Secondary School – Page 3 – Athletic Training Today

Posted on October 21, 2017November 12, 2017 by ATtoday

Football dream gone, teen faces a new future

Article reposted from The Albuquerque Journal
Author: Joline Gutierrez Krueger

He knew what he wanted.

Other kids in younger years had toyed with conventional ideas of what they wanted to be when they grew up – a firefighter, a doctor, a police officer, a nurse – but as teens they felt little pressure to decide which career path to choose.

JT Gallegos just knew.

He had always known, at least as far back as he can remember, at least as far back as that moment he threw his first football – which, his mother says, was about the same time he learned to walk.

“Since he was little, he has lived and breathed football,” grandmother Liz Martinez says. “JT plays basketball, too, but for him it was always football.”

Maybe that’s not surprising for a kid who grew up – way up – as the tallest and biggest kid in the class. He seemed made for the sport.

Sometimes, though, things don’t go as planned. Sometimes, the path we choose takes an unexpected turn.

So it was for JT. He’s 15 now, a hulking 6-foot-4, 200-pound sophomore on both the Rio Rancho High School junior varsity and varsity teams. On Sept. 25, he played his last game ever.

No one had seen that turn coming.

It was the fourth quarter of a home JV game against Volcano Vista High School, and the Rio Rancho Rams were down 32-47. JT had the ball and was running it back after a kickoff when he was tackled.

It wasn’t a particularly harsh tackle, as those things go, but it left JT feeling dizzy and his head hurt.

Still, when it was time to get back onto the field, he did.

That’s when he blacked out, clutching onto a teammate to help soften his fall facedown on the field.

He couldn’t move.

Parents Angie and Jason Gallegos and grandmother Martinez watched with horror in the stands.

“We were confused because there wasn’t a play,” his mother says. “We didn’t know what had happened to make him fall like that.”

As a young player, JT had been taught that unless he was really hurt he needed to “pop up” from the field right away after being knocked down so as not to freak out his mother.

This time, he couldn’t. And his mother freaked out.

“I kept saying, ‘He’s not popping up! He’s not popping up!’ ” she says.

So she did, racing down to the field with her husband not far behind.

As she made her way down, coach Jason Vance and athletic trainer Colby Aragon were gently easing JT onto his back. What they saw caused them to immediately grab their cellphones.

JT was taken by ambulance to Presbyterian Rust Medical Center in Rio Rancho, where for four hours he was unable to move more than a slight wiggle of a toe or a finger. His mother held his hand and tried not to cry.

In the hospital waiting room, dozens of football players, most still in their jerseys, the coaching staff, family and friends tried not to cry, too. They prayed.

By morning, TJ had regained his mobility, his injuries likely the result of a severe concussion and a spinal neck sprain from the previous tackle – or so his family thought.

After TJ was transferred to the University of New Mexico Hospital, further testing revealed a diagnosis that was far worse – os Odontoideum, a rare condition in which a small finger-like projection, called the odontoid process, from the second cervical vertebra in the neck is missing or malformed. The odontoid process keeps the first vertebra aligned and able to pivot. Without it, the underlying spinal cord is at risk.

So insidious is the condition that it is typically not diagnosed until after the patient is permanently paralyzed or dead.

“The surgeon says it was a miracle we found it this way,” Angie Gallegos says. “They’re surprised something worse didn’t happen sooner, given the sports JT has played.”

But, oh, what a cruel twist. That last tackle likely saved JT’s life, but it also took away a large part of it. Because of his condition, doctors have told him he must never play contact sports.

That includes football.

That, his mother says, has been hard to take. A teenager with his feet already firmly on a chosen path is not easily consolable.

“It hurts to think he will never step out on that field again,” she says. “We keep telling him God has a better plan for him. But right now it’s hard for him to see past football.”

This Sunday, a fundraiser featuring food and football will be held for JT and his family to defray medical costs. The JT Gallegos Youth Football Jamboree, as the event is being called, will feature four games between teams in the Northern New Mexico Children’s Football League, including the Punishers, the name of the team JT played on in his younger days.

Weeks from now, he will undergo a procedure to have his top two vertebrae fused together to stabilize his spine. Surgery is set for Nov. 22, the day before Thanksgiving.

Until then, he must wear a neck brace, even when he sleeps and showers.

He did not want to talk for this column.

He has lost what he wanted, but he still has the movement of his hands, the stride of his legs, the spirit of a champion, even though it may not feel that way just now.

What he still has is a life upright and time for new dreams, a new path. Someday TJ will know that. He will just know.

UpFront is a front-page news and opinion column. Comment directly to Joline at 823-3603, jkrueger@abqjournal.com or follow her on Twitter @jolinegkg. Go to www.abqjournal.com/letters/new to submit a letter to the editor.

Posted on October 21, 2017 by ATtoday

Arkansas Athletic Trainer dispenses care and advice for athletes

Article reposted from Times Record
Author: Buck Ringgold

It’s a typical afternoon inside the trainer’s room at Northside High School’s indoor athletic complex.

A Lady Bear volleyball player is getting treatment for her knee. A Grizzly football player needs some ice for his wrist. A Lady Bear tennis player comes in to have her ankles checked out. Other athletes begin streaming in, needing something for whatever ails them.

Northside’s longtime athletic trainer, Sherry Riggins, is used to the constant traffic of athletes streaming into her office.

“There’s a lot of people coming in here, especially during seventh period, because most of the athletic activities are going on that period, so we have multiple sports (athletes) coming in here and they need some kind of care before their practice gets started,” Riggins said. “But then I also do rehabilitation, and so sometimes after we get everybody ready for practice, then we do some rehabilitation, whether it’s knees, ankles or shoulders, so it’s a busy place.”

For more than 20 years, Northside athletes have been taken care of by the person affectionately referred to as “Miss Sherry.” She is calm but firm in her demeanor, dispensing advice just as much as she dispenses medicine for the athletes.

“I think most of the athletes want to be successful, and at a time and in their careers here in high school when there’s an injury, sometimes that can be very discouraging and devastating to them,” Riggins said. “But my job is not only to help them get well and be successful in their sports, but to be successful human beings in society and to give back.

