Tag: Athletic Trainer

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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).

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Protecting student-athletes from heat, head injuries

Article reposted from My AJC
Author: Michael Ollove

Another high school football player, this one a 14-year-old in New York, collapsed on the field and died last week, possibly the result of high heat and humidity.

The death of Dominick Bess of apparent cardiac arrest came at a time when thousands of high school athletes have returned to practice fields. It again raises the question of whether states are doing enough to ensure that student-athletes are safe as they collide into one another, run wind sprints, or dig in against hard-throwing pitchers.

Nearly 8 million kids participated in high school sports last year, the most in U.S. history. The shocking deaths of young student-athletes have prompted some states to weigh major changes.

The California Legislature is considering a bill that would bring athletic trainers under state regulation. Others, including Texas and Florida, are strengthening policies on training during high heat and humidity and on the use of defibrillators during sporting events and practices. They are also moving to require schools to devise emergency plans for managing catastrophic sports injuries. And in response to growing concerns about concussions, the state of Texas recently embarked on the largest study ever of brain injuries to young athletes.

But overall, a just released study of state laws and policies on secondary school sports found that all states could do more to keep high school athletes safe. And some have a long way to go.

The study has prompted a strong pushback, including from the national organization that represents state high school athletic associations. But it also has encouraged some athletic trainers and sports medicine physicians who hope poor rankings will impel their states to make improvements and avoid exposing student-athletes to needless risk.

“I was embarrassed we were last,” said Chris Mathewson, head athletic trainer at Ponderosa High School in Parker, Colo., speaking of his state’s showing in the study’s ranking of state safety efforts. “My hope is it will kick people in the pants and get people to do something about it.”

The rankings were devised by the Korey Stringer Institute (KSI), also known as Stringer, which is a part of the University of Connecticut and provides research, education and advocacy on safety measures for athletes, soldiers and laborers engaging in strenuous physical activity. It was named for a Minnesota Vikings offensive lineman who died of heat stroke during a preseason practice in 2001. His death sparked changes in NFL training practices and influenced reforms at the college and high school levels as well.

The rankings are based on whether states have adopted more than three dozen policies or laws derived from recommendations published in 2013 by a task force that included representatives from KSI, the National Athletic Trainers’ Association and the American College of Sports Medicine. The recommendations cover such areas as prevention of heat stroke, cardiac arrest and head trauma, as well as qualifications of school athletic trainers and educating coaches in safe practices.

Some state athletic associations, including Colorado’s, and the National Federation of State High School Associations, known as NFHS, which represents the associations that govern high school extra-curricular activities, have objected to the methodology of those rankings. They say it relies too much on information found on the websites of state athletic associations while failing to note efforts those groups have undertaken to reduce risks to high school athletes.

“By ‘grading,’ state high school associations based on a limited number of criteria, KSI has chosen to shine a light on certain areas, but it has left others in the dark,” said Bob Gardner, NFHS executive director. He pointed to steps his group and its members have taken related to safe exertion in heat and humidity, use of defibrillators and tracking head injuries, which Stringer didn’t take into account.

In Colorado, Rhonda Blanford-Green, commissioner of the state’s High School Activities Association, said officials are “comfortable and confident that our (policies) meet or exceed standards for student safety.”

She complained that Stringer’s methodology is too rigid. For example, she noted that Stringer penalized states that did not require that all football coaches receive safety training taught by USA Football, the governing body for amateur football. But, she said, Colorado coaches are trained in other programs that she described as more comprehensive.

She also noted that her association was penalized because it made policy recommendations to its high school members, rather than making them requirements, as Stringer prefers.

The scholastic association in California, which finished just ahead of Colorado, also objected to the survey. Its executive director, Roger Blake, suggested that funding was a chief barrier to progress.

California Interscholastic Federation “member schools will need more funding, more AEDs (automated external defibrillators), more athletic trainers and more research to help support our efforts to minimizing risk,” Blake said. “With the assistance of everyone who cares about young athletes, including KSI, we can continue to progress.”

