Tag: NFL Foundation

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Oklahoma School District Awarded NFL Grant

Article reposted from The Purcell Register
Author: The Purcell Register

Purcell is among 150 school districts across four states selected to receive an athletic trainer grant through the NFL Foundation.

Superintendent Jason Midkiff announced the 3-year award at Monday’s school board meeting.

The district asked for $48,100 and will receive $36,000.

The award will pay $20,000 the first year, $11,000 in year two and $5,000 in the final year.

Midkiff and Tim Arnold worked together on the grant application.

The grant will enable Purcell Schools to “expand the care we give our student athletes and also help and students who might be interested in going into the (athletic trainer) field,” the superintendent explained.

The pilot program targeted just four states – Oklahoma, Arizona, Illinois and Oregon.

The grant program is administered by the Korey Stringer Institute at the University of Connecticut, which will research the program’s impact and impact of athletic trainers on the health outcomes of student athletes.

The institute is named for a  former Minnesota Viking professional football player who died from exertional heatstroke in 2001.

“The massive responsibility of keeping many hundreds of athletes safe at a particular high school should never be the responsibility of a sport coach or the athletic director, they have no training to properly handle this task,” said Douglas Casa, chief executive officer of KSI . “We  are very proud to partner with this grant program that has a primary goal of increasing the number of schools serviced by an athletic trainer and to enhance the amount of medical care for those that already have some.”

In its application, Purcell Public Schools reported high school enrollment of 320.

Of that number, 150 students – or 46.9 percent – participate in sports.

There are 10 sports offered at the high school.

Co-sponsors with the NFL Foundation and KSI are Gatorade, the National Athletic Trainers’ Association and Professional Football Athletic Trainers Society.

Expenditures from the initial $20,000 will include an ice machine, $5,000; automated external defibrillators, $3,500; ellipticals, $2,000; upper extremity bike and treadmills, $1,500 each; electrical stimulation, treatment tables (football), and hydro collator, $1,000 each; equipment/supply bags, $750; baps board, $650; locking cabinets (football), $600; and foam rollers, TheraBands and airex pad, $500 each.

In the second year, the grant allocation is ice machine (baseball, softball, track complex), $5,000; AED machines, $3,500; water bottles/stands/jugs, $1,000; crutches/splints/braces, $900; and locking cabinets (basketball), $600.

The totals for year three are AED (baseball/softball complex), $2,900; training tables (basketball/baseball-softball complex), $1,500; and locking cabinets (baseball-softball complex), $600.

According to KSI, an athletic trainer is a licensed medical professional who has specific expertise in preventing, recognizing, treating and rehabilitating athletic injuries.

However, nearly two-thirds of high schools across the country lack a full-time athletic trainer and almost 30 percent of high schools do not have any athletic trainer at all.

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Denver Bronco’s Charities Help to provide athletic trainer to Colorado High School

Article reposted from Denver Broncos
Author: Denver Broncos

Denver Broncos Charities, the NFL Foundation and Children’s Hospital Colorado have announced that Adams City High School will be the beneficiary of this year’s NFL Club Matching Certified Athletic Trainer Grant.

The $50,000 grant will place a part-time certified athletic trainer, provided by Children’s Colorado, at Adams City High School beginning on Wednesday. The athletic trainer will remain with Adams City High School for one calendar year.

The NFL Foundation established the Certified Athletic Trainer Grant in 2014 to expand access to athletic trainers at the high school level. This initiative provides athletic training coverage to high schools in NFL communities that otherwise would not have access to a certified athletic trainer.

The athletic trainer at Adams City High School will work a minimum of 20 hours per week providing care for all sports throughout the year. The grant will also help with supplies, including Automated External Defibrillators (AEDs) and training room upgrades.

Located in Commerce City, Colo., Adams City High School has nearly 600 student-athletes and offers nine sports for both male and female students.

Athletic trainers are an important part of any sports medicine care team. They are often the first responders to injuries that happen in practice or competition. Athletic trainers are equipped to care for athletes with serious sports injuries and conditions, which can include heat illness, cardiac events and brain and spinal cord injuries that can be life-threatening if not properly managed.

