By JOHN E. HOOVER Sports Columnist on Mar 14, 2013, at 6:23 PM Updated on 3/14 at 6:23 PM
GAME POINT
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This much I know for sure: there are not enough athletic trainers in the sports world.
Quite a few of those that we do have, however, have descended upon Tulsa.
Members of the Mid-American Athletic Trainers Association, consisting of athletic trainers from Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa, Missouri, North Dakota and South Dakota, are in town Thursday through Saturday for their annual meeting and symposium.
March is, after all, National Athletic Training Month. Governor Mary Fallin proclaimed March as Athletic Training month in Oklahoma, and mayor Dewey Bartlett declared Friday as Athletic Training Day in the City of Tulsa.
Dr. Greg Gardner, an associate professor of athletic training and associate director of the School of Nursing at the University of Tulsa, will be inducted Friday in the MAATA Hall of Fame.
“An honor that is well deserved,” said TU head athletic trainer Dave Polanski.
“After all of his experiences and years of service, Greg is still happiest standing on a sideline as an athletic trainer,” said Ron Walker, a TU colleague of Gardner’s, “… but he has a unique ability to open students’ eyes to global issues and opportunities far beyond that particular field of play.”
Last fall, after Tulane defensive back Devon Walker sustained a catastrophic spinal cord injury in a game at TU, I wrote a follow-up revealing a startling lack of athletic trainers — or even a close facsimile — at high school and youth football games and other athletic events in our city and across our state.
A 2011 survey conducted by TU seniors studying athletic training showed that only 20 percent of Oklahoma high schools participating in athletics have certified athletic trainers on staff.
That ranges from 94 percent of the Class 6A schools to 44 percent of 5A, 38 percent of 4A, 12 percent of 3A, 11 percent of 2A, 7 percent of Class A and 3 percent of Class B.
That’s beyond horrible. It’s reprehensible.
It’s because of money, of course. School districts are financially strapped. Budgets are crunched. New spending is out of the question.
It’s worse in youth football leagues. Kids injured in games or practice have to hope their coach — usually not a coach at all, but just a volunteer dad — has retained something form his certification test for care and prevention of minor injuries. Medical attention for the little ones might come down to a caring parent applying ice or a 911 call to an emergency medical response team at a nearby hospital, followed by an agonizing wait for an ambulance.
Funding is a real problem. No doubt there. But more fundamental to the problem is a lack of awareness.
If only people knew. If only more parents who suited up their little warriors and sent them off to gridiron battle fully realized the potential extent of the harm their child could suffer.
If everyone could attain that level of awareness — or if everyone could see how stunningly good the emergency response was at Chapman Stadidum last year as Walker was realizing he may never walk again — then spending literally a few extra dollars per kid would not be a roadblock.
Many states’ high school athletic associations do mandate athletic trainer coverage at events, including practices. Oklahoma’s does not. That’s sad.
Union High School athletic trainer Dan Newman was recently president of the Oklahoma Athletic Trainers Association and his primary platform was to work with high schools to try to put trainers in place. Barriers were everywhere.
“You can’t mandate it,” Newman said. “If you have an unfunded mandate, it’ll fall by the wayside.”
Even having an emergency response unit on call or at an event is “up to the district. We recommend it, but it’s not required,” said OSSAA executive secretary Ed Sheakley. “…You hold your breath and keep your fingers crossed every Friday night.”
That’s not good enough. Parents need to pressure school district superintendents to appropriate the funds to pay for trainers. If that’s not possible, then school administrators — athletic directors, principals, coaches, whomever — need to work harder to find alternatives like trade-outs, corporate partnerships or sponsors to ensure our kids have the medical assistance they need and deserve when they play sports.
This world needs more athletic trainers. The time is now.
