Titusville High School athletes now have an athletic trainer, which is somewhat of a rarity for smaller school districts.
Leanne Levenduski started working as Oil Valley Physical Therapy’s new athletic trainer in March, when Titusville High School’s spring sports season started.
Levenduski said she chose to enter a career as an athletic trainer to keep her involved in the sports world, and because many schools do not have athletic trainers.
Levenduski is originally from St. Mary’s, but was most recently working in Erie.
She graduated from Pennsylvania State University, University Park, with a bachelor of science in athletic training.
After receiving her bachelor’s degree, she then achieved her master’s of exercise science and health promotion: human performance and injury prevention from California University of Pennsylvania.
Levenduski served in many capacities of athletic training and sports medicine, including UPMC Hamot Sports Medicine and Edinboro University of Pennsylvania for a number of athletic teams and sporting events.
She provided evaluation and rehabilitation plans to injured athletes, as well as assisting in managing medical supplies, hydration and traveling, applied various modalities and therapy techniques and IMPACT concussion testing.
While at Penn State, Levenduski worked with a variety of intercollegiate and intramural scholar athletes including the NCAA BIG 10 Men’s Gymnastics Championships, as well as many youth sports camps.
She said that she was taught in under grad to watch for injuries.
Levenduski also is an emergency medical technician and has served in the Erie and State College communities in that capacity. Her other certifications are from the American Heart Association in CPR and AED for the healthcare professionals, the National Academy of Sports Medicine for performance enhancement specialist and the National Association of Speed and Explosion.
Levenduski lives in Edinboro, and enjoys running and playing basketball in her spare time.
She said she chose to work at OVPT, in Titusville, because she thought it would be a change for her.
And also, “I could stay in one place,” she added. “Up in
Erie, I was hopping around for UPMC Hamot, per diem, going to 14 schools, and here, I can go to Titusville High School.”
According to Levenduski, she works at OVPT, but she is an outreach employee who heads to Titusville High School and Titusville Middle School to see students, but the high school is her primary spot.
At THS, Levenduski said she can work with one school and the students.
“They are my primary,” she said, adding that she works with the school’s athletes.
“If they have an injury or illness, anything from a minor cut to a concussion to broken bones, I do it all, even emergency [cases],” Levenduski said.
She said she wants to make sure the students are safe.
“If a kid does get hurt, and I can get them back into play, then [it’s worth it], and the kids make it fun.”
She said she performs some rehabilitation at the high school, but “I send them here [to OVPT] if the injuries are more involved. It’s a good relationship I have here [at OVPT].”
ORIGINAL ARTICLE:
http://www.titusvilleherald.com/news/article_6ff43b1a-51ef-11e5-88e2-a7ad16e9c24c.html