Between 1982 and 2015, 735 high school students died as a result of their participation in school sports, according to the National Center for Catastrophic Sport Injury Research at the University of North Carolina. The vast majority of those deaths were related to football, and three-quarters of the overall deaths were attributed to cardiac arrest, respiratory failure or other ailments associated with physical exertion. The rest were linked to trauma, such as head injuries.

More of those deaths occurred in the 15 years prior to the year 2000 rather than the 15 years after — likely a reflection of the fact that most of the policies and laws pertaining to safety in high school sports were put in place after 2000, particularly in the last nine years.

In 2014-15, the last year for which there are statistics, 22 high school athletes died, 14 of them football players.

Some of the reforms carry the names of student-athletes who died while participating in school sports. That was true in North Carolina after the 2008 death of Matthew Gfeller, a 15-year-old sophomore linebacker who died in the fourth quarter of his first varsity game in Winston-Salem after colliding helmet-to-helmet with another player.

Now a foundation and a brain injury research institute at the University of North Carolina are named after Matthew. His name and that of another North Carolina high school football player, Jaquan Waller, who died the same year as a result of on-field head injuries, are attached to a 2011 North Carolina law that specifies concussion education for coaches and concussion protocols to be followed in high school athletics.

“Was the information out there in ’08?” said Matthew’s father Robert, who created the foundation. “No, but it’s out there now, big time.”

Despite the progress, the Stringer rankings demonstrate the distance many athletic trainers and doctors believe states still need to go to protect student-athletes.

For instance, although North Carolina finished No. 1 in the Stringer rankings, it has adopted only 79 percent of the laws or policies used in the rankings. In particular, Stringer found the state hadn’t done enough to make certain that defibrillators — and people trained to use them — were present at sporting events.

Many athletic trainers, such as Jason Bennett, president of the California Athletic Trainers’ Association, say the rankings should create urgency in his state and others. “This is life and death,” Bennett said. “The sad thing is that in many of these cases, the deaths were 100 percent preventable.”

California fared particularly poorly because it is the only state that does not regulate athletic trainers.

“Sometimes it’s the school’s janitor or maybe a friend of the coach,” said Democratic California Assembly member Matt Dababneh, who introduced a bill that would create state licensure for athletic trainers. “These are people who are making decisions about whether a kid who has just been hit in the head can safely go back into a game. And they have no qualifications to make that decision.”

The bill would not require all schools to employ an athletic trainer, although that’s exactly what many athletic trainers and sports medicine doctors say would best ensure the safety of student-athletes.

“The No. 1 thing we can do to make high school and youth sports safer is to have athletic trainers at any sporting event,” said Michael Seth Smith, co-medical director of a sports medicine program at the University of Florida focused on sports medicine for adolescents and high school students.

A survey from Stringer and others published this year found that fewer than 40 percent of public secondary schools in the U.S. had a full-time athletic trainer.

Mathewson, the athletic trainer in Colorado, said he has little sympathy for smaller schools who say they can’t afford athletic trainers. “If you can afford to put a football team on the field, you should be able to afford an athletic trainer.”

In a number of places, including in Florida and North Carolina, hospitals subsidize athletic trainers working in public schools, some in the expectation that after a year or two, the school district will pick up the costs.

Aside from the salary of an athletic trainer, schools could adopt most of the best practices at an initial cost of $5,000 and an outlay of less than $2,500 a year thereafter, according to Springer CEO Doug Casa.

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Few Oklahoma schools have athletic trainers, which could prove dangerous for student athletes

Article reposted from ABC 8 Tulsa
Author: Charles Ely


The Oklahoma Athletic Trainers Association is conducting a campaign to improve the safety of high school athletes.

That group reports 9 percent of Oklahoma high schools have trainers on staff and less than 30 percent have access to a professional trainer.

They said that ranks us last in the U.S. where the average is almost 75 percent.

