Evaluating a cheerleader for a possible concussion after a fall, providing a recovery bar and sports drink to a volleyball player who had not eaten that day, and promising an injured football player she would be at his first physical therapy session was just one recent day in the life of North Hagerstown High School’s athletic trainer.
Keshia Williams said many people at games see her help carry water coolers or tape athletes’ ankles, but they don’t realize how much athletic trainers do to prevent injuries and help students recover from injuries.
“I talk to every single athlete, if I can, every day,” Williams said. “I check in with coaches constantly. I want to see how every kid is doing, how they’re acting, how they’re walking. I even watch people walk just for postural issues.”
This is the second school year Washington County Public Schools has provided a full-time athletic trainer at each of its comprehensive high schools through a contract with Pivot Physical Therapy, formerly Maryland SportsCare & Rehab.
In recent years, the state has approved concussion and heat-acclimation policies for student-athletes at public schools. Those policies added more to coaches’ plates, but having professional trainers means athletes’ injuries are monitored better and athletes are better cared for, said Eric Michael, supervisor of athletics, health education and physical education.
Having a neutral party assess injuries also doesn’t leave a coach to decide whether a student is OK to return to the game, Michael said.
In June, the Board of Education renewed its contract with Pivot at a cost of $248,900 for the year. There is a trainer assigned to Boonsboro, Clear Spring, Hancock, North Hagerstown, Smithsburg, South Hagerstown and Williamsport high schools.
Pivot also provides athletic trainers for other schools in the region, including Berkeley County Public Schools in West Virginia and public school systems in Frederick and Carroll counties in Maryland, said Amber Moats, Pivot’s regional coordinator for Washington’s and Berkeley’s schools. Pivot has more than 100 physical therapy clinics on the East Coast and provides trainers for public and private schools, as well as some colleges.
Williams estimated she was responsible for 300 to 350 students at North this fall, which is the busiest sports season. Those student-athletes participate in football, soccer, volleyball, cheerleading, golf and cross-country.
Her job starts with reviewing medical information for every student-athlete and having each student complete an online program used for concussion protocol. If the youth has to go through the concussion protocol later, after perhaps a collision or fall, that initial test serves as a baseline to help determine if the youth has a concussion.
During Herald-Mail Media’s visit to North High in late October, Williams left a football practice to check on a cheerleader who hit her head on the floor during practice.
Williams said she asked the student several questions to determine if the youth needed further diagnostic tests for a possible concussion. The student passed the initial questions and her parents were informed of what symptoms to keep an eye out for, though it turned out the student was OK, Williams said.
On the sideline, Williams asks youths with potential concussions to recite the months backwards and count backwards by fives, she said. She’ll also test their memory recall by giving them random words to remember and repeat.
Wide receiver/safety Ben Stottlemyer, 16, said he was diagnosed with a “light concussion” after Williams put him through the concussion protocol earlier this season.
“She actually ended up pulling me from the game, which is kind of nice,” Stottlemyer said. “I feel like, if she wouldn’t have been there, I probably would have went back in.”
Williams said that, like most athletes, Stottlemyer wanted to go back in the game, but she took his helmet from him.
On this day, Stottlemyer participated in warmups with other varsity and JV players.
The uniformed players, lined up in rows, rolled their heads to loosen their necks, slowly squatted until their elbows reached their knees, did a few pushups, and high-stepped. Then they did different lunges.
Williams said she devised the warmup and a weight-training program last school year after football coaches approached her about improving those programs.
As a result, Williams said she’s seen fewer muscle strains since she joined North High’s staff in August 2014.
Moats said there’s no comparable data for injury statistics before and after the athletic trainer program began. But Moats, who is the trainer at Clear Spring High, said she’s seen a shorter recovery time from injuries.
“The biggest thing is helping athletes get the care they need quicker,” Moats said.
Moats said trainers can often get students an appointment within 24 or 48 hours, whereas it could take parents three to four days to get their child in to see an orthopedic specialist. With a medical background, trainers can explain why the youth needs to be seen promptly, she said.
Trusting in the trainer
As his teammates arrived at the football practice field for warmups, sophomore Will Roberson asked Williams if she would be at his first physical therapy session the next day.
Williams went to that one and two others, Roberson said Wednesday.
In addition to providing emotional support, Williams was an extra set of ears listening to the physical therapist about the exercises he needed to do, said Roberson, 16.
Roberson injured his knee in September while running during practice, he said.
The nose tackle said Williams has been there for him since his surgery.
“Kids like Keshia,” North High Athletic Director Marcia Nissel said. “They’re willing to go to her if they have an injury or suspect an injury.”
Having an athletic trainer allows coaches to focus on game action while the trainer takes care of any injuries, she said.
“And if she says they don’t get back in the game, they don’t get back in the game,” Nissel said.
Williams said she lives close enough to the campus to hear the school bell ring. In addition to helping the athletes, she is occasionally called to check on a student in phys-ed class and staff members have come to her for advice.
Michael said when he was coaching Williamsport football in the late 1990s and early 2000s, he was the one who would check on his injured players. He had taken an athletic training course in college.
More recently and before the school system hired trainers, Boonsboro and Smithsburg schools and their respective athletic boosters paid for trainers to be at their games and practices for various sports, Michael said.
Now with the trainers program and other school systems having similar programs, Michael estimates that there is a trainer present for at least 95 percent of WCPS’s home and away games, whether that trainer works for WCPS or another school system.
More than injuries
The student who needed the recovery bar and sports drink hadn’t eaten that day because of a medical test, but Williams said it’s not uncommon for students to not eat properly.
She had an athlete come to the season’s first football practice having only eaten cereal at breakfast.
Williams said she talks to youths about proper diet, eating a healthy lunch, and trying to snack during the latter part of their school day in preparation for practice and games.
She also educates them about the importance of hydration.
Williams said she attends home games for all of North’s sports and often goes on the road with the football team and for any of the school’s playoff games.
On this day, football, soccer, volleyball, cheerleading and cross-country teams were either practicing or had games at North’s campus. On days like that, Williams can end up moving around from practice to practice as students and coaches need her.
She ended the day at the boys’ JV and varsity soccer games. She tossed tape to JV players so they could secure their socks over their shinguards and later helped a varsity soccer player stretch his hamstring out.
“I love it. I do this job because I love to come to work everyday,” Williams said. “I wouldn’t want to do anything else.”
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