Article reposted from Jacksonville Progress
Author: Jay Neal
With football, volleyball, cross country and tennis back in full swing at the local and area high schools, the work of the respective athletic trainers has picked up considerably.
Athletic trainers can be compared to policemen or firemen, in that often they are not thought about unless someone gets injured, and then at that time they often take center stage in a matter of seconds.
Certified athletic trainers Jason Kraus (Jacksonville), Jeff “Doc” Shrode (Bullard) and Sam (McMullen) Hamilton (Troup), along with their assistant athletic trainers and student trainers, have been burning the midnight oil since July, in making sure everything was in place and ready to go once the student-athletes arrived on campus in early August.
From making sure all of the medical forms were filled out correctly, to ordering supplies and equipment needed for another school term, to working with some of the athletes themselves, the training rooms have been buzzing with activity for several weeks now.
Since their arrival the training crews have logged countless hours on football practice fields and inside gymnasiums as they collectively worked to take care of and treat the young men and women that are their responsibility.
Kraus, Shrode and Hamilton each count on their team of hard-working student trainers in order to provide the best care for the student-athletes that they are responsible for.
One example of that can been found during football practices where student trainers, equipped with plenty of water, stand near the various drill stations on the practice field.
Not only does this practice insure that water is always only a few feet away from any player at any given time, but the extra sets of eyes observing the players workout, serves as a means of early detection, should a student-athlete fall ill or be injured during the practice session.
At Jacksonville, University of Southern Mississippi-graduate Katie Landry is back for her second year of service as assistant athletic trainer.
Up the road at Bullard High School, Shrode’s staff of student assistants this year includes his daughter Jensen, and son Jerrod, along with nephew Connor Hanna and cousin Jaycee Baird.
How’s that for a family affair of the athletic training variety?
Meanwhile, Hamilton had an event-filled summer as she gave birth to a healthy little girl about eight weeks ago.
Before taking over the Sports Medicine program for the Bullard Independent School District, Shrode worked as head athletic trainer at Jacksonville High School for a number of years, where Hamilton served as assistant athletic trainer.