“Actually, being an athletic trainer for me is like a calling, it’s not just a job because what I want to do is for them to be successful in life more than they do for athletics, because the percentage of any athletes going on into the professional (ranks) is not real large. So to be a successful person and to try to attain the goals they want to, that’s part of what my job is and part of the fulfillment of my job.”

Riggins, a Fort Smith native and Northside graduate, is currently in her 23rd year at her alma mater, and is in her 28th year as an athletic trainer. She’s seen a lot of changes over the years, from advancements in medicine to upgraded facilities.

But her biggest adjustment came once she set foot on Northside’s campus. Female athletic trainers at the time were generally uncommon, and there might have been some hint of skepticism from mainly male coaches. But Riggins said she was more than determined to prove her worth and that she belonged.

“I was probably one of the first female athletic trainers in Arkansas, so it was an adjustment for male coaches,” she said. “Females were not just in that profession in athletics, especially in Arkansas, so they had an adjustment. There probably was some that were very apprehensive, but that really didn’t bother me. All I wanted to do was prove myself as an athletic trainer and take care of the kids, and I felt like when that was accomplished, then all the apprehension would go away and it did.

“It was the general worries of being a female in a male population with male athletes, the apprehension there, but once they discovered that I knew what I was doing as an athletic trainer, that the male and female (dynamic) was not a problem any more.”

There were other obstacles when Riggins went to Northside after having previously served as a trainer at Ozark. It was a bigger school with more sports, which invariably meant there would be a more demanding schedule.

“The schedule probably was (a big adjustment) because it was very demanding, especially at a 7A high school,” she said. “You have multiple sports, so as far as that was concerned, as far as being comfortable, it was just adapting to the schedule and teaching others what athletic training was and what was needed and the facilities that I needed, so as far as being comfortable in my own skin, I was fine.

“I was an older athletic trainer, too; most of them had come out of college and I had a family and I had already been to college some, so I think being to my advantage was being an older female and that made it easier for the other coaches to accept.”

Riggins always had an interest in the medical profession growing up. But a skiing injury eventually forged the path to lead her to a career as a trainer.

“I was interested in medicine anyway, but I had two small children, so the medical field wasn’t a big possibility for me,” Riggins said. “But I always liked athletics, and our family was always involved in it. I had injured myself snow skiing and injured my knee, and when I came back, a friend of mine told me she had gone to a CPR class, and there was a gentleman there that was what they called an athletic trainer and that he worked with athletes, so she said you ought to go talk to him.”

That trainer was Tom Cantwell, who was Northside’s original trainer.

“When I went to talk to him, he discouraged me from going into the profession because of all the long hours, and because I had a family and I would have to commute to the University of Arkansas and that was before (Interstate 49) was built. … I was very interested in it, and my personality is if you tell me I can’t do something, I’m probably going to show you I can. So I commuted (to Fayetteville) for three years and got my degree.

Posted on October 20, 2017October 20, 2017 by ATtoday

20 years on, full-time athletic trainers help make Northwest Florida ‘envy of the state’

Article reposted from Pensacola News Journal
Author: Eric J. Wallace

You’ve seen them on your high school sports sidelines, and they’ve probably had a helping hand in taking care of your favorite young athletes.

For 20 years, certified athletic trainers from Baptist Health Care, and now the Andrews Institute, have provided on-the-spot medical care for high school athletes in Northwest Florida, be it managing hydration or emergency triage for on-field injuries.

The services have come at no cost to student-athletes and parents while the savings to institutions, which include 23 high schools and four small colleges across Escambia, Santa Rosa, Okaloosa and Walton Counties, often reach well beyond a school’s budget.

“It’s invaluable. We’re kind of the envy of the state because of the situation we’re in,” Escambia County athletic director Roger Mayo said. “That’s been a crucial situation.”

While it may be easy to take such services for granted — particularly when a generation of the area’s athletes have had the services since the program’s inception in 1997 — the situation in Northwest Florida is far from the norm.

According to a 2015 study published by the Korey Stringer Institute at the University of Connecticut — which studied 14,951 schools from all 50 states — 70 percent of public secondary schools in the United States had access to athletic-training services, with only 37 percent reporting full-time athletic training services.

That total is doubled from the 35 percent of schools that reported any access to athletic-training services in 1994.

But later studies from the Korey Stringer Institute indicated that budget concerns have limited the expansion of athletic-training services, despite a growing preference for them from school athletic directors.

It’s little surprise considering that the annual mean wage for athletic trainers in 2016 was $47,880, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Those wages alone, when multiplied across 27 schools across Northwest Florida, would creep into the millions.

Former FHSAA Executive Director Roger Dearing estimated in 2013 that it would cost nearly $30 million to have athletic trainers at every high school in Florida.

“No school district could afford that,” Mayo said. “You would have to start eliminating coaching supplements to be able to do that, but then you’re talking about a trainer having to have a curriculum to teach. Most athletic trainers don’t have teaching certificates.”

The costs alone have inspired some schools districts to find shortcuts for their athletic programs.

Be it first-aid trained coaching staffs or community volunteers from local clinics and hospitals, athletic directors have often chosen athletic trainers as a corner to cut when feeling bound by the budgeting decisions of superintendents and school boards.

Those corners may be cut in the name of financial necessity, but the cost can ultimately come on the shoulders of the student-athlete.

“I always like to point out that we’re a nationally certified profession,” said Kathleen McGraw, sports medicine coordinator at the Andrews Institute. “Most states require you to be licensed in the state that you’re going to practice in.”

“Our athletic trainers, as a profession, are on-site and out in the field wherever your field may be. It may be a court, it may be a field, it may be a dance studio or a backyard at your house. We’re at a bunch of different places and interacting with people in their environment.”

As awareness of the magnitude of sports injuries like concussions continues to grow, so too have the responsibilities of those entrusted with an athlete’s care.

Aspects of recovery that often weren’t addressed in a student-athletes’ day-to-day life – such as campus mobility and classroom accessibility – have become the domain of trainers.

“There are things that likely in the past got lost in the shuffle,” said Michael Milligan, M.D., team physician with Tate High School. “With us trying to educate with those things, anything that we can do to help our schools commit resources on behalf of student-athletes for health and safety is very important.”