In Jenks, they have a full training staff and facilities. That district has made the investment because sports injuries can have long-term consequences if not handled properly.

Head athletic trainer Michael Catterson says that starts immediately after an injury takes places.

Catterson said, “In the case of broken bones, if they’re not splinted properly they can cause more damage. Concussion on the sidelines or cervical neck injuries, a lot of times in our profession we have to prepared for the worst-case scenario.”

He said those injuries that get fast and proper care tend to heal more quickly.

At peak times in Jenks, they can be treating 60 or 70 of 1,000 kids who take part in sports.

Since good care up front is crucial, this state’s trainers are pushing to get more help on the sidelines.

Darren Lunow is the president of the Oklahoma Athletic Trainers Association and he said schools have done it during the budget crisis.

Lunlow said, “They’ve filled some of their science or math teaching positions with athletic trainers. They’ve likewise brought athletic trainers in as risk management for their entire district. They’ve seen their liability insurance go down.”

There’s also a trade off in the fact that the more care the school provides the less it costs the parents.

Having care on campus is very efficient for everyone. It means fewer trips to a doctor’s office and more time with the books.

Catterson said, “They don’t have to miss school to get their therapeutic exercise. They can do it here during sixth hour or before school.”

Only about half the schools in the Tulsa metro have athletic trainers.

Lunlow said the farther you go from our big cities, the lower the number.

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SDSU’s Steve Fisher: How California can keep athletes safe

Article reposted from San Diego Union Tribune
Author: Steve Fisher

It’s every parent’s nightmare: You’re watching your son play basketball and all of a sudden he collapses. You don’t know what’s happening, how to help or even if he is going to be all right.

In my tenures as head basketball coach at San Diego State University and University of Michigan, all of the players under my charge were my sons. I still remember vividly watching Dwayne Polee II running down the court and suddenly collapsing in a 2014 SDSU game against UC Riverside. Polee may have been in a world of hurt if it weren’t for our certified athletic trainer at the time, Tom Abdenour, who was formerly the head athletic trainer for the Golden State Warriors.

I credit Abdenour with helping save Polee’s life by implementing crucial emergency procedures to restart his heart.

But, every day, Californians are putting their athletes at risk because there are not enough athletic trainers and the ones we have are unregulated.

In fact, according to a recent study by the University of Connecticut’s Korey Stringer Institute, we are ranked second to last in the nation for implementing policies that are intended to keep the state’s more than 785,000 high school athletes safe every year and help prevent sudden death and catastrophic injury.

One critical reason for this appalling rating is that California is the only state that does not regulate athletic trainers — professionals charged with the prevention, treatment and rehabilitation of injuries and illnesses sustained by athletes and other individuals of all ages. Athletic trainers are the medical experts on the sidelines and a player’s first line of defense when an injury occurs.

I was lucky that the schools I worked at had certified athletic trainers to protect our talented athletes, but many athletes are not so fortunate.

Every state except ours requires that anyone who is hired as an athletic trainer has the required education and certification to provide lifesaving care. In California, anyone can be hired to act as an athletic trainer and provide treatment to athletes.

“Unqualified individuals are falsely representing themselves as athletic trainers to California athletes and their family members,” said Dr. Cindy Chang, a UC San Francisco clinical professor and past president of the American Medical Society for Sports Medicine. “We’re aware of serious mistakes that have resulted from this lack of licensure.”

Last school year, the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF), surveyed 1,406 high schools across the state and found that more than 45 percent of high schools did not have an athletic trainer. Of those that did, more than 15 percent had an athletic trainer who was not certified.

That means more than 60 percent of our kids who play high school sports are at risk of not having a qualified athletic trainer to protect them in cases of cardiac arrest, concussions and heat illness, among other issues.

Even if your school has a certified athletic trainer on its staff, when athletes play at other schools, there’s no guarantee these institutions do.

To keep our athletes safe, Assemblyman Matt Dababneh, D-Woodland Hills, has introduced Assembly Bill 1510, which would require individuals to be certified by the Board of Certification before they can call themselves “athletic trainers” — notably, at no cost to taxpayers.

