31, 2017. Volk will celebrate her first Thanksgiving with her family in 25 years. In previous years, she always had to work the Great Alaska Shootout, a basketball tournament hosted by UAA’s Athletic Department.

Her staff, consisting of Rachel Butler, Kevin Lechtenberg and Michael Dhesse, are ready to take over her duties until another addition to their team arrives.

Volk discovered the career as an athletic trainer for herself after getting injured playing softball in college.

“When I got seriously injured I saw even more what the athletic trainers did and the role they played in getting the student athletes back to activity,” Volk said.

When Volk started working as the head athletic trainer at UAA, she was the lone athletic trainer for all sports.

“I love science and I also love sports. So for my career, I was always looking to tie these two together. Back then, sports medicine was a new term I thought, ‘My two favorite things and I can do them together.’ Athletic training was perfect,” Volk said.

Now that her staff has grown, she went from covering all sports to mainly women’s volleyball and gymnastics. The entire staff share the alpine and cross country skiing teams.

Kevin Lechtenberg treating gymnast Morgan Ross after her achilles injury. Photo by Karolin Anders.

Lechtenberg was the first addition to Volk’s staff 19 years ago. The Iowa native also developed an interest in the profession of athletic training after also tearing his ACL at the age of 14.

After caring for UAA’s hockey team for his first 17 years at UAA, Lichtenberg took over men’s basketball and women’s and men’s track and field.

“In physical therapy, you might see a patient for a handful of months and then they are discharged and you maybe never see them again. But we get to see our patients, our student athletes, for four or five years and we get to see them grow,” Lechtenberg said.

Butler, who joined UAA’s athletic training staff six years ago, finds great joy in working with student athletes. After volunteering at a physical therapy clinic during her sophomore year of college, she realized that it wouldn’t be the career for her and switched to athletic training.

“I was working in Colorado at a D-II school for four years and was ready to move on from there. I had a student athlete from Alaska. He was injured and we would just talk about Alaska during his rehab all the time. There was an opening, so I applied,” Butler said.

Butler currently works with women’s basketball and men’s and women’s cross country but is happy to support all athletes during their journey of recovery.

In collegiate sports, each athlete is eligible for four years to compete in a sport and one additional red-shirt season. An injury during the season can mean the loss of one entire year of eligibility. Athletes generally do not want to accept the loss of an entire season due to what seems like bad timing.

Rachel Butler treating volleyball player Tara Melton. Photo by Karolin Anders.

“A big challenge can be when you have an athlete and coach that want something different than what’s good for the health of the athlete. Sometimes you get an athlete who can push through certain things and can continue on playing, but sometimes that’s not good for their long term health, so it’s trying to educate them and encourage them to make the best decision,” Butler said.

UAA’s athletic trainers have their students’ short and long term health in mind as well as their athletic and professional success.

“You hear through coaches or teammates about how people are doing and sometimes they come back just to visit. You keep track of some people and it’s also rewarding to see them move on,” Lechtenberg said.

The responsibility as an athletic trainer also comes at a price. The hours are spread according to various circumstances such as court times, coaches and administration meetings, acute injuries, doctors’ appointments, rehab sessions, season progressions and meets or games.

“You are on-call 24/7. Student-athletes have our phone numbers for good reasons,” Volk said. “We have the privilege of working with people that are healthy other than the risks that are inherent in their sport. It is a privilege to work with a population like that and get to watch them perform.”

None of UAA’s athletic trainers would trade their profession under any circumstances.

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Syracuse Football Athletic Trainer Using Cupping Methods

Article reposted from syracuse.com
Author: Stephen Bailey

It didn’t take long for Syracuse football players to notice large, circular bruises on the backs and necks of their teammates early during preseason camp.

For some, the marks initially raised eyebrows. For others, memories of swimmer Michael Phelps racing in the Olympics last summer came back immediately.

The eyesores are left from the SU training staff’s new cupping machine.

“I know Michael Phelps does it in the Olympics so I’m sure it’s a good technique,” junior linebacker Kielan Whitner said. “I haven’t done too much of it, but it’s definitely helped me in the times I have done it.”