Athletic trainers such as Crystal Evans – who has served as the Pace High School athletic trainer for 10 years – have become community regulars in the meantime.

Be it a lineman whose hand was stepped on or an ankle that plain went the wrong way, Evans stands on alert for each home athletic event at Pace High, leaning and supporting the Patriots with each dramatic turn of events.

Evans isn’t from Pace, nor was she even raised in the Pensacola area. Nonetheless she’s become a steadying presence for the area’s athletes, through injury, dehydration and all.

“I still live in Pensacola,” she said, “but sometimes it feels like (Pace) is home.”

Posted on October 16, 2017 by ATtoday

Kristin Vieira is Keeping Athletes Safe and Healthy

Article reposted from Calaveras Enterprise
Author: Guy Dossi

Kristin Vieira has seen more football games than most head coaches. For the past 14 years, Vieira has been on the sidelines nearly every fall Friday night. And while she has never called a play or come up with a defensive scheme, Vieira can change the outcome of a game with a single diagnosis.

Vieira is the head athletic trainer at Bret Harte High School and she is the one responsible for making sure the athletes are healthy enough to play, as well as attempting to fix them when they are hurt.

“I have the mentality of letting the coach coach, the refs ref and the trainers train,” Vieira said. “I’m just there to do medical and make sure they stay safe and healthy. That’s my main focus. I pick them up when they are broken and nurse them back to health.”

She’s keeping athletes safe and healthy — Kristin Vieira tapes up quarterback Ryan Kraft.

Vieira, who is a certified strength and conditioning specialist and also a nationally registered paramedic, made the decision to enter the field of sports medicine when she was 20 years old and attending California Polytechnic State University. She later transferred to California State University, East Bay, and later participated in a sports medicine internship at Diablo Valley College.

Vieira, who grew up in Hayward, was originally looking to go into pre-med orthopedic surgery, but the more time she spent in the athletic training room with some of her kinesiology classes, the more she realized she belonged on the sidelines.

“I really liked the hands-on aspect of working directly with the athletes at the time they got injured,” Vieira said. “I get to fix them and have a part in that. So, I like dealing with the immediate injury and figuring out what’s going on. I really liked the athletic training aspect of the sports medicine umbrella.”

A fateful day

Even though it has been 15 years, Vieira will never forget Aug. 19, 2002. It was her first day of her senior year of college and it was also the first day of contact football practice at Diablo Valley College. Vieira, who wasn’t an official athletic trainer yet, was at practice performing some of what would be her daily duties when out of nowhere, a 19-year-old player collapsed on the field.

Vieira, along with a first-year athletic training student, were the first to reach the player. The player told them that he had been hit a couple of times, but it was clear to Vieira that his condition was rapidly deteriorating. She summoned the head athletic trainers and CPR was immediately started.

The player was taken to a nearby hospital, where he subsequently died of what was believed to have been a brain stem hemorrhage. However, the autopsy came back inconclusive.

“That’s the one that has always stuck with me,” Vieira said. “Even though it’s been 15 years, every time I step out onto this turf, it’s always in a corner of my mind. It was one of those situations that totally could have broken me and it almost did. Instead of letting it break me, I took it as my drive to make sure that I do the best that I can do and make sure these guys are safe and taken care of.”

All on her own

In 2003, Vieira was named the head athletic trainer of the Summerville High School junior varsity football team. She was only 24 and was responsible for a team of 30. Vieira was ready to prove that she could handle the situation and perhaps was a bit too eager to convince not only herself, but the Summerville players and coaches that she belonged.

“I was actually kind of cocky, because I was fresh out of college,” Vieira said. “I had the, ‘I know it all,’ attitude. Now I’m a little more humble and actually rely on my peers to come up with answers and to help me.”

Vieira enjoyed her time working in Tuolumne County, but kept her eyes and ears open to anything available in her new hometown of Angels Camp. It wasn’t long until former Bret Harte head football coach Gordon Sadler Sr. got ahold of Vieira and made an offer that she couldn’t refuse.

“Gordon Sadler Sr., whom I called ‘Papa Sadler,’ said to me, ‘We need you. I want an athletic trainer and I want you to do the job.’ So, I said, ‘OK,’” Vieira said.

Since then, Vieira has spent the past 12 years on the Bret Harte sidelines. And in that time she has worked for four different head coaches. From Sadler to Scott Edwards and Jon Byrnes to current head coach Casey Kester, the one constant has been Vieira.

“I’d like to think that I have a good rapport with the kids,” Vieira said of what she believes is a reason for her longevity with the Bullfrogs. “I feel that I have a good rapport with the coaching staff and the administration here on campus.”

But one thing that Vieira hasn’t been able to fix is Bret Harte’s record. In 12 years, she has been involved with only one winning team and seen two playoff games. She has seen the good along with the absolute worst of Bret Harte football.

“It is hard for me because I do see the heartbreak in their eyes, especially if it’s a game where they played their hearts out,” Vieira said.

An absolute necessity

Having a certified athletic trainer on the sidelines and at practice is a valuable asset to any football team. However, it is currently not required in California. Often, coaches are responsible for taking care of the health of their players when that goes above their area of expertise.

“Coaches are not qualified, nor do they want the responsibility or liability of making medical decisions for their athletes,” Vieira said. “They feel way more comfortable having it put in the hands of a trained professional. I think the coaches realize that it’s a good thing to have around.”

Coaches aren’t the only ones happy that Vieira is around. The players have no problem going to her with questions and concerns regarding any bump, bruise, sprain or stiff muscle. And while some parents and coaches might not get the full answer from the athletes regarding injuries, Vieira has been around long enough to figure out exactly what is wrong.

“If they are not giving me straight answers or I’m not getting a good read of what’s going on, that’s actually the part of my job that I love the best,” Vieira said. “Because then I have to kick my brain into high gear and try to figure out what it could be. I try to piece things together from square one.”

There is nothing that Vieira hasn’t seen and nothing that she hasn’t heard from players. While some injuries are serious and need further medical attention, others can be fixed with something as simple as ice and rest. One of the biggest parts of Vieira’s job is helping the players recognize the difference between being hurt and being injured.