This bill has tremendous support, including from the American Medical Society for Sports Medicine, American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine, CIF, NCAA, National Federation of State High School Associations and nearly 40 other organizations.

I credit San Diego State’s athletic trainers as members of the core team that make the Aztecs’ success possible. Multiple severe ankle problems, dislocated fingers and other injuries are common in basketball. It’s imperative that teams have a certified athletic trainer on-site to address them.

I’ve seen athletic trainers rehabilitate incoming athletes who were injured and may have had their careers halted before they even began, such as Tim Shelton and Chase Tapley, who both played on SDSU’s 2010-11 basketball team, with a school record 34-3 season and SDSU’s first Sweet 16.

Concerned athletes, parents and community members can keep our players safe by learning more at the California Athletic Trainers’ Association’s website at ca-at.org and supporting AB 1510. Parents should also ask their children’s schools if they have a certified athletic trainer on staff, and verify athletic training credentials at www.bocatc.org/public-protection.

As Dababneh said, “No parent should wonder if their child will be safe on the field or court.”

Fisher was the head basketball coach for San Diego State University from 1999-2017 and is also known for coaching as the University of Michigan, where his team won the 1989 NCAA championship and where he later coached the Fab Five. He currently holds a part-time role with SDSU’s athletic department.

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Charleston Southern Athletic Trainer Healing Hearts and minds with hope

Article reposted from The Post and Courier
Author: Warren Peper

What did you do this summer? Just chill? Lounge at the beach? Listen to a cool mountain stream?

My guess is that few of us experienced anything close to what Hanan Sokol saw.

Sokol, while attending a service at Seacoast Church, learned of an opportunity called Bread of Life Africa. After a little soul searching, he felt compelled to join 10 others on a missionary trip to Turkana, Kenya.

From June 9 to 23, he lived in the desert.

Sokol works as an athletic trainer at Charleston Southern University. Educated to provide hands-on therapy for injured athletes, this trainer’s two weeks ministering and interacting with people living in grass huts opened his eyes and heart in ways he never expected.

The women draw water from a well and often walk 2 or 3 miles to retrieve it. The children wear no shoes, yet constantly display blinding smiles.

They speak a language that has no word for “sad.” Their primary emotional expression is laughter.

The harsh environment is unrelenting. There were flies everywhere during the day but thankfully no bugs at night. Sokol often slept outside on an inflatable mattress under the stars.

One day, the team made bricks out of clay and water. They shaped ’em, slapped ’em, packed ’em and stacked ’em to dry under the African sun. The bricks would be used to construct a center for widows.

A little first-aid kit

In Sokol’s backpack he brought some simple tools of his trade just in case. Gauze, ointments, hydrogen peroxide and bandages were included. It wasn’t that he thought he might have to wrap someone’s sprained ankle, he just wanted to be prepared.

Sokol doesn’t believe in coincidences. He firmly believes what The Bible states, “that all things work together.”

A few days after the team arrived, he met 7-year-old Anna. Weeks earlier, a snake bit one of her fingers. There are only two types of snakes in the region, a rattlesnake and the black mamba.

The little girl’s finger had been given minor attention by a field medic at the time of the bite, but there had been no treatment since. The bandage was dirty and soaked with blood. The finger was black and infected.

Sokol opened his makeshift first-aid kit and went to work. He cleaned the wound, changed the dressing and even gave her some generic antibiotics that he’d brought in his bag.

For the next seven days, Anna returned to the base compound to see Sokol. Her village was 3 miles away, but she walked to see him every day. When she arrived, Sokol would clean the infected area and apply a new dressing.

By the time Sokol said goodbye to Anna, new skin was growing, the bite marks had disappeared and only some dead skin was apparent on the tip of the finger.

