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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.