After 14 years on the job, Vieira has become fairly skilled at sniffing out real injuries among players who believe they are hurt more than they actually are.

“We’ve had kids where you think that they are dying out on the field and that I’m going to have the ambulance come out and haul them off, all because of the production that they are making,” Vieira said. “Then they end up being fine.”

A future on the sidelines

Vieira is a mother of three young boys. Her oldest is 8, the middle son is 4 and she has a 7-month-old son. So when the question arose regarding whether she would allow her own children play football, Vieira had an answer ready in her back pocket.

“My oldest is playing flag football and I’m fine with him doing that,” she said. “I have no problem with them playing football, if that’s what they want to do. However, my only rule is that I will not allow them to start playing tackle football until they are in eighth grade. Mainly, I want to make sure their bodies have more time to adequately develop without getting repetitive hits.”

So what happens when they suit up and begin playing tackle football?

“When they do start playing, I’ll have to retire,” laughed Vieira.

But until then, Vieira hopes to remain on the Bret Harte sidelines. And as long as she is there, win, lose or draw, the Bullfrogs will remain in good hands

Posted on October 16, 2017 by ATtoday

North Carolina Athletic trainers vital to success

Article reposted from Star News
Author: Tim Hower

Workload, hours comparable to football coaches

During the fall, Megan Hardy usually works between 14 and 16 hours on Thursdays and Fridays.

There are a couple breaks to sneak in lunch and dinner, but for the most part the West Brunswick athletic trainer is busy either teaching classes or preparing for a football game.

“They are long days, especially because I’m at school all day as a teacher,” said Hardy, who is in her 15th year with the Trojans.

While a lot of her work is done behind the scenes and not noticed by fans, it is appreciated by the coaching staff and players.

“To me, one of the most important positions on your staff is your trainer,” West Brunswick athletic director and former football coach Jimmy Fletcher said. “Megan is one of the only other people that is here as much as me, and I wouldn’t do this job without her.”

Testing for injuries

With players becoming stronger and faster, injuries are becoming more prevalent in the sport. Concussions have become a big topic of discussion over the past decade, especially at the youth and high school levels.

Prior to beginning practice, the N.C. High School Athletic Association mandates that every athlete must have a current physical and a concussion form signed by the student-athlete and their parent on file.

Each athletic trainer screens a possible concussion differently, but they are all looking for the same signs and symptoms.

“What I think helps the most for me is falling back on my clinical skills and also staying up to date on the most evidence-based practice,” said Hoggard athletic trainer Alex McDaniel. “There are a few articles that were put out by some clinical studies that were done in the NFL and the NCAA in the last few years that really nail down sideline assessment.”

If McDaniel suspects a player has a concussion, he puts them through an entire clinical evaluation on the sideline. The process usually last about five minutes.

“With motor function and sensory function of the upper body, we can determine their cranial nerves and see how intact they are,” McDaniel said. “Aside from cranial nerves, we do a test that is very similar to a DUI test called Romberg. It’s a set of balance and hand-eye coordination skills. After that, we do a memory cognitive skill test.”

McDaniel also adds a fourth test to assess the state of the player’s cervical spine nervous system.

If a player is diagnosed with a concussion, they must be free of all symptoms before beginning a gradual Return-to-Play progression, which has six stages that must be completed on different calendar days.

Taking caution
Most of the injuries athletic trainers deal with on a day-to-day basis and during games aren’t as severe as concussions.

Hardy treats a lot of cramping during the beginning of the season when the temperatures are still warm and the practices switch from mornings or evenings to right after school.

“It’s hard to simulate game tempo in practice,” Hardy said. “Our kids can get water whenever they want at practice, whereas in a game we can’t just stop in the middle of a long drive and send them over for water because they are thirsty.”

Ankles and knees tend to be the most common lower body injuries, especially during games when players are falling on top of each other during tackles.

The risk of putting an injured player back into the game and causing more extensive damage is something all athletic trainers deal with. It’s why the relations between them, the coaching staff and players is so important.

“The good thing of our coaches is that they really trust what I say,” McDaniel said. “Whenever I see an athlete with an injury, not only do I follow and adhere to our national standards and protocols, but I adhere to what best practice is as far as health care is concern. I do all types of functional return to play tests.”

“My coaches are really good to work with. They don’t want to jeopardize a kid’s safety, because they know there is stuff beyond high school sports,” Hardy added. “It’s important for us to win every Friday, but it’s also important for them to be able to have families and not have a catastrophic injury to worry about.”

Posted on September 30, 2017 by ATtoday

Ripley High School athletic director and athletic trainer works with students

Article reposted from The Parkersburg News and Sentinel
Author: JEFF BAUGHAN

Photo by Jeff Baughan Ripley High School Athletic Director and Athletic Trainer Steve Lough MS, ATC/R, AR, right, awaits players to come to his office/training room for pre-game taping.

RIPLEY — It’s a Friday morning for Steve Lough at Ripley High School. His watch says 7:15 a.m. By the time he leaves, it’s anywhere from 16 to 18 hours later.

It’s game night; Ripley hosts Riverside this night. As athletic director, Lough sees to it the athletic facilities are ready for the Warriors. He wears the AD cap from 3 p.m. to 5:15 p.m. That’s when the Ripley football team makes its way into his office to begin taping for the game. AD cap off, trainer cap on.

The letters following Lough’s last name are more letters than his last name. Officially, he is Steve Lough, MS, ATC/R, AR. That indicates a master’s degree in athletic training, athletic trainer certified and registered and athletic director.

Lough arrived in Ripley in 1997. He has served as the athletic trainer since and has been in the profession since 1994.

Around the room are plaques designating him as West Virginia Athletic Trainer of the Year for 2012 and 2015. The Mountain State Athletic Conference Athletic Director of the Year for 2015 and Jackson County Teacher of the Year for 2016. There is an article from Training and Conditioning Magazine featuring a story where Lough and staff had car washes and used the money to purchase athletic training equipment for Herbert Hoover, Richwood and Clay County high schools.

Photo by Jeff Baughan Ripley High School Athletic Trainer Steve Lough, right, retapes the ankle of J.T. Kemp during the fourth period of the game against Riverside after he had sprained the ankle in the first half.