The cupping method has become a unique aspect of recently hired head athletic trainer Tim Pike’s rehabilitation approach. The technique is a yin to the yang of traditional muscle soreness treatments. Tools like foam rollers, sticks and even hand massages are compressive in nature, Pike said — pushing apart tissue that sticks together after exercise.

Cupping is decompressive. By pulling the skin, fascia, fat and muscle into the cup, it creates space, allows for fluid to flow more freely and breaks up adhesions, Pike said.

“It pulls it all up and it separates it as it’s sucking it up into the cup,” Pike said. “You can see that on an MRI, visually. There’s a lot more space when it pulls it out.”

Cupping isn’t a new revelation, Pike said. He’s used it in past stops, having held the same position at Marshall from 2014-16 and Eastern Kentucky for seven years before that. Phelps’ usage of the treatment just put it in the national spotlight.

The method can be used on a number of injuries, from tightness in the back or neck, to the hamstring or even the elbow.

“It’s just another form and it’s an easy thing,” Pike said. “You just need to understand anatomy and physiology, how the healing process works and apply that as another tool. It’s not a standalone.”

SU receivers Jamal Custis and Sean Riley have used it on their backs with positive results. Custis said the treatment was not enjoyable, but he felt the results within a couple days and is ready to go back in future situations.

“If it’s 15 minutes, it feels like an eternity,” Custis said. “That pain is crazy, but afterward it’s all worth it.”

Other players, like junior quarterback Eric Dungey, prefer other methods. Dungey tried it on his elbow, but said Tuesday that he’s “not a big cupping guy.” Senior receivers Erv Philips and Steve Ishmael, as well as redshirt senior tackle Jamar McGloster, have yet to try it.

But they’ve certainly become aware of it.

“It looks like somebody’s just been getting hit on the head with something,” McGloster said with a smile.

Cupping has joined the cold and hot tubs, stretching routines and NormaTec recovery boots as regular parts of players’ post-practice rehab routines.

Check back tomorrow for a look at how some of SU’s players like to recover after each session.

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Dee Jones to Retire After 30 Years of Service at the Naval Academy

Article reposted from Navy Sports
Author: Navy Sports

Dee Jones, Assistant Athletic Director for Sports Medicine and Rehabilitation, is retiring after 30 years of service at the Naval Academy.

“I could not be more appreciative of the leadership and professionalism that has been Dee Jones over the past 30 years,” said Naval Academy Director of Athletics Chet Gladchuk. “She set the bar with the sports medicine staff and her relationships with our student-athletes was one of respect and mutual admiration.  We will miss Dee very much.”

“Dee Jones is one the unsung heroes of Navy Football and the Naval Academy,” said Navy head football coach Ken Niumatalolo.  “Thirty years of dedicated service and care for thousands of midshipmen during her tenure is something I know she is very proud of.  She is a Hall of Fame Trainer who will be sorely missed by many.  So many of us have been blessed by Dee Jones- simply put; she was the best!”

“Thirty years go by in an instant. I have cherished each and every moment, especially working with such amazing leaders, administrators, coaches, physicians, athletic trainers and athletes,” said Jones.  “I came to work every day with a positive attitude, motivated to be the best I could be as the athletes tried to be their best.  I am humbled and inspired by the exceptional student-athletes I have worked with, marveling at the great people they have become; it has truly been my honor to serve my real-life heroes.  I will forever be one of Navy’s greatest fans.”

 

Jones was instrumental in facilitating a learning environment in the athletic training department at Navy. She initiated an internship program for undergraduate athletic trainer students that exposed them to the unique environment of the Naval Academy, while allowing them to gain the practical athletic training experience required to become certified. In addition, she created postgraduate internship positions that allowed recently graduated, certified athletic trainers the opportunity to work full-time in a high-level Division I athletics program.

Jones started in the ticket office at Navy and was appointed to the athletic training staff in March of 1987 and has taken care of thousands of student athletes during her tenure.

Jones received her Bachelor of Science degree in sports science from the University of Michigan in 1983 and completed the athletic training curriculum at West Chester University that same year.  Jones received her Master of Science degree in sports administration from the University of North Dakota in 1986.