Mission and memories

Without cell service or internet access, it’s easy to feel isolated and out-of-touch in such areas of the world. In a strange way, though, Sokol and his group became even more connected to the villagers they met during that two-week stay.

The compound did have a generator that allowed Sokol to charge his phone each night.

Why did having a cell phone become important without any service? Many of those children had never seen their own faces. They didn’t know how they looked.

Seeing themselves in a photo created a new reality. Hearing that each one of them mattered opened new understandings of love that stretched far beyond their homeland.

As Sokol treats the college athletes in his care with heating pads, knee braces and Kinesio tape, his mind wanders to those children in Kenya. When he gets a quiet moment, he’ll pull out his phone and start scrolling through the photos.

Little Anna’s smile and healing finger always lifts his spirit and immediately makes him smile. It also serves to remind him how big a difference a little first-aid kit can make.

Reach Warren Peper at peperwarren@gmail.com.

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The 12th Man

Article reposted from Georgia Public Broadcasting
Author: Sam Crenshaw

They are a vital part of Football Fridays In Georgia; although, they seldom come onto the field. They are present on the sidelines and if all goes well, they will remain there throughout the night. Certified athletic trainers have become a necessary part of the high school football scene. A trained healthcare professional can provide an advantage that makes them more like a 12th man to the team that they serve, but it wasn’t always that way.

For many years there was nobody with any medical training on the sidelines during high school football games. Most of the time it was a coach, maybe the head coach, who had to decide if the player continued to play after an injury. Wrapping and taping was basically what they did, but the role of trainer wasn’t reserved just for coaches.

“In 1996, at Brookwood, we had a mortician working as a trainer on the sidelines,” remembers Dr. Gary Levengood. “He was giving the coach heart medicine and the coach didn’t have a heart problem.”

The next year, Levengood, Founder of Sports Medicine South, saw to it that Brookwood had a certified athletic trainer. Levengood appealed to Gwinnett Medical Center to get involved. “As a community outreach, we needed to have athletic trainers at all of the high schools in the county,” says Levengood. “We need to have someone on the sideline during the game and at practice during the week”.

It makes sense, having someone assigned to a school to be at the games and at practices allows the trainer to observe the player more and develop a one-on-one relationship. In so doing, that training earns the respect and trust of parents and school administrators. “The trainers being around the kids all year is a huge advantage in treating them,” says Dr. Dale Yake, CEO of PT Solutions. “We know how to get them back on the field and get them back on safer so they don’t end up with a bigger injury.”

These days the most important role of the athletic trainer on Friday nights is the diagnosis and treatment of concussions. Not only are they helping today’s players, but they are also helping to preserve the game for the future. “Concussions are what is going to kill this sport.” says Levengood ” It’s causing parents to reconsider whether their kids should play football or not.”

Dr. Yake agrees that head injuries could have a bad impact on the sport’s future. “I’m on the Board of Directors of the Concussion Legacy Foundation in Boston,” says Yake. ” Managing the game is key. When we recognize concussion symptoms we manage that quickly and [try to] not allow a second impact.”

Yake also likes the trends of playing flag football before the age of 14 and high schools limiting full contact at practice to once a week. Levengood sums up the future this way, “As long as we train and do the needed things up front we’re going to be ok. ”

Certified athletic trainers making a difference on Friday nights around our state. It sounds great, but here is a downside. Not all schools or school systems in the state have athletic trainers. In fact, there are probably more schools that don’t have trained medical professionals than those that do. Sure, there is a cost, and not all can hire the athletic trainers to be at the schools on game night and throughout the week for practice. This means that there are some games that are played without athletic trainers on either sideline. The trainers are not mandated by the GHSA. In fact, the GHSA only mandates that emergency vehicles be in place at playoff games.

Sports Medicine is a growing field in our state. I find it difficult to believe that there isn’t a way to get interns and apprentices to be on sidelines on Fridays and visit practice at least once a week during football season. You would think that there would be an entity, institution or organization that would find it worthwhile to help provide an extra measure of safety for the young people that bring our communities so much pride and excitement on football Fridays.