Three schools which lost literally everything in the 2016 flooding.

Ripley has also received the National Athletic Trainers Association Safer Sports School Award, which is valid from 2017-2020. The school also had the award for 2014-2017. That banner hangs on a set of cabinets.

Lough’s athletic director’s office is unlike most. His office is also the training room. Students in his athletic training classes took the assignment of turning his office into a training room. The football locker room had been previously used for the players. There are two taping tables and three training tables in the room, along with supplies.

“They did quite a nice job with it actually,” he said. “It’s very functional.”

The students had incentive as well.

Photo by Jeff Baughan Ripley quarterback Braden Campbell, left, speaks with Ripley High School Athletic Trainer Steve Lough, center, and Lexi Price after coming to the sidelines after a play against Riverside.

“The locker room smelled, well, like a locker room. It didn’t have air conditioning either. My office,” he started to laugh, “it’s clean, doesn’t smell like a locker room and has air conditioning.”

There are 28 students in the athletic training I class he teaches. Juniors get classes I and II while III is for seniors only. In his white, bright and clean training room sits Lexi Price, a junior at the University of Charleston who is spending a semester working with the Ripley athletes.

She is from Ravenswood. She assists Lough in the pregame wrap jobs.

There are five high school assistants on hand, four females and one male who are assigned by Price to different duties throughout the game. They’re not hard to spot. They wear shirts which say “I like to run with scissors. It make me feel dangerous.” They really don’t run with scissors. They don’t carry scissors. Only Lough and Price carry scissors.

The students are: Kristen Yost, Anna Kimble, Kiersten Templin, Jami Crawford and Griffin Durst.

Photo by Jeff Baughan While cheerleaders and band members celebrate a first period Ripley touchdown, athletic training student assistant Anna Kimble fills water bottles for players.

The assistants receive polos, sweat shirts and t-shirts to wear on the sidelines. Not so much for them to be well dressed “but it makes them stand out to the coaches and easily identifiable,” Lough said. “Before the game, we all meet with the other team’s medical staff so they can recognize what we’re wearing that night.

“From 5:15 p.m. until after the game, I’m the trainer,” Lough said. “After I check on the injuries and getting things cleaned up, then I become the athletic director again. I have to make sure the soccer goals are in place and ready for Saturday when the football field becomes the soccer field.”

Riverside arrives shortly before 5 p.m. and the Warriors begin taping. A Riverside assistant coach walks to the office to inform Lough of a problem in the locker room. Trainer hat off; AD hat on. Lough takes care of the problem. Riverside coaches are happy and Lough comes back to his office. AD hat off and trainer hat on.

He waits for the Ripley players. A time schedule for Ripley players and pregame activities is written on the board so all know. His assistants check supplies. The players begin to trickle in. Most are needing ankles wrapped. Some are talking, some bouncing their heads to the tunes playing in their ears.

“We’ll tape about 700 ankles over the course of the school year in all sports,”Lough says. “We’ll go through 20-25 cases of tape a year, 32 rolls per case.”

Photo by Jeff Baughan Ripley High School athletic training student assistants, from left, Kristen Yost, Anna Kimble, Kiersten Templin, Jami Crawford and Griffin Durst watch players during warmups.

That’s somewhere between 5.45 to 6.81 miles of athletic tape. That’s a lot of taping and tearing. Lough said Ripley supports 19 teams in 12 sports. The tape is blue and white in Ripley colors.

Two Ripley players enter the room with casts. Cast wrap is not on the supply list for Lough. Stadium seats are plentiful. Lough pulls a pair of scissors from the back of his pants. In a matter of seconds, he pulls the seat’s foam interior out of the casing. Now he has cast wrap.

“Part of the job is adapting to what is available to you,” he said as he wraps the player’s cast in the foam. Some white tape holds the wrap in place and blue tape goes over that. The player is good to go.

The night’s officials are informed of the players with the casts; so is Riverside. They will meet with local EMS workers and Riverside’s medical team. The players’ cast wraps are approved.

The staff gathers water bottles and other supplies and begin their walk to Memorial Stadium, otherwise known as “Death Valley.” Their main function during pre-game is to hydrate players. It’s a warm night in Death Valley. Muscle cramps are preventable with lots of water. The shout of “water”during a timeout will have staff scrambling to provide water bottles for the players. Right now, they are scanning warmups for players gesturing for a drink.

Photo by Jeff Baughan Ripley High School football player Rocky Ford, left, awaits taping of his hand to begin by Lexi Price while Ripley High School Athletic Trainer Steve Lough puts a pre-wrap spray on the ankle of Ty Eshenaur before taping it.

Lough walks towards the field as well. He walks past the band boosters concession stand, where the smell of the hamburgers would make a lot of people stop, across the running track and takes a look at the Riverside bleachers. The Warriors have a 1-1 record coming to Ripley. The Riverside bleachers are nearly full. Lough, the AD, smiles a bit as he sees it will be almost a full house by kickoff. The smile fades as he resumes the role of athletic trainer.

“I love working with kids,” he says. “The health of the kids are important. It’s vital they receive proper care with concussions and injuries coming under the microscope. The student assistants are trained with backboards and they are part of the emergency action plan.

“They work hard. They’ll put in 240-250 hours from August to the end of football season,” he added.

The training program is in its eighth year. Lough states four graduates have gone on to athletic training careers.

It’s 7:30 p.m.; game time. It’s time to listen to the pads pop and helmets collide. Time to make sure everyone stands up after every play.

The night has its usual bumps and bruises although one first half Ripley injury sends Lough and Price to the middle of the field. The player is taken from the field on a stretcher and leaves in an ambulance with a leg injury. Lough is not happy with the expected outcome and declines to talk about the injury.

Riverside would hang Ripley’s first loss on the Vikings. It was a 33-28 decision in which Ripley closed late on a halfback option 52-yard scoring pass from J.T. Kemp to Brayden Campbell with 3:36 to play.

Ripley rode to St. Albans Friday, Lough and crew made the journey.

“I go everywhere the football team does,” Lough says. “I’m the trainer. That overrides the AD job if something is left to do here for Saturday. There are times you delegate.”