Athletic trainers also play an important role in recognizing, assessing and managing concussions, including supporting critical return-to-play decisions. They also help counsel coaches, parents and athletes about concussion prevention and management.

This initiative has been endorsed by the National Athletic Trainers Association (NATA) and the Professional Football Athletic Trainers Society (PFATS).

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NFL Looks To Help The Nearly 30 Percent Of U.S. High Schools That Don’t Have An Athletic Trainer

Article reposted from Forbes
Author: Blake Williams

It’s hard to think of the NFL these days without thinking about player safety. It looms over every Sunday of action and is reinforced as players enter concussion protocol or are lost for the season due to injury.

Football has always been a violent game, and while the league has taken strides to increase safety, injuries are simply a part of the sport. The emphasis, then, should fall to proper treatment.

NFL players, certainly, have the best medical care money can buy, but the lower levels of the sport don’t. The league is taking strides to address that problem.

Through a grant program that began two years ago and is expanding this year the NFL Foundation in conjunction with the National Athletic Trainers’ Association has expanded efforts to put more full-time athletic trainers in high schools around the country.

“People probably don’t appreciated how underserved high schools are,” NATA President Scott Sailor said. “I think over the years they are becoming more aware of the importance of athletic trainers.

“Were already doing educational programming and things like that, but (The NFL) was able to put some money behind it and get boots on the ground.”

The program began in 2014, replicating a program the Chicago Bears started in 2013, and 20 NFL teams have participated to improve athletic trainer programs that work with 160,000 high school students. This year the Expanded Pilot Program will be awarding 150 grants to high schools in Arizona, Oklahoma, Illinois and Oregon – states chosen based on need and demographics – allowing those in areas that don’t have an NFL team to benefit.

“We have been very pleased with the creativity and the interest and excitement that we have seen in a lot of those communities,” said Amy Jorgensen, NFL Director of Health and Safety Policy.

“We’ve been very pleased with what we have seen. This year the pilot program is a way for us to look at how the NFL might be able to expand our efforts. We really are looking for this pilot program to provide us with some important learning as to how we can have an impact in more communities.”

Each grant is for $35,000 over three years to fund an athletic training program with a Dec. 16 deadline for schools to apply.

The grant looks to address a drastic need as two thirds of high schools across the country don’t have a full time athletic trainer and nearly 30 percent don’t have any access to an athletic trainer.

“The challenge is providing healthcare to the people that need it most and those are the kids. I think (the NFL) realized how few high schools have athletic trainers,” Jacksonville Jaguars Head Athletic Trainer Scott Trulock said. “Specifically some of the inner city schools that aren’t as well funded have sports programs but don’t have athletic trainers.”

The Jaguars were one of the first teams to get on board with the program and partnered with Jacksonville Sports Medicine Program, a local nonprofit, to place athletic trainers in seven of the 17 schools in the area. Five more schools will be added to the program next season with the goal of all 17 Duvall County Public Schools having athletic trainers by 2020.

Bob Sefcik, the executive director of the Jacksonville Sports Medicine program, said he has been impressed with the NFL’s commitment to a long-term solution.

“The NFL helps us leverage the schools in really making a firm commitment,” he said. “So essentially the NFL wanted something in writing from the school district that they in fact were going to sustain the program beyond what the NFL funding would be taken care of.”

The work in Jacksonville is just one of the success stories to come from the grant, something the NFL is surely elated with after years of player-safety related backlash and declining participation numbers for football at youth levels.

For the NFL, Jorgensen said, the focus is on moving forward and the work with the NATA is a part of that.

“There is a lot of interest and concerns to safety in sports and we are looking at solutions. Medical efforts have said that at the high school level this is one way you can make sports safer.”

Regardless, all the league can do now is move forward and the NFL Foundation grant is doing just that to increase safety in youth sports.

“I do feel like I have an obligation to be a caretaker for the game,” Minnesota Vikings Head Athletic Trainer Eric Sugarman said.

“I think athletic trainers are a very important piece of the puzzle when it comes to athletics at all levels and this grant is about providing care to student athletes. It was never presented as having an agenda. It’s really just to help kids.”

