Tag: National Athletic Trainers’ Association

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Alaska Athletic Trainer Wins NATA Award

The National Athletic Trainers Association (NATA) recently awarded OPA’s own Lynne Young, ATC, MEd, ITAT its prestigious “Outstanding Athletic Training Service Award.”

The Athletic Trainer Service Award recognizes members for their contributions to the athletic training profession as a volunteer at the local and state levels. Award recipients have been involved in professional associations, community organizations, grassroots public relations efforts and service as a volunteer athletic trainer.

“This award is a huge honor,” says  fellow OPA athletic trainer Mary Perez.”It’s national recognition for all she’s done for the athletic training profession here in Anchorage and throughout the state.”

Around the Southcentral Athletic scene, Lynne is a well-known presence, as shown here on a KTUU Channel 2 sports profile. In addition to serving athletes and their families every day, she is a tireless crusader for concussion and injury prevention in Alaska.

Over the years, Young has established athletic trainers in area high schools, shared her skills with countless community organizations and been instrumental in Alaska passing concussion legislation as well as state licensure requirements for athletic trainers.

Young’s other recent awards include a regional Outstanding Athletic Training Service Award the Northwest Athletic Trainers Association. In addition, as the leader of OPA”s athletic training team, Young played an integral role in the company’s 2014 Gold Pan Award For Distinguished Community Service from the Anchorage Chamber of Commerce.

Lynne will be officially honored during NATA 2016 Clinical Symposia in Baltimore this June.

Congratulations, Lynne!

 See Lynne Young’s full bio.
 What is an Athletic Trainer?
 Learn more about Athletic Training.
 Read more about the NATA.

CLICK HERE FOR ORIGINAL ARTICLE

 

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congressman ryan costello presents safe sports school award

Recently, Congressman Ryan Costello, co-sponsor of the Secondary School Student Athletes Bill of Rights was able to attend the “Safe Schools Sports” recognition ceremony for Spring-Ford High School. NATA “Safe Sports Schools” have demonstrated a commitment to go above and beyond to provide a safe environment for student-athletes.

Harrisburg, PA (PRWEB) November 19, 2015

The Pennsylvania Athletic Trainers’ Society (PATS) announces 27 schools have received the National Athletic Trainers’ Association(NATA) Safe Sports Schools. Why have these schools and their respective members of each Athletic Health Care Team decided to pursue this award? The answers vary from school to school but the consistent theme has been to promote a positive image of both the school and the Athletic Trainers (ATs). According to Mr. Alex “Sandy” Zettlemoyer, LAT with Mechanicsburg High School, “We were one of the first schools in the state that applied for this award. We wanted to increase the positive exposure of Athletic Trainers and our Athletic Training program in general. Another aspect was to demonstrate how Athletic Trainers have an impact in all facets of the extra-curricular athletic program.”

Spring-Ford High School was a recent proud recipient of the NATA Safe Sports School Award (1st Team Designation). The award recognizes schools that meet ten criteria designed to keep students safe and injury free. Spring-Ford Superintendent David Goodin said “It’s a great honor and we do put a lot of emphasis on making sure our students are safe; either before an incident or after. This recognition validates those attempts.”

Spring-Ford Athletic Director Mickey McDaniel and Athletic Trainers Dan Holman, Kate Daniels and Riane Casper were presented the award by NATA District 2 Director AJ Duffy. Also in attendance were Eastern Athletic Trainers Association (EATA) Secretary Michelle Monaco, and PATS President John Moyer and Executive Director Linda Mazzoli. The day culminated with remarks from Congressman Ryan Costello, co-sponsor of the Secondary School Student Athletes Bill of Rights. Costello stated, “Competing is why we all play sports. At the same time we want to make sure we’re not competing and putting student athletes at risk, when they shouldn’t be on the playing field. Today was highlighting Spring-Ford for the great job that they do.”

“It’s an awesome honor,” said Spring-Ford Principal Pat Nugent. “I just know the amount of work and time and effort our athletic trainers put into the whole entire athletic program.They basically live here. From 2 o’clock on, there’s somebody here constantly. I’m really proud of them; they work hard.”

Safe Sports School award winners receive a banner to display in a prominent location to show the public their commitment to athletic safety. Many also use the logos on letterhead and in electronic communications. Demonstrating this to the public is great, but not all benefits are clearly visible. A great deal of the world of Athletic Trainers happens “behind the scenes” and this is where the true benefit of this award lies. Mr. Rick Guinan of Central York High School shared the following, “The application process for this award was very beneficial to our overall program. It forces you to look at all of our existing protocols from A-Z, make updates or changes, and gauge the effectiveness of what we do and how we do it.”