“It takes a lot people to make this program work right,” Lough said. “A lot of people giving a lot of hours. We’re making it work and it keeps the kids safe. That’s what this is all about.”

Posted on September 17, 2017 by ATtoday

Texas athletic trainers are a vital thread in the fabric of sports

Article reposted from LMTonline
Author: Clara Sandoval, Laredo Morning Times

Sports have many entities that are vital to the success of the overall program. Athletic trainers are a group of individuals who work behind the scenes to ensure the athletes are healthy and ready to perform week in and week out. They are an essential part of every program whether it be at the high school or middle school level. Both LISD and UISD employ at least two trainers for each school.

The local athletic trainers include: Alexander’s Wendy Gutierrez, Mario Saldivar and Victoria Lee Whitaker; Cigarroa’s Paula Garcia and David Reidenbach; LBJ’s Cindy De Hoyos and Jojo Villarreal; Martin’s Amanda Mancha and Michael Rodriguez; Nixon’s Marines Perez and Adriana Rodriguez; United’s Gaby Enriquez, Mike Nanji and Carlos Salinas; and United South’s Jonathan Cortazzo, Melissa De Hoyos and Javi Valverde.

“Our athletic trainers play a vital role with our athletes,” United head volleyball coach Lety Longoria said. “From training them on what foods to eat for best performance and output, to keeping their bodies healthy, our trainers do an amazing job day in and day out. They take care of our kids and listen to what problems they may have, and they do whatever it takes to help them. They also put in additional hours every day and travel with us to all our games. They build great relationships with our kids and with us as a staff to guarantee the best help and support. We love our trainers.”

Athletic trainers can be seen roaming the sidelines during all sporting events and are ready at a moment’s notice when an athlete goes down with an injury. Before becoming trainers, one must be accepted to an accredited university and then apply to an athletic training program during their sophomore year. The athletic trainers must accumulate a certain amount of observation hours and then take the state health department written and oral exam. After that, aspiring athletic trainers must perform a task in front of a panel of four before becoming certified.

An athletic trainer’s main responsibility is to ensure the safety of the athletes and rehabilitate them after an injury. This can make for long 14-hour work days, which at times result in 60-hour weeks.

“Every job has its challenges,” De Hoyos said. “Day to day we deal with broken bones, career-ending injuries and concussions. One of the challenges I would say is helping an athlete cope and understand the limitations of their injury so that they can invest their time in recovery as opposed to returning to play. The busy nature and demand of our profession sometimes make balancing family and work difficult, but we make it work.”

Whitaker grew up around athletics and has been around football ever since her father took up coaching 35 years ago. After high school, she attended Texas State University where she obtained a degree and entered the athletic training profession. Besides being an athletic trainer, Whitaker balances a family at home that includes husband Ralph and daughter Cami.

“I am blessed because I have a family-oriented staff,” Whitaker said. “We have learned to adapt to each other’s personal schedules. A work week can consists of games, practices and special events. A varsity game can last until 11:00 p.m. or 2:00 a.m.”

Adriana Rodriguez is a graduate of the University of Texas and was set on becoming a judge before she found her calling as an athletic trainer. She has been in the profession for eight years now at Nixon.

“By the end of my freshman year, I was already an officer of a law student organization working at the capitol and I held a summer job with a local attorney,” Rodriguez said. “I had already taken a practice entrance exam for law school and scored in the higher range, and I was advised by my mentors to switch majors because most law school students had similar majors and I needed something to set myself apart. So I looked into different majors at the university and came across the bachelors in science of athletic training.”

At Texas, Rodriguez was able to work alongside athletes including Kevin Durant, Dexterr Pittman, Vince Young, Colt McCoy, Jamal Charles, Sanya Richards and Cat Osterman.

“My passion for athletic training also comes from the passion that my high school coaches instilled in me and the love for the sports I’ve had since my freshman year of high school,” Rodriguez said. “I feel that sports allowed me to bond — it being my first time in the United States — and succeed since I had something in common with those kids, coaches and teammates as they encouraged me to get better with my English.”

The majority of the Laredo trainers were athletes in high school or sustained an injury during their playing days, which resulted in them spending time in a training room. That led them to where they are now.

“I was very involved in sports during high school,” said Mancha, a 2012 graduated from Angelo State. “During those four years, I sustained a few injuries and saw what it was like behind the doors of those that went away when they weren’t able to play. My senior year (and his first year at AHS) was the year that I found my calling. Mario Saldivar was a big influence on why I became an athletic trainer and what university I chose to attend. He’s still been a mentor for me throughout my years as a high school athletic trainer.”

Garcia, a graduate from Texas State, has been around Laredo athletics for the past 24 years now and started out at United before making the move to Cigarroa. She started out in the profession when athletic trainers had to teach a class at the high school. Now they are athletic trainers all day and have a very busy schedule after school with practices and games. She relishes her job and enjoys helping athletes get back on the playing field.

“Being an athlete all throughout high school made me want to have a profession that dealt with athletics,” Garcia said. “Being able to help athletes recover from an injury and return to the sport they love playing is great.”

Follow @LMTNews on Twitter for the latest news on high school athletics and other local sports.

Posted on September 17, 2017 by ATtoday

Washington high school athletic trainers are on the ball during games, practices

Article reposted from Kirkland Reporter
Author: Delaney Farmer

It’s Friday night and the game is under the lights. High school football players are executing the Xs and Os the coaches lay out for them. Hit after hit, down after down, these young athletes grind it out to obtain that hopeful win. Then all goes silent. A kid is laying down and slowly rolling on the ground in pain. An individual is seen sprinting out to this kid. It’s not the coach (although they are quickly behind). It’s not the parent (although they are headed down from the stands). It’s the school’s athletic trainer.

What is an athletic trainer? Athletic trainers are health care professionals recognized by the American Medical Association, Health Resources Services Administration and the Department of Health and Human Services as an allied health care professional who works with and collaborates with physicians. The services provided by athletic trainers include prevention, emergency care, clinical diagnosis, therapeutic intervention and rehabilitation of injuries and medical conditions.