While improving player safety at lower levels of football isn’t an obligation for the NFL, it is in the best interest of the league and good for the sport in general. Getting athletic trainers in more high schools will improve safety for all high school athletes, not just football players.

That’s clearly the NATA’s stance, but without the help of the NFL that has been difficult.

“We really feel like if we can get athletic trainers in place and provide the normal services that we do, what we are trying to do is expose them to the important role that the athletic trainer plays and once they see that they will realize they went way to long without an athletic trainer,” Sailor said.

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KSI Leads National Grant Program for High School Athletic Trainers

Article reposted from UConn Today
Author: Colin Poitras

UConn’s Korey Stringer Institute is overseeing a national pilot program intended to encourage the use of athletic trainers in public high school football programs across the country.

The program is sponsored by the NFL Foundation, Gatorade, the National Athletic Trainers’ Association (NATA), the Professional Football Athletic Trainers Society (PFATS), and the Korey Stringer Institute (KSI).

The NFL Foundation is awarding up to 150 grants to high schools in four pilot states – Arizona, Illinois, Oklahoma, and Oregon. The $35,000 grants will be awarded over a three-year period to support an athletic training program. The number of grants issued will be at the discretion of an appointed review panel.

The Korey Stringer Institute at the University of Connecticut’s main campus in Storrs is overseeing the program and will conduct research to assess the its impact and the effect athletic trainers have on student athlete health outcomes.

Named after a former Minnesota Viking professional football player who died from exertional heatstroke in 2001, the KSI is dedicated to conducting research, education, advocacy, and consultation to maximize performance, optimize safety, and prevent the sudden death of athletes, soldiers, and laborers.

“The massive responsibility of keeping many hundreds of athletes safe at a particular high school should never be the responsibility of a sport coach or the athletic director, they have no training to properly handle this task,” says KSI Chief Executive Officer Douglas Casa. “We are very proud to partner with this grant program that has a primary goal of increasing the number of schools serviced by an athletic trainer and to enhance the amount of medical care for those that already have some.”

An athletic trainer is a licensed medical professional who has specific expertise in preventing, recognizing, treating and rehabilitating athletic injuries. However, nearly two-thirds of high schools across the country lack a full-time athletic trainer and almost 30 percent of high schools do not have any athletic trainer at all.

“The NFL is committed to enhancing the safety of football at all levels,” says NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell. “We are proud of the important work that athletic trainers do on the sidelines and in training facilities nationwide. We look forward to testing this pilot program as part of our effort to increase access to athletic trainers in local communities and improve sports safety for many more young athletes.”

The pilot program builds on the NFL Foundation’s athletic trainer grant program established two years ago to help NFL teams increase access to athletic trainers in their communities. To date, 20 NFL clubs have utilized these grants to support local schools and leagues.

“The NFL Foundation is proud that this athletic trainer pilot program, one that originally developed at the club level, is expanding to serve more young athletes,” says NFL Foundation Chairman Charlotte Jones Anderson. “NFL teams have long seen the value of athletic trainers’ knowledge and experience when it comes to health and safety and this program will help provide that same expertise at the high school level.”

Says Scott Sailor, NATA president: “The National Athletic Trainers’ Association is committed to enhancing the quality of health care that young athletes receive through access to athletic trainers. Together, we can ensure best practices are put in place in underserved schools to reduce the risk of injury and make sports safer for all communities.”

Jeff Kearney, head of Gatorade sports marketing, said the company was excited to build on the success of its 2015 efforts.

“For more than 50 years, we’ve been committed to athletes’ safety, performance, and success – and based on this experience – we know how important athletic trainers are to our mission,” Kearney says. “This program is an important part of our overall commitment to helping ensure the safety of the more than eight million high school athletes in the U.S.”

Says Rick Burkholder, PFATS president and head athletic trainer of the Kansas City Chiefs: “The Professional Football Athletic Trainers Society is proud to partner with the NFL Foundation, NATA, and Gatorade to increase the number of athletic trainers available to high school students across the country.

More information about the new grant program can be found at www.athletictrainergrant.com.