Nationwide, 607 schools have received this prestigious award to date and the 27 in Pennsylvania represents just over 4% of this total. Why such a low number for a state with a strong heritage of Athletic Training? Mr. Guinan states, “Many people believe that it’s simply too much work to apply. I disagree with that thinking because we all have this information in our files, but it may not be organized into one complete file. Applying for this award allowed us to compile the documentation we already had into one complete file, demonstrating that A-Z concept mentioned earlier.”

PATS supports this initiative as well and has offered to pay the $150.00 application fee for the first 30 schools within the Commonwealth that apply. At this time 10 grants remain unclaimed. For more information on this opportunity PATS members can contact their regional representative. Contact information can be found by visiting http://www.gopats.org.

The following Pennsylvania schools have received the NATA Safe Sports Schools Award:

Avonworth High School: Pittsburg, PA
Big Spring High School: Newville, PA
Cedar Crest High School/Middle School: Lebanon, PA
Central York High School: York, PA
Cocalico High School: Denver, PA
Danville Area High School: Danville, PA
Emmaus High School: Emmaus, PA
Gateway Senior High School: Monroeville, PA
Harriton High School: Rosemont, PA
Hickory High School: Hermitage, PA*
Keystone Oaks School District: Pittsburgh, PA
Lower Merion High School: Ardmore, PA
Manheim Central High School: Manheim, PA
Mechanicsburg Senior High School: Mechanicsburg, PA
Muhlenberg High School: Reading, PA
Pen Argyl Area High School: Pen Argyl, PA
Penn Trafford High School: Harrison City, PA
Plum Borough High School: Pittsburgh, PA
Saint Joseph’s Catholic Academy: Boalsburg, PA
Sullivan County High School: Laporte, PA
The J.P. McCaskey High School Campus: Lancaster, PA
Twin Valley School District: Elverson, PA
Warwick High School: Litiz, PA
West Shamokin Jr.-Sr. High School: Rural Valley, PA
William Penn Charter School: Philadelphia, PA
Wilmington Area High School: New Wilmington, PA
Wilson School District: West Lawn, PA

For more information regarding this topic or to schedule an interview with PATS President John Moyer LAT, ATC, please contact Linda Mazzoli MS, LAT, ATC, PATS Executive Director.

The Pennsylvania Athletic Trainers’ Society, Inc. is a progressive organization of licensed health care professionals who work under the direction of a licensed physician. Our society continues to increase public awareness and education regarding Athletic Trainers and the Athletic Training profession while serving as the premier source of information for public safety, injury and illness prevention, early intervention, patient care, and healthcare delivery for the physically active in the Commonwealth.

“The Keystone to a Healthy and Physically Active Life”

For the original version on PRWeb visit: http://www.prweb.com/releases/2015/11/prweb13091399.htm

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ORIGINAL ARTICLE:
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study highlights difficulty schools face in hiring athletic trainers

Much has been made about the lack of certified athletic trainers on the sidelines of a large percentage of American high school athletic programs, and for good reason; not having an athletic trainer is akin to driving down the street without wearing a seatbelt and just hoping for the best. Now a new study from the National Athletic Trainers’ Association (NATA) highlights just how bad that lack of trainers has become, as well as some of the critical issues that make it hard for athletic directors to hire them.

According to the study titled Athletic Directors’ Barriers to Hiring Athletic Trainers in High Schools, roughly two-thirds of American high schools do not employ a full-time athletic trainer, with 30 percent of American schools lacking any athletic trainer at all. That lack of trainers has a profound impact on the health of young athletes; 1.4 million American student athletes are injured each year during scholastic competition, with some of those injuries proving fatal. Notably, seven teenagers have died during the 2015 football seasonalone either during or after football games or practices.

While these deaths have led to a “crusade” for information and coordination among different groups trying to help, it should also highlight the glaring lack of athletic trainers available to many American schools.

The study will appear in the October issue of the Journal of Athletic Training.

“Most deaths that occur in sport are preventable and result from a failure to have proper prevention strategies in place, immediately recognize the condition, and/or implement appropriate care,” Douglas Casa, PhD, the chief executive officer of the Korey Stringer Institute at the University of Connecticut said in a NATA release. “Prompt management of these injuries is critical to the patient’s positive outcome and should be carried out by trained health care personnel, such as the athletic trainer, to minimize risk.”