The one organization that comes to mind for me is the National Football League Players Association. Georgia is the home of more retired NFL players than any other state. Each year scores of former Georgia high school players get to live the ultimate dream of playing in the National Football League. Why not unite NFLPA past and present to create a fund to help provide athletic trainer interns and apprentices for high schools that need them around the state. It would only require a modest donation from current players and would produce a living legacy for the NFL Alums. Consider it an investment, an investment in the health of the future of Football Fridays in Georgia.

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Legislation urges California to require licensure of athletic trainers

Article reposted from The Galt Herald
Author: Kerensa Uyeta-Buckley

Forty-nine states, as well as the District of Columbia, require athletic trainers to be licensed and certified, including those that work at high schools.

California is the odd man out in this scenario, and Assemblymember Matt Dababneh is hoping to improve prep athletes’ safety with a bill that will be heard in the California State Assembly and Senate in 2018.

Dababneh introduced Assembly Bill 1510, known as the Athletic Training Practice Act, earlier this year with the goal to make sure that athletic trainers that work with high school athletes are licensed, as well as creating the Athletic Trainer Licensing Committee within the California Board of Occupational Therapy.

The Korey Stringer Institute of the University of Connecticut ranked California second to last for its level of preparedness or the amount of safeguards it has in place in regard to high school athletes’ safety to prevent catastrophic injury or sudden death.

Both Galt High School and Liberty Ranch High School employ athletic trainers who are certified.

However, approximately 30 percent of people who call themselves athletic trainers in California are not qualified to treat athletes, according to the California Athletic Trainers’ Association.

Dababneh said that he created the bill upon researching high school athletic trainers in the state and finding incidents where injuries occurred, leading him to want to ensure the highest measures are taken when it comes to prep sports safety.

“Every year we see a number of very tragic stories in the state where you’ll have an athlete collapse on the field, and we’ve seen a number of stories like that. It’s something where you might not realize there’s a direct correlation because you don’t always know the warning signs,” Dababneh told The Galt Herald on Aug. 21.

A former high school athlete himself, Dababneh still feels the effects of some minor injuries to this day and feels that some players have a desire to get back on the field quickly but that strict measures to enforce athletic trainers’ regulations might help prevent long-lasting injuries or even death.

The study cited that the leading causes of death among secondary school athletes are: sudden cardiac arrest, traumatic head injuries, exertional heatstroke, and exertional sickling.

“I started going back to my district and started talking to coaches, physical education teachers, etc. I know, as a student athlete, you always want to play. You think you’re invincible and you may not have the best judgment to think I shouldn’t go on the field,” Dababneh said, referring to high school athletes.

Each state was assessed and scored based on five areas evaluating “sudden cardiac arrest, traumatic head injuries, exertional heatstroke, appropriate medical coverage and emergency preparedness,” according to the Korey Stringer Institute.

Those people who act as athletic trainers but are not licensed include coaches, teachers, and other high school staff, according to CATA, which also notes that job descriptions for athletic trainers in many high school districts do not mention education or athletic training certification.

“A lot of parents and students hear the word athletic trainer and you have a double-edged sword where you have this false security that even parents, teachers believe the persons being called an athletic trainer has that experience,” Dababneh said.

The American Medical Society for Sports Medicine and the NCAA are among organizations asking Governor Brown for athletic trainers to be regulated, according to a March 24 press release by CATA. The National Federation of State High School Associations and California Interscholastic Federation section commissioners also support this idea, according to the same press release.

The bill is up to be heard at the start of next year.

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Athletic trainers are first line of defense in heat-related illness for athletes

Article reposted from the hub
Author:  

As Dallas ISD football programs welcome their student-athletes back onto the field, the district’s coaches and athletic training staff are working together to ensure student-athlete safety is a priority during the often  soaring summer temperatures.

Heat illness is the leading cause of preventable illness in high school athletics. And high-intensity outdoor sports during the summer months poses the greatest risk for these heat-related issues.