The Washington State Athletic Trainers’ Association (WSATA) has organized a “Safety in Football” campaign to promote increased safety in football in the state of Washington. The campaign ran from Sept. 1–10. Across the state, athletic trainers are providing their clinical expertise every day to improve the overall health and safety of their athletes. Keep a look out for the WSATA sticker on the back of the Lake Washington High School football helmets as they show support for the “Safety in Football” campaign.

The Lake Washington School District wants its young athletes to play hard, but also to play safe. With this, all four comprehensive high schools have licensed and certified athletic trainers in their respective schools providing care to our young athletes daily:

• Maria Garsi, Eastlake High School

• Tad Katori, Juanita High School

• Delaney Farmer, Lake Washington High School

• Matt Martin, Redmond High School

You can find these four athletic trainers hard at work on the sidelines of their after-school sporting events, ensuring the safety of our young student-athletes. Whether the teams are winning or losing, the athletic trainer is there to manage the safety and well-being our student-athletes.

So, whether you are at a Friday night football game, weeknight soccer game, in the gym for a volleyball match or just around watching one of your kids as they practice throughout the week – know that your kids are being looked at and cared for by a licensed athletic trainer.

Posted on September 13, 2017 by ATtoday

The job is tough: Keep teens healthy and on the field

Article reposted from The Marietta Times
Author: JANELLE PATTERSON

With more knowledge than ever before on the impact of concussions on athletes, having fully qualified athletic trainers consistently on the field is in growing demand.

“We don’t want coaches having to make medical decisions,” said Tom Bartsokas, a sports medicine doctor leading the charge through Memorial Health System.

Four schools currently utilize the athletic trainer program offered through the health system, with a single trainer dedicated full-time to their students.

At Marietta High School it’s Madonna Buegel; Warren, it’s Arielle Baker; Waterford, Joslynn Trail; and Fort Frye it’s Brooke Daniell; all four serve on Bartsokas’ sports medicine team.

“It was a slow start at first since this school never had an athletic trainer before,” explained Daniell, 23, who lives just across the street from Fort Frye. “But after that first injury when the teams saw that student back on the field in less time and able to play well again, the kids started coming in to see me.”

The placement of a trainer on the field and at practice also offers greater piece of mind to athletic directors and coaches.

“In this day and age with the increased knowledge we have on concussions it’s an important piece of athletics to have that access to medical knowledge immediately,” said Rick Guimond,

athletic director of the Marietta City Schools District. “It provides an additional level of education to our kids.”

Guimond said assigning the athletic trainer to games of high-impact action like football and soccer take first priority, then those sports’ practices.

“But these services are available to all students within the district we serve, even band has access to what we offer,” said Bartsokas.

The program per school system costs $20,000 to put on, though not all districts are paying the full price just yet.

Frank Antill, treasurer for the Marietta City School District, said currently the high school is paying the same $11,000 price tag that was previously going to Ohio University to utilize a master’s athletic training student on a two-year rotation. Up the Muskingum River at Waterford High School the Wolf Creek Local School Board signed off on a $15,000 contract this past spring to be paid in half by the high school’s athletic boosters and half by the school district. Similar costs are assumed by the budgets of Fort Frye and Warren high schools’ athletics and boosters budgets.

“Right now Memorial is absorbing the remaining cost,” said Bartsokas. “We didn’t want to hit these schools with the full $20,000 price that they couldn’t afford out of the gate and not be able to provide our services.”

But Bartsokas sees the program growing over the years to become integrated into services provided by schools like speech pathology and counseling.

“Then those additional treatments can be billed directly to the parents’ insurances and I can see this becoming self-sustaining after a few years and maybe we could get rid of pay-to-play eventually,” said the doctor. “For now when the trainers are there at the practices and the games and during school giving treatments they all have access to me as well if they want me to look at test results or consult even if it’s a quick text.”

Madonna Buegel, 23, of New Matamoras, said she sees her role as three parts: preventative care, treatment and hopefully mentoring.

“I do a lot of preventative stuff here at the school too but if people want to think of it as someone who’s just waiting around for them to get hurt, then isn’t it better to have someone on hand that can immediately address that?”she said. “But because it’s also at the younger level these kids see me at the same level as their coaches or teachers and I want them to trust me that I want to get them back to playing and healthy just like they want to play.”

For senior soccer player Dakota Lee, 17, of Marietta, having Buegel on hand has been a blessing.

“She does amazing things for us and always makes sure we’re healthy and 100 percent ready for a game,” he said. “This is the second year I’ve had a trainer at every game and she can do all the tests on us right on the field and get us back to playing quickly instead of having to wait to even get in to see a doctor … we know what’s going on there (at the field).”

Get to know your athletic trainer

≤ Fort Frye High School: Brooke Daniell.

≤ Marietta High School: Madonna Buegel.

≤ Warren Local High School: Arielle Baker.

≤ Waterford High School: Joslynn Trail.

Source: Memorial Health System.

Posted on September 9, 2017 by ATtoday

Getting to Know Athletic Trainer Eddie Knox

Article reposted from Gwinnett Prep Sports
Author: Christine Troyke

Eddie Knox, who grew up in Augusta, is the athletic trainer at Mountain View and in his second year as a teacher at Grayson. He got his degree at Valdosta State, during which time he worked for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers during consecutive summers. As a senior, Knox accepted an intership at Sports Medicine South in Gwinnett and was later hired full-time.

In this installment of “Getting to Know …,” Knox talks with staff writer Christine Troyke about a variety of topics, including growing up in a military family, bringing pro-level care to high school athletes and the one TV show he DVRs.

CT: Where did you grow up?

EK: Kind of everywhere. I’m a military child. I was born in Virginia, but if I was to say I grew up anywhere, it would probably be Augusta. My dad was stationed at Fort Gordon. But right here in Georgia is where I’ve spent most of my life.

CT: How long were you in Augusta?

EK: Close to 14 years. We traveled around in Germany, but I was really young at that point. My dad was in the Army for about 23 years. We were stationed at Fort Lee in Virginia for three years and after that is when we went to Germany. He did a tour there for two years. Shortly after that is when we officially moved to Fort Gordon. Luckily enough, we were able to stay in Augusta. I was there from elementary school through high school.

CT: What sports did you play?