Meanwhile, the October study highlighted five significant obstacles to the efforts of athletic directors to hire certified athletic trainers. While some, such as budgetary issues, may seem obvious, others such as a generalized misconception about the role and expertise of athletic trainers, are more nuanced. You can read more about the five obstacles in the study here, but in short here are the areas that must be addressed to improve the number of athletic trainers at American schools, according to NATA:

  • Lack of Power: The AD does not have significant authority to hire a trainer or increase the budget to do so
  • Budgetary Limitations: The AD does not have the funding to hire an athletic trainer, or any obvious mechanism to address that financial shortfall
  • Rural Locations: Many schools are not in an area with enough medical professionals to make a high school-based or accessible athletic trainer possible
  • Misconceptions About the Role of Athletic Trainers: Some athletic directors apparently believe that the first aid training provided to coaches is sufficient to deal with in-game injuries and medical incidents
  • Community Interference: Essentially, this is the sense that volunteer medical services provided on site at many sites is sufficient and more cost effective

All of these issues provide difficulties for the needed spread of athletic trainers across America. And that, in turn, leaves young athletes at risk. There is hope that the new study will increase awareness and spark a renewed push to increase the number of athletic trainers at American schools. If it does, it can’t come soon enough.

ORIGINAL ARTICLE:
http://usatodayhss.com/2015/new-study-highlights-difficulty-ads-face-in-hiring-athletic-trainers-scope-of-shortfall#sthash.Tmddgt6a.uxfs&st_refDomain=t.co&st_refQuery=/355yR0lQXM

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High Point students featured for research efforts

Three High Point University undergraduate students presented research at the National Athletic Trainers’ Association Clinical Symposia and Annual Meeting in St. Louis this summer. The meeting is the world’s largest gathering of certified athletic trainers.

Andrea Baellow, a 2015 graduate, senior Katherine Van Wert and junior Emma Zuk, all athletic training majors at HPU, shared original research they conducted under the mentorship of Dr. Yum Nguyen, assistant professor of athletic training.

Baellow received the NATA Research and Education Foundation Free Communication Undergraduate Presentation Award for her presentation, “Influence of Hip Strength and Range of Motion on Landing Kinematics Across Maturation Groups in Youth Athletes.” She has been a finalist for this award the past two years. Through her research, she determined the factors that increase the risk of an ACL injury are different in youth athletes and are dependent on their stage of maturation. These findings will help clinicians develop more specific and effective interventions to reduce the risk of ACL injuries in youth athletes.

Van Wert was named a finalist for the award for her presentation, “Influence of Static Lower Extremity Alignment on Lower Extremity Kinematics Across Functional Tasks.” Her findings show that hip flexibility is predictive of lower extremity motion across sport tasks. These findings will help future research understand the role of anatomy in lower extremity function and the most relevant factors that increase the risk of ACL injuries.

Zuk presented “Longitudinal Changes in Lower Extremity Strength and Range of Motion in Female Youth Soccer Players,” which describes how hip function changes as adolescent female soccer players increase in age. Her research showed changes in flexibility with age but no associated increase in strength over a three-year period, which may explain why adolescent female soccer players are at greatest risk of ACL injuries. Her findings are an important step toward developing effective interventions to reduce the risk of ACL injuries.

“The opportunity to present their research at a major conference has provided these students an educational opportunity that few undergraduate students get to experience,” says Nguyen. “They presented alongside the leading professionals conducting ACL research across the world. This opportunity allowed them, and High Point University, to be recognized nationally and internationally, and has provided the students with advanced knowledge to be highly competitive as they pursue future graduate studies.”

ORIGINAL ARTICLE:

Students Present Research at National Athletic Training Association Meeting

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Gender bias decreases among athletic trainers

When the National Athletic Trainers’ Association was founded in 1950, there were no women in the profession. According to the association’s website, it wasn’t until 1972 that Sherry Bagagian became the first woman to sit for the certification exam.

Today, 47 percent of the association’s members are women. However, the board of certification recognizes there are still some areas of athletic training that remain gender-biased.

“There are some female head athletic trainers and some females who work with collegiate football that are head (of athletic training) of the football team, but it is still male dominated in terms of those critical positions,” said Emily Dunn, the associate director of sports medicine.

The board of certification says that although women are more prominent in the industry now, they hold just a few of the lucrative positions.

“It’s more male dominated in terms of administration roles or higher roles in the profession,” Dunn said.

Doctors who travel with the teams, called team physicians, are still a male-dominated profession.

Rachel Kennedy, the assistant director of sports medicine, said she doesn’t think she’s ever even met a female team physician. Dunn said she had only ever worked with one. Lehigh’s team physicians come through the Coordinated Health hospital network. This network is 41 percent female for athletic trainers, but females make up just 18 percent of the physicians.

