Athletic trainers serve many roles in nation's high schools

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In many high schools, particularly after the class day ends and the school nurse leaves, athletic trainers become the town doctors by default.

"I hear about it all -- pregnancy, STDs, abuse, and I try to make the referrals and stuff to get them help,'' said Jennifer Rheeling, athletic trainer for H.D. Woodson High School inWashington, D.C., for 18 years. "I'm an adult that will sit and listen -- kids call me 'Ma' and I take that as a huge compliment."

Working in one of the city's poorest neighborhood, Rheeling often struggles to make connections with parents. "I've taken kids to the hospital with broken bones sometimes when we couldn't find a parent," she said. "A lot of the kids don't have health coverage and I try to work with their parents to get them enrolled in one of the public plans."

Because many athletic trainers also teach at least part of the day and work extended hours, they become part of the fabric of a school and, often, the surrounding community. "Students have more access to us than any other health-care professional," said John Reynolds, who works at George Marshall High School in Falls Church, Va.

Tanya Dargusch, head athletic trainer at Washington Township High School in Sewell, N.J., for 22 years, said, "I'm here for all the kids, not just athletes. I've treated dancers, ROTC cadets, marching-band kids -- I even had to deal with a student who had been stabbed. There was no other medical provider around but me that time of day."

Longtime athletic trainers like Dargush often find their practice extended to non-scholastic sports. "My own kids have done all kids of youth sports, and when someone gets hurt or there's a safety question, its 'Talk to Tanya, she'll know what to do.'"

Brian Robinson, a fixture in the training room at Glenbrook South High School in Glenview, Ill., since 1977, admits he's become a community resource. "The midget football league wants help making sure the equipment fits kids properly; a soccer league had a rash of knee injuries and asked if I could teach some conditioning exercises to the coaches and players," he said. "From what I understand, it helped.

"I see a fair number of bumps and bruises around the neighborhood, too. Most of the time, I tell them to skip the trip to the ER, but I also make referrals to local sports-medicine physicians."

In many communities, schools contract with hospitals or sports-rehab clinics to provide athletic-trainer services on a full-time or part-time basis with employees who may also work in other sports-medicine settings.

"Our folks become part of the school athletic programs, but some of them may have spent the morning working with some of the kids' grandparents in one of our clinics," said Marisa Brunett, director of sports medicine for CORA Rehabilitation Clinics in Orlando, Fla.

She manages services for several public high schools across central Florida, and for a growing list of private schools. "We do a lot of creative things to get at least some level of services into smaller schools, like private schools that don't feel they can afford a full-time person on staff."

Many high-school athletic trainers also moonlight at tournaments and camps, often working with the same students they see at school. Many also volunteer time to make presentations to youth leagues and community groups about injury prevention.

"It's hard to quantify, but we definitely think communities where athletic trainers are part of the health-care team through the schools get wider benefits for young athletes from high school on down," said Robinson, who also chairs the secondary-school committee of the National Athletic Trainers' Association.

(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, http://www.scrippsnews.com)

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