The Dallas ISD Athletics department has placed licensed athletic trainers (LAT) at each of the district’s comprehensive high schools to monitor the health and safety of the district’s estimated 10,000 student-athletes. A $3 million proposal approved by the district’s Board of Trustees in 2013 funded the athletic trainers.

The LATs have the ability to add water breaks at practices, call off practices due to extreme conditions, or recommend lighter practice gear during a workout session. In addition, the University Interscholastic League and the National Federation of State High School Associations have disallowed practices to take place between noon and 6 p.m. during the first two weeks of the high school football training season.

In addition, LATs and coaches are educated on signs and symptoms of heat-related illness such as heat cramps, heat exhaustion, and heat stroke.

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Checking in on the Lakers Athletic Training Room

Article reposted from NBA.com
Author: Mike Trudell

Marco Nunez took over the position of Lakers Head Athletic Trainer from Gary Vitti last season and completed a year of generally good health from a roster of mostly young players.

We sat down with Nunez at the tail end of the team’s Summer League experience in Las Vegas to discuss where he wants to devote more focus leading into the 2017-18 campaign, what areas of emphasis he’s circled for the players and how it’s going working alongside new management on the basketball ops side.

Below is a transcription of our conversation:

MT: Where are you at this point compared to when you took over the job from Gary Vitti last August?
Nunez: My role is still continuing as is it has for the last year. The one thing about this summer is it’s allowing me to get my head together and see what I want to implement and begin for the coming season. Last year I took the position in August, and I didn’t really have time to sit down (and think). Getting one year under my belt, I was able to see the ins and the outs, what I like and don’t like, what I want to change or implement. This summer is about seeing what new techniques, new modalities, new units, new programs, new nutrition … whatever it is, I’ll sit down with our staff and figure out what to improve for this upcoming year.

MT: Is part of that sitting down with the new front office and deciding where to put resources?
Nunez: We’ve already done that. We’ve had plenty of meetings with Luke (Walton), Magic (Johnson), Rob Pelinka. Last year when all the changes were occurring, we just wanted to get through the season. Then at the end of the season, it’d be time to figure out what we want to do moving forward. So I’ve sat with them a bunch of times to discuss a variety of things. For example, talking about where we want to add staff members and what we’d want them to focus on.

MT: What’s one area of focus?
Nunez: There are a couple areas we’re looking at, like hiring a nutritionist or a dietician full time. We’ve had somebody in the past that we’ve used that was great, but I know it was almost like a consulting kind of thing. I think we’re trying to decide whether we should make that position full time. I don’t know if that position would travel full time or not, but having them right there at the practice facility where guys can ask questions, and our chef, Sandra, can work with them closely and try to see what we can create for the players could really help.

MT: How about dealing with and anticipating injuries, which is something I know is always on your mind…
Nunez: Exactly, we’re looking at different companies right now. There’s one company we tried out at summer league, keeping track of guys exertion levels, exhaustion levels, sleeping patterns and stuff like that. Everything is going towards technological (advancement), so we’re looking at a company that’s more of an app. These players will go right on their phones the minute a game is over. So the app would ask some simple questions that gives us feedback about how the players are feeling and where they’re at from that perspective. The other thing we’re doing focuses on hydration. In the past, it’s always been, ‘Make sure you’re drinking plenty of water and getting plenty of electrolytes.’ Traditionally there’s the, ‘Hey when you use the restroom, check your urine color, and if it’s dark red or orange, it means you’re dehydrated. If it’s a light color, you’re good’, but we can go deeper than that. I know we’re working with GSSI, Gatorade Sports Science Institute; they came last year and tested most of our guys as far as sweat analysis and to try and create a hydration program for the guys. We’re testing that out in summer league to see how it works. Whether it’s advising how much water and electrolytes to drink six hours before a game, how much during a game and more importantly, after a game this is specifically how much water and Gatorade a specific player needs to consume. Especially on the road and for back to backs. We have to really focus on how our guys are recovering.