According to the website, in July 2015 there were 7,629 athletic trainers working at the college or university level. Of those 7,629, Dunn, Kennedy and Catherine Rudio, a sports medicine apprentice, calculated that approximately 3,585 were females.

“The norm is probably if you’re traveling with a women’s sport, there’s a lot of female athletic trainers and vice versa,” Kennedy said. “In the three years I’ve worked with (men’s basketball), I’ve come across three women athletic trainers, maybe four. I’m not saying that it’s not normal, but you’re usually seeing more of the same gender.”

Dunn said men’s lacrosse has probably a 70-30 split of male to female athletic trainers, but men’s soccer is probably closer to a 50-50 split. With volleyball, it’s mostly females.

“It really is looking at the total differences in the sport you’re working with, the mentality of the sport, it is very dependent,” Dunn said.

Rudio said although there are some female athletic trainers working with professional sports teams, she believes it probably will never be predominately female. According to the board, there has been one female head athletic trainer in the MLB, one female assistant athletic trainer in the NFL and currently there is one female athletic trainer in the NBA. Kennedy thinks this will be the last thing to change.

At Lehigh, athletic trainers work with a team based on scheduling, personalities and other logistics, but not every school operates this way.

“Our staff looks at it more of who fits best with the team in terms of personality,” Dunn said. “There certainly are other universities where coaches preferences would be to not have a female with a male team. Their perspective is ‘I’d rather have a male with my males and a female with the females.’”

Kennedy said this feeling used to apply to many sports across college athletics, where, for example, coaches of male teams would want male trainers.

“There used to be a lot of resistance with that,” Kennedy said. “Coaches would not want females traveling with their male teams. Most of the teams here are pretty good. We’ve even had a couple programs have changes over the years, whether it’s staff changing or us changing assignments, and they’ve gone from a women’s team having a female athletic trainer to a male back to a female, and that’s not usually an issue.”

Dunn said the coaches at Lehigh are willing to work with any of the athletic trainers.

“We all work hard,” Dunn said. “We’re all willing to do the job. I’ve worked here for eight years and that has never been an issue on the docket.”

Kennedy agreed with Dunn, and said she’s never had to deal with this problem at Lehigh.

“I really have not had a lot of issues with cross coverage in terms of gender, and I know that not every athletic trainer can say that,” Kennedy added. “It’s becoming more the norm, you’re seeing a lot more women on staff than you would have in the past.”

ORIGINAL ARTICLE:

Gender bias decreases among athletic trainers

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Keeping young players safe on the football field

More than 1 million young athletes play high school football, and every fall Friday night, their hearts and bodies are laid out on the field.

For Eddie Canales, it’s bittersweet. He loves the game, but he also knows what it can cost. He is the full-time caregiver for his son, Chris, who suffered a spinal cord injury while making a play as a high school senior in 2001.

Canales remembers watching video of that moment: “It looked like a great tackle, but if you slow it down enough, you saw at the very last minute, he dropped his chin,” and Chris went helmet-to-helmet.

After father and son witnessed another player suffer a spinal cord injury, they knew they had to help support players and families in similar situations. Their organization, Gridiron Heroes, was created. In 2011, Eddie Canales was honored as a CNN Hero for his work. Still, headlines and calls keep coming from around the country.

A month into the new high school football season, Gridiron Heroes has already received calls from two families of athletes dealing with traumatic brain injuries in California, two spinal cord injuries in Tennessee, one in Texas and another in South Carolina. It also has gotten a report of a death from a spinal cord injury in Louisiana.

One of those calls was about Jasil Favors, a sophomore on the Stony Point High School junior varsity squad in Round Rock, Texas. Jasil’s mom, Deborah, rushed to the school in early September after a coach phoned her that her son had been injured in a game. She then hurried to the hospital.

“He didn’t have any feeling in his legs. He had feeling in his arm and upper body,” Deborah Favors said. “As soon as we got a (CT) scan, they said he broke (vertebrates) 3-4-5 and they rushed him up to surgery.”

Doctors told her that Jasil’s neck had been broken. He’s still awaiting rehab at Seton Medical Center Williamson in Round Rock. He had a tracheotomy to help with his breathing.

Until they get to rehab, his mom said, “We don’t know if he will walk again.”

Protecting players’ heads

Protecting players’ heads is a concern in football, from the Pop Warner youth organization to professionals. Eighty-seven of 91 former NFL players who donated their brains to science after deathtested positive for chronic traumatic encephalopathy, known as CTE, according to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and Boston University. It’s a degenerative disease that’s linked with repeated head trauma and concussions, researchers said.