EK: Football, track and field, and basketball.

CT: What was your best sport?

EK: The sport I was getting recruited in was football and then also track and field.

CT: Looking back, how would you scout yourself?

EK: I was a do-it-all football player. I definitely wasn’t a three- or four-star like some of these guys in Gwinnett County, but I was a do-it-all hard worker. I was easy to get along with — Yes, sir. No, sir — and coaches liked that.

CT: What was your college decision-making process like?

EK: Ultimately I knew I wanted to do something in medicine. I didn’t know exactly what I wanted to do in the field, but selecting colleges, No. 1, I wanted to move as far away from home as I could. (laughing) So that was Valdosta. But also, at that point, I was still interested in the military and they had a good ROTC program there. For that reason and also because they had a strong athletic training/sports medicine program, I decided to go down there.

CT: When did you figure out athletic training was really the direction you wanted to go?

EK: Probably my sophomore year. I started out as premed and then after more research and talking to people, you understand medical school is like 16 years. I didn’t know if I was quite ready for that, at that age.

CT: And a truckload of debt.

EK: I definitely took that into consideration. I love sports and I love medicine. Athletic training is born out of that.

CT: What was your first job ever?

EK: (laughing) I was an apprentice with an electrician. Way back then, I thought that’s what I wanted to do. I came from a blue-collar family. My best friend’s dad was an electrician. He owned his own business. So I would ride around Augusta with him in a 1976 Chevy van and I would do simple stuff. It was a really cool thing. I actually loved it.

CT: What was your first job out of college?

EK: I came up here to Atlanta and started working in an orthopedic office with Dr. (Gary) Levengood. I was an athletic trainer doing clinical outreach. I started there first and branched out into the community from there.

CT: How long ago was that?

EK: Close to nine years. I was there from 2009 until just this past year.

CT: What precipitated the move to Mountain View?

EK: I’ve always done clinical outreach and Mountain View has been my school as far as sports medicine care for about eight years. But what I would do is work in the morning in the clinic and then come here to take care of the sports medicine program.

CT: Now you’re just here?

EK: No, I teach now. That’s something new. I actually teach sports medicine at Grayson High School.

CT: I didn’t know sports medicine was an option. How long have they offered that?

EK: For a while. There are two type of sports medicine classes, but to make it easy, I’d say close to 15 to 20 years. Sports medicine has really changed over the years so they continue to add in curriculum.

CT: What appeals to you about working with high school athletes? You’ve worked at all levels, college and also with the Tampa Bay Bucs.

EK: There’s so much opportunity for better care at the high school level. That’s really what motivates me. When you look at other (levels), they really have everything they need. The major Division I and II colleges, they’ve got everything. So how can we assimilate what they have at the NFL and college level and help bring that to high school athletes? They’re the most vulnerable to injuries.

CT: Is the hardest part of the job getting an athlete to admit they’re hurt?

EK: (chuckling) If they’re an athlete, yeah, it’s hard to get them to admit if they’re hurt. But every athlete has a different personality and it’s trying to match their personality with your skill of care. It’s important. You may have an athlete that’s really aggressive that wants to get back on the field where we have to meet our skill of care to that.

CT: It’s interesting how coaching and athletic training run parallel in ways, especially when it comes to sports psychology and understanding how athletes are motivated.

EK: No doubt about it. Actually, the history of athletic training, 50 years ago, before we really saw official certification, a lot of coaches were athletic trainers. It’s natural. Everybody here calls me Coach Knox.

CT: Is this your first year teaching?

EK: Second.

CT: How’s it going?

EK: I love it. I love mentoring kids and to me, it’s not just about teaching, it’s about connecting kids and helping them toward their future. I really love it.

CT: What was it like working for the Bucs?

EK: That was actually done, they had a program with the Bucs, and I really credit our program director at Valdosta State, Russ Hoff. He really was the one that directed me and gave me the opportunity to work down at Tampa Bay. It really gives you an idea of what it’s like to work in the NFL. One thing I got out of it is it’s a lot of work. You’re trying to add small systems to large systems.

It was definitely an experience I will always remember. I gained a lot of experience on how to conduct myself professionally and what hard work means. Then how is information communicated throughout the team. But working there was awesome.

I’ll never forget the first hit that I heard. It sounded like a trainwreck. It was amazing. You appreciate the game and sport at that level. It’s different than watching it on TV.

CT: And like you said, the level of care is unparallelled.

EK: They have everything. They had just renovated the whole facility. They have everything you can thing of to make sure the athletes stay safe and healthy.

CT: Were you a senior when you interned with Sports Medicine South?

EK: It was an externship. So for a whole year, I was still in school, but I was off campus in Atlanta. It was their way of getting on-the-field experience and 12 credits at the same time.

CT: Can you detail all of your responsibilities when it comes to this job?

EK: (laughing) Oh, man. I can give you the five domains: prevention, treatment, recognition of injuries, administration and management. Whatever you can think of that falls under that is what we do. We do everything on behalf of the athlete.

Athletic training has really evolved, I think for the better. It’s a lot of responsibility, but it’s a lot of things we do for the kids to make sure they have a safe environment to play and practice in.

CT: What kind of music do you listen to most often?

EK: I love 2000s hip-hop. That’s my era. Kendrick Lamar is really big on my list right now. We actually just recently saw him in concert. I love country, too. Now, I couldn’t tell you a country artist’s name, but I turn on the station and jam out. I listen to everything honestly.

CT: Who would you like to see in concert if money were no object?

EK: If I could bring them back, I would probably say Tupac. He was talking about real stuff that was happening in society.

CT: Are there TV shows you DVR?

EK: I don’t really have time to watch TV, but the one show I do DVR is “ABC World News.” That’s the one show I watch when I get home because I have to figure out what’s going on.

CT: Are there movies you will always watch?

EK: “Rush Hour.” It’s one of my favorites of all time.

CT: How many U.S. states have you been to?

EK: Really, not that many. Maybe about seven. All along the eastern seaboard.

CT: Is there a part of the country you haven’t seen that you would like to?

EK: I would love to go up to Maine and that area. The scenery up there has to be awesome — and I love seafood. That’s the main thing (laughing).