MT: How has the way you deal with these young players at Summer League evolved over the last several years?
Nunez: Back when I first started, we’d typically only have one or two draft picks at summer league because we were winning championships. This summer league team is different, with six draft picks that form part of the core of the roster (moving forward). So what we’re doing now and what Luke is trying to do is set a culture that will continue into training camp. Some of these one and done (in college) players aren’t used to having to come into the training room. Having to focus on stretching, on recovery, focus on hydration. We want to start those good habits now, not wait until training camp or the season to start.

MT: What kind of discussions did you have about how much to rest players in Vegas given that, on one hand, they’re young, but on the other, they aren’t used to playing so many games in so few nights?
Nunez: We had conversations about that with the coaches. Traditionally the mentality is they’re young guys, they can play as many minutes as you want. But that’s not always the case. These young guys aren’t used to playing this many minutes, especially on back to backs. You don’t play back to backs in college. Now they’re going to play back to back to back, exerting themselves? Personally I was a little surprised that we’d have guys playing back to backs. Ideally, it’d be nice if they got a Monday off and the game would have been Tuesday, but that’s a scheduling issue. From the sports medicine side, if you’re in the NBA Finals and it’s Game 6 or 7, and all your technology is showing you the player is in the red, are you really going to sit the guy? And there’s a difference between the NBA Finals and the Summer League. My job is to provide them the information and then as a unit, along with management and the coaches, we make a decision.

MT: How about in the example of Josh Hart, the rookie who sprained his ankle and didn’t get back onto the court?
Nunez: That’s my saying, ‘He isn’t really ready to play’ as much as the coaches or management would love to see him play. As much as a player says ‘I’m ready to go,’ it’s my job to hold a player back if I think he’s not. One, it’s summer league, so it’s a risk/reward thing. Does the risk supersede the reward? We’re trying to create a tradition of winning, but it’s still summer league. If it were the Finals, different story. He was doing a lot better after (a few days), and could he go out there and play some minutes? Probably. But the problem was, as far as rehab, there’s a progression that you want to see from 1-on-0, 1-on-1, 3-on-3 and eventually 5-on-5. Since we played so many games, we didn’t have a chance to practice, and Hart didn’t get an opportunity to play 5-on-5 in practice for me to be able to say, ‘He’s ready to go.’ The risk was higher than the reward.

MT: Lonzo Ball came into the Summer League out of his best basketball shape, as he played no 5-on-5 from the NCAA Tournament through the Draft. He said his legs felt heavy early, but he certainly looked better physically after getting the couple days between the second and third game he played. What have you thought of Ball’s physical progression?
Nunez: It wasn’t a surprise he’d be fatigued early after taking close to a month off. But I’m trying to get away from the whole cookie cutter program. Every player is slightly different, it’s never one size fits all. That’s something we’re looking for as we develop these programs and technologies to cater to the individual. You have some players like Kobe Bryant, who could generally play as many minutes as he wanted and be fine. There are others where you can’t make that same assumption.

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Michigan Athletic Trainers Prepare for Emergencies

Article reposted from WZZM 13
Author: Phil Dawson

Athletes will soon start practicing for football, soccer and other fall sports at west Michigan schools. Athletic trainers and paramedics are also preparing.

“You got to stay up to date,” explains Northview High School athletic trainer Jesse Brinks. “Protocols are changing constantly.”

At a “Keeping Them On Their Game” training session hosted by Life EMS Ambulance doctors, trainers and medics were teaching and learning best ways to care for an injured players. As well as, new techniques in sports medicine and procedures to protect the athletes.

“This is truly cutting edge,” says Life EMS field supervisor Mark Stinton. “Even 5 years ago we did this a lot differently than we are doing now.”

“Fortunately, you don’t always get to use these in real life situations,” says Brinks. “You hope you never have to but we need to be able to act when that time comes.”

Practice for fall sports starts next week for many west Michigan high schools.