Just this year, thousands of former professional football players agreed to a settlement with the National Football League over allegations that the league hid the dangers of concussions from players, and a number of NFLers have retired at young ages due to concerns over concussions and how they might contribute to CTE.

Chris Borland was a star rookie who walked away from a $3 million, four-year contract with the San Francisco 49ers, telling ESPN, “From what I’ve researched and what I’ve experienced, I don’t think it’s worth the risk. … I’m concerned that if you wait (until) you have symptoms, it’s too late.”

All 50 states have adopted some sort of concussion legislation with minimum return-to-play guidelines for students who have had concussions. Hits to the head are a concern even at the younger levels. In 2012, Pop Warner changed its practice rules to limit contact.

“People are starting to understand. It’s getting out there,” Canales said.

According to the National High School Sports-Related Injury Surveillance Study, there were more than 500,000 injuries related to high school football just last year. While muscle strains and sprains represented just over one-third of all the injuries, concussions were about one-quarter of all injuries.

Every year, the National Center for Catastrophic Sport Injury Research at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill collects data on catastrophic football injuries. Last year, it found five high school fatalities directly due to football, three of them directly related to tackling or helmet-to-helmet collisions.

Advice for parents

So can young people play safe?

Canales said he thinks so. “This can still be a great game for our kids, if we do it the right way, ” he said. “We have to change the way we teach tackling. That’s a hard road for us to handle.”

Borland, the former 49ers player, said that playing football today is about weighing the risks. He tells parents, “I think you have to exercise some maturity and judgment and prioritize your child’s health.”

Dr. Elizabeth Nabel, the NFL’s first chief health and medical adviser, told CNN’s Dr. Sanjay Gupta this year, “I’m a mom and have a son who played eighth-grade football. If I had young children today, I would be asking: Is the team that my son is going to play on connected to USA Football? Is there a certified athletic trainer on the sideline? Have the coaches, parents, the players and the trainer been educated around sports injury — particularly head injury and concussion? What does my pediatrician think?

“I would ask those series of questions, then weigh the pros and cons and make a judgment accordingly.”

MaryBeth Horodyski of the National Athletic Trainers’ Association said parents should look for programs that “emphasize things such as keeping the head up during play, seeing what they hit, not using their head as a ramming rod when tackling. “

She said everyone needs to be on the same page when it comes to safety. “Make sure officials are actually using the rules to protect the athletes,” Horodyski said. She also suggests parents sit down with their kids to talk about safety.

“Make sure that players understand that safety is their responsibility,” she said. “Put safety upfront so they don’t do anything to jeopardize their health. “

Horodyski points out that having proper-fitting equipment is key as well as a medical team on stand-by in case a player does go down. “I would hope that every high school have an athletic trainer and an ambulance with two paramedics on site,” she said. “That’s minimum. Having a team physician is excellent.”

According to the trainers’ association, while 70% of all high schools have some access to an athletic trainer, only 37% of all high schools have full-time athletic trainers.

All Deborah Favors can do for Jasil, she said, is hope and pray. “In my mind, to me, he’s going to walk,” she said.

ORIGINALARTICLE:
http://www.cnn.com/2015/09/18/health/high-school-football-injuries/index.html

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Back to school and sports: What you need to know to stay healthy

Fall semesters are beginning across the country, which means fall sports are already upon us. It’s an exciting time of year for both athletes and parents, and it’s also the perfect time to ensure those sports are being played as safely as possible. Here are some safety tips to consider as high school sports ramp up:

  • Prepare properly. All athletes should have a pre-participation exam to determine if their bodies are physically able to play. Medical authorization forms should be completed that include the student-athlete’s medical history, emergency contacts and permission for the school’s medical team to provide emergency care if necessary. Parents, consider your child’s unique circumstances and make sure he or she is physically and mentally prepared to participate. This is especially important if your child was previously injured and is returning to sports this fall. Athletes who are mentally ready to return to play after an injury usually have a smoother transition, which helps avoid repeat injury.
  • Ensure a safe playing environment. Wondering if your athlete’s school has all the proper safety measures in place? Find out the answers to these important questions:
    • Does the school have an emergency action plan (EAP)? Normally developed by the school’s athletic trainer, this plan provides a formal protocol for emergencies in collaboration with the school’s administration, coaches and local Emergency Medical Service (EMS). There should be a venue-specific EAP for all practice and game facilities.
    • Is the equipment in working order? Each sport has specific equipment that must be working properly to ensure safe play, including basketball goals, football helmets, gymnastics apparatus and field turf, to name a few. The school should also have automated external defibrillators (AEDs) onsite that are properly maintained by someone who knows how to use them in case of emergency. AEDs should be checked on a monthly basis because the batteries and pads need constant monitoring.
    • Who’s taking care of your athlete? Coaches should be credentialed if that is a requirement by your state, conference or league. They should also have CPR, AED and first aid training and collaborate with the sports medicine team, which includes the physician and athletic trainer, to ensure a plan is in place for emergencies. (NATA recommends that all secondary school athletic programs have at least one full-time athletic trainer.) In addition, it’s important that medical decisions are made by those same medical professionals, rather than coaches. This eliminates any potential conflict of interest.
    • How clean are the facilities? Locker rooms, gyms and showers should be cleaned on a regular basis to prevent bacterial, viral and fungal skin infections such as MRSA. Athletes should avoid sharing disposable razors, water bottles, sports gear and towels. Make sure your child’s clothing and equipment are being laundered/cleaned on a daily basis. (Some schools provide laundry services for the athletes, but others require athletes to handle it themselves. I’ve heard horror stories about high school athletes going months without washing their practice clothes!)
  • Know the risks. Returning to sports in late summer and early fall is an especially dangerous time for athletes because high temperatures lead to an increased risk of heat illness. (Find tips to beat the heat.) Certain sports have an increased risk of concussion, so those athletes need to be educated on prevention, symptoms and management. Athletes should be encouraged to speak up if they’ve taken a hit to the head and suffer from symptoms such as dizziness, loss of memory, lightheadedness or fatigue. If your child carries the sickle cell trait (all newborns are tested for this condition at birth), you should share that information with the school’s athletic trainer or medical team, since intense exertion poses increased risk for sickle cell trait athletes. Other medical conditions such as asthma and allergies can be exacerbated by intense activity, so keep those risks in mind.

Following these simple sports safety tips helps ensure that young athletes can excel in their sport and enjoy the spirit of competition with the right protocols in place. This checklist should be an integral part of every season or new activity. It will help create a foundation for safe play and a win-win environment for parents, coaches, teammates and the athletes themselves.

ORIGINAL ARTICLE:
Back to school and sports: What you need to know to stay healthy

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exertional sickling causes death of texas high school football player

A condition said to be among the top non-traumatic killers of high school and college athletes is blamed in the death of a Pine Tree High School football player who died less than 24 hours after a training session earlier this year.

According to a cause of death report obtained Wednesday, Pine Tree defensive back Joshua ‘Josh’ Warren of Longview died of exertional sickling due to prolonged physical activity complicating sickle cell trait.

Sickle cell trait is a hereditary condition that causes some red blood cells, which normally are round or oval, to change into a crescent shape, or to “sickle,” according to information from the Korey Stringer Institute, a nonprofit organization dedicated to the prevention of sudden death in sports.

During intense exertion, sickling causes a logjam of red blood cells in the blood vessels, leading to decreased blood flow and explosive muscle breakdown.

The National Athletic Trainers Association says the condition is the third leading cause of non-traumatic death among high school and college athletes.

Neither Pine Tree High School football coach David Collins nor Josh’s father, Larry Warren, could be reached for comment Wednesday evening. It was unknown whether anyone was aware Warren had a sickle cell trait.

The 16-year-old athlete died July 1 at Good Shepherd Medical Center, less than 24 hours after participating in a strength and conditioning workout at Pine Tree High School.

Emergency medical personnel were called to the home to check his condition June 30, when he had become ill after a morning workout.

Later in the evening, his condition worsened and he was taken to Good Shepherd. He was checked in for overnight observation and died the next morning.

The National Athletic Trainers Association, the professional membership organization for certified athletic trainers, has said all pre-participation physical examinations should confirm sickle cell trait status.

“As all 50 states screen at birth, this marker is a base element of personal health information that should be made readily available to the athlete, the athlete’s parents, and the athlete’s health care provider, including those providers responsible for determination of medical eligibility for participation in sports,” the association said in a policy statement.

But that may not be enough to catch the condition. While screenings are done at birth, athletes may not know their sickle-trait status, the association said, rendering self-reporting in a questionnaire unreliable. It said many institutions have employed screening strategies to rectify this. Sixty-four percent of NCAA Division I-A schools screen for it, a survey found, and the NFL Scouting Combine does.

It was unclear late Wednesday whether Pine Tree screens for the condition among its athletes.

