For the past six years, David Allred has been listed as “Ath-letic Trainer” on the roster forms for Wood River High School sports.
Yet Allred has done so much more than taping ankles, mending wounds and offering trusted advice on how to deal with injuries.
That’s why Wood River made Allred “honorary cap-tain,” of Friday’s season-opening varsity football game against the Jerome Tigers at Phil Homer Field, Hailey.
He earned respect from stu-dents and staff during six years of working as Wood River’s trainer after graduating from Montana State University-Billings with a masters’ degree in athletic training in 2009.
Allred, 32, a 2001 graduate of Preston High School, was of-fered a job in August as a high school science teacher at Pre-ston High. He accepted the job and spent his first day on the job at Preston Monday.
He said it was a difficult de-cision, but he and his wife Rachael decided to move and take the new job to be closer to family in Preston. The couple has three children, Dietrich, 9, Kate, 7, and Enoch, 4.
Allred, a 2007 Brigham Young University bachelor’s graduate, said, “It was a great experience to come here after graduating from school. A lot of growth took place here. I did a little bit of everything and tried to help out where I could.”
He had planned on a seventh year in Hailey, but the Preston job opened and Allred took it.
Because of the late notice with onset of fall sports sea-sons, he served as trainer for Friday’s football game with Jerome and will return from Preston for this Friday’s Wood River home football game with Hillcrest. He has also worked as trainer for early-season soc-cer and volleyball games.
Wood River High School athletic director John Rade said Friday, “David Allred is going to be a huge loss for Wood River High and the Blaine County School District. The WRHS staff, all student athletes and I will miss David.
“He went way beyond the scope of his duties and respon-sibilities as an athletic trainer.
“Not only did he teach sports medicine at Wood River and provide athletic training serv-ices to staff, WRHS and Carey student athletes, David certi-fied our coaches in CPR and first aid. He administered im-pact concussion testing to ath-letes in contact sports.
“David was always at all home sporting events and at most practices. He was always the first to help out wherever needed.
“He helped set up for home events, kept score when needed, announced at home events, and lined fields when needed. Everywhere you looked, David was always help-ing out.
“David often times helped teams prepare for their next opponents as a scout player during practice. I have even seen him on the wrestling mat with kids that needed a wres-tling partner to prepare for their next opponent.
“The kids loved David. They were always in his training room hanging out at lunch as well as before and after school. The next Wood River High ath-letic trainer has some very big shoes to fill.
“David has set the bar for an athletic trainer very high. We all wish him the best of luck at Preston High School.”
Rade said a job search is underway for a replacement
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