In 2012, the trainers association reported exertional sickling had killed nine athletes ages 12 through 19 in the preceding seven years.

The cause of death report in Warren’s case was prepared by Dr. Chester Gwin of the Southwestern Institute of Forensic Sciences of Dallas.

ORIGINAL ARTICLE:
http://www.news-journal.com/news/2015/sep/03/sickle-cell-blamed-in-pine-tree-athletes-death/

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Beat the Heat: Keeping student-athletes safe during the hot summer months

Summer is in full swing, and that means outdoor activities, plenty of sunshine and an increased risk of heat-related illness, especially for student-athletes.

There are several types of heat illness and they range in severity, from heat cramps and heat exhaustion, which are common but not severe, to exertional heat stroke, which is a medical emergency. Heat stroke can occur even in cooler conditions, but death from heat stroke is preventable if treated properly.

USA TODAY High School Sports and the National Athletic Trainers’ Association have partnered on a monthly column to address injuries, prevention and related issues to help schools, coaches and student-athletes. Here is the first column from Scott Sailor, the president of NATA.

Here’s what you should know:

Heat Cramps

You might develop cramps when performing strenuous exercise in the heat; however, athletes such as hockey players can develop cramps in colder environments. You will feel intense pain along with persistent muscle contractions that continue during and after exercising.

What you can do: Stop your activity and stretch the muscle that is cramped. Have your athletic trainer assess your cramp to be sure you’re OK to return to activity. If you experience an increase in pain or in the number of muscles cramping, go to the emergency room for treatment.

Heat Exhaustion

When you have fluid or sodium loss while in the heat, you might develop heat exhaustion, a moderately serious illness. Symptoms can include loss of coordination, dizziness, fainting, profuse sweating, pale skin, headache, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, stomach/intestinal cramps or persistent muscle cramps creating an inability to continue exercise in the heat.

What you can do: Get to a cool, shaded area right away. Elevate your feet, remove any equipment and drink fluids. If you don’t improve within minutes, proceed to the emergency room for an evaluation.

Exertional Heat Stroke

This is a very serious illness in which your core body temperature usually exceeds 105 degrees. Exertional heat stroke can lead to loss of consciousness, seizures, confusion, emotional instability, irrational behavior, aggression, nausea, vomiting or diarrhea, headache, dizziness, weakness, increased heart rate, low blood pressure or dehydration.

What you can do: Immediate treatment is critical and includes cooling your entire body, preferably in a bath of cold water, to lower your core body temperature. The National Athletic Trainers’ Association recommends that schools have a tub on site that can be used for this purpose. Even a kiddie pool works in a pinch. Go to the emergency room immediately after cooling for treatment. If an athletic trainer or physician is not on site, call 911 and immediately begin cooling the athlete.

Prevention

It doesn’t matter your sport, gender or where you’re playing – exertional heat illness can happen in any situation when you are not properly acclimatized to the climate in which you’re playing or practicing. It doesn’t matter if you’re in Texas or Maine, playing indoors or outside, what matters is what your body is used to.

Although heat illnesses can be fatal, death is preventable if the symptoms are quickly recognized and properly treated. In general, whether during the summer or when you’re back at school, you can beat the heat by:

  • Having cold sports drinks or water on hand
  • Hydrating before, during and after activity with frequent fluid breaks
  • Removing your helmet, padding and any other equipment that’s not absolutely necessary
  • Wearing clothing that’s lightweight and a light color
  • Properly acclimatizing to the environment and activity

13 STATES HAVE ADOPTED SAFETY GUIDELINES

To date, 13 states have adopted recommended safety guidelines on preseason heat-acclimatization for high school athletes. The guidelines were developed by an inter-association task force spearheaded by the National Athletic Trainers’ Association and established to reduce the number of heat-related illnesses among high school student-athletes.

It takes seven to 14 days for a body to adapt to exercising in the heat. Because of this, the guidelines emphasize the importance of phasing in equipment use and gradually increasing the intensity and duration of exercise and total practice time.

NATA also has created a Heat Illness Infographic that offers safety tips on avoiding heat illness.

The states listed below have adopted preseason heat-acclimatization guidelines and the year the guidelines were adopted. If your state is not on the list, work with the athletic director and athletic trainer at your school, as well as your state high school athletics association to implement the guidelines.

2011: New Jersey, Texas

2012: Georgia, North Carolina, Arkansas, Arizona, Florida

2013: Connecticut, Iowa, Missouri, Utah, Mississippi

2014: Alabama

ORIGINAL ARTICLE:
Beat the Heat: Keeping student-athletes safe during the hot summer months

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EKU Professor Emeritus Barton receives leadership award

Dr. Bobby Barton has received the highest honor bestowed by the National Athletic Trainers’ Association (NATA).

Barton, of Richmond, professor emeritus in Eastern Kentucky University’s Athletic Training Program, received the prestigious Eve Becker-Doyle Leadership Award at the 66th NATA Clinical Symposia and AT Expo on June 22. Barton has been active in the Association throughout his career, serving in a number of roles, including a position on the board of directors for a number of years and two terms as the Association’s president.

“He created a lot of respect for athletic training while president of the NATA, and he’s done the same at his university over the years,” said Joe Gieck, former director of sports medicine and professor of clinical orthopaedic surgery at the University of Virginia.

During his time as NATA president, Barton oversaw the creation of the NATA Research and Education Foundation, which raises funds and supports research in athletic training. Barton said that prior to its formation, very little of the research being done was by athletic trainers on the field with athletes on a daily basis.

Barton also served on the NATA Placement Committee, Public Relations Committee and Research and Education Board of Directors. Prior to becoming the association’s president, Barton served as NATA’s District IX Director and NATA vice president.

He was inducted into the NATA Hall of Fame in 1996, and the Southeast Athletic Trainers’ Association named a scholarship after him.

“There is no person who [better] embodies all that is good about all of us than Bobby Barton,” said Chuck Kimmel, director of the injury clinic at Appalachian State University. “It is only fitting that a person who has made thousands of people’s lives better is being honored.”

The Eve Becker-Doyle Leadership Award is the highest honor given to an NATA member for outstanding leadership and volunteerism within the organization. The award is presented to an athletic trainer who exemplifies leadership and dedication. In order to be eligible for the award, one must be an organization member in good standing and have been a member for 40 years.

Barton became interested in athletic training while growing up in Texas. “As far back as eighth grade, if I had an athletic injury or concern about athletic health, we had a certified athletic trainer in the school district,” he said.

 

His interest continued through his undergraduate education at the University of Kentucky, during which time he attended his first NATA meeting. “The longer I was around it, the more I liked it,” Barton said. He entered the field of athletic training in 1970, the first year certification was offered by the NATA.

That same year, he earned a master’s degree from Marshall University and, in 1975, he earned a doctoral degree in adapted physical education at Middle Tennessee State. He worked at Marshall, the University of Florida, Florida International University and the University of Kentucky before accepting a position at EKU as athletic trainer and program director.

During his time at the University, Barton served as chair of the physical education department. He was also EKU’s head athletic trainer from 1976 to 2003, including the Colonels’ four-year stretch of football national championship game appearances from 1979 to 1982. The Colonels won titles in 1979 and 1982. Barton was the first athletic trainer inducted into the Ohio Valley Conference Hall of Fame.

Barton also co-authored Kentucky’s legislation on athletic trainer certification, one of the first such laws in the nation. “I think certification definitely raised our level of credibility with the medical community and other allied health professions,” he said.

He was honored with the Distinguished Service Award for Athletic Training from the American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine in 1998 and the Outstanding Football Trainer Award from the All-American Football Foundation in 1999. Barton also served on the American Council on Education’s Commission on College Athletics and as the men’s basketball athletic trainer for the U.S. National Team at the World University Games in 1995.

 In addition to the NATA and Ohio Valley Conference Halls of Fame, Barton has been inducted into the Kentucky Athletic Trainers’ Society Hall of Fame and the Marshall University Athletic Hall of Fame.

Though now retired, Barton remains active. “For someone that’s supposedly retired,” said Sheri McNew, sports medicine practice manager in the University of Kentucky’s Department of Orthopaedic Surgery and Sports Medicine,  “[Barton] works harder than a lot of people that I know in the athletic training profession, which is truly a credit to what a leader [he is].”

“He is truly a leader,” said Dr. Mary Ireland, associate professor in the University of Kentucky’s Department of Orthapaedic Surgery and Sports Medicine. “I have been blessed to work with several athletic trainers that [Barton has] worked with and trained. They are doing athletic training and also working with us in the clinic, and they do a great job, and great leaders like [Barton] train great individuals like these guys.”

Looking back on his career, Barton said the most rewarding part of athletic training was that he spent most of the workday doing what he liked.

“Forty-eight pretty good years,” he said. “I’ve really enjoyed my association with the entire group.”

ORIGINAL ARTICLE:
http://www.richmondregister.com/community/eku-professor-emeritus-barton-receives-leadership-award/article_35bbf9e8-37a9-11e5-bfa5-7b48613bf37a.html