One Year Ago… The Damar Effect

It’s been one year since America watched as Damar Hamlin suffered a sudden cardiac arrest as a result of commotio cordis on Monday Night Football. Commotio cordis is quite rare, but sudden cardiac arrest is not. But SCA has never received the amount of attention before January 2, 2023 as it has since that time. As Matthew Mangine Jr’s father has said, their organization and other organizations like them would not have been able to garner the amount of attention. But the whole cause and so many things surrounding Sports Safety became a hot topic in 2023. The question for 2024 is where do we go from here? We’ve identified a major problem, but in 2024 we must attack the problem.

On my drive home for Christmas this year, I listened to “The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make A Big Difference.” This was definitely not what I was expecting it to be, but a very good book to listen to while I drove for ~10 hours. As I listened to the book, I wondered what the Tipping Point would be in youth sports and were we witnessing it happening right now? Ironically enough, I think we are seeing it and it’s not because of youth sports at all! One of the concepts in the book is the “actions of few” who make a difference. Athletic Trainers have called for improvements in sports safety for a long time and have often fallen on deaf ears. ATs have saved lives for a long time, but none have been as influential as the sports medicine staffs from the Buffalo Bills and the Cincinnati Bengals as they saved Damar Hamlin’s life on the field that night. Or what about the actions of Rachel Leahy who was instrumental in saving the life of an Army hockey player and was featured on ESPN last winter? These “actions of a few” have made a lot more people aware of the needs for sports safety. It’s unfortunate that it took an event on national television to wake a lot of people up, but the “action of the few” concept is fully in play and now it’s time that we capitalize on it.

The Matthew Mangine Jr “One Shot” Foundation definitely did that in 2023, as they announced a few days ago that they had trained 10,000 people in hands-only CPR in 2023! That is an amazing feat! And I look forward to so much more of this type of training, from them and from other groups, in 2024. It’s time that we have an epidemic of sports safety. And it’s started… in 2024 we must push to make it even better! Through the work of organizations like the Matthew Mangine Jr “One Shot” Foundation, the Zach Martin Memorial Foundation, and the Jordan McNair Foundation, the work of #SaferSidelines by Stephanie Kuzydym, and the everyday work of athletic trainers with their feet on the ground—We will improve sports safety for more kids!

We Are… #AthleticTrainers

What’s in a name? A name is an artificial and meaningless convention used to identify an object, profession, or family. But it doesn’t have to define you. You can define it! Every so often (or like once a week in the athletic training circles it seems) there is a push for a name change in the athletic training profession. The National Athletic Trainers’ Association has studied this topic before, and the same answer comes time after time: no need to change the title of our profession. So why is it that some professionals seem to need to continue to harp on this concept? What is it they think they know that our organizational leaders don’t?

Instead of griping about our name, instead of comparing ourselves to other professionals (perceived as superior or inferior to ours) why don’t we be proud of our profession? Be proud of who we are? We are athletic trainers. We are responsible for the health and welfare of the athlete-patient. We are allied healthcare providers. We are ATHLETIC TRAINERS.

Safe Sports School: What Does It Really Mean?

The National Athletic Trainers’ Association introduced the Safe Sports School award in an attempt to recognize outstanding athletic training programs in secondary schools. There are two distinctions that schools can qualify for: 1^st Team and 2^nd Team.

Take One Minute

Take One Minute. 60 seconds. It’s not long. But in that 60 seconds you can watch the story of how a young athlete’s life was saved. 60 seconds is very important in this story, because 60 seconds is longer than the time it took for Claire Crawford to collapse on the volleyball court, the Athletic Trainer and staff to respond, and for CPR to be initiated. Can you believe all of that happened in 56 seconds?

Thankful Thursday–Advent Edition

I’ve said it so many times, but I continue to love being in the place I’m in right now. There’s only one thing that I could do to make it better and that’d be to have it be closer to home. But alas, it’s not. So I try so hard not to dwell on that part. Because I have the best job in the world. I work with the best people. And every day I see it, more and more.

High School Football: Not Just a Game

I heard somebody make the comment in the last couple days about how “it’s just a high school football game.” Our season came to a close on Saturday in Houston in the 1^st round of the playoffs. For 26 senior football players, they walked off the field for the last time as a high school football player. But this game isn’t just about those 26 players or the 50+ players who put on the uniform Saturday afternoon.

Athletic Trainers: Healthcare Providers or Wannabes?

This post is likely to come off as a rant this evening, but I’m sorry: gotta do it! For those of you who may not know, I am a Certified Athletic Trainer. I am licensed in both Illinois and Texas. And I also hold a Masters Degree in Medical Sciences specializing in Pediatric Sports Medicine. So, just understand where this is coming from…

Athletic Trainers in Secondary Schools

The Certified Athletic Trainer (AT) is specially trained and educated to handle injuries related to sport and recreation. ATs undergo clinical and didactic tracks in the pursuit of a bachelor’s or master’s degree that allows one to sit for the certification exam through the Board of Certification. For over 60 years, ATs have provided health services to thousands of athlete-patients but over the course of time some of these professionals have chosen to pursue employment outside of what is referred to as the “traditional setting.” While not inherently wrong, the author believes that the student-athletes of thousands of high schools are missing out on a valuable resource. Additionally, this exodus has created a separation amongst the profession that could ultimately destroy the profession. The National Athletic Trainers’ Association is made up of about 35,000 members and it is time that all 35,000 members become united with a goal to provide every athlete with the athletic healthcare he or she so deserves¹.

My “Freshmen Year” As a Friar

July 29, 2014 I was offered an opportunity of a lifetime and I snatched it up very quickly. In fact, I was asked if we were getting married or something— that’s how quickly I said yes! Very quickly, my world changed because I went from working in a PT clinic in my hometown providing ~12 hours of outreach Athletic Training Services to the local high school to moving to Dallas, TX where I would spend closer to 80 hours per week providing Athletic Training Services to a school. That school is Bishop Lynch. July 29^th I accepted the job and quickly began to pack and become very excited. By the end of the week, I had resigned from my previous job, packed up my truck, and drove 10 hours to Dallas. Monday morning I was on campus and the rest they say is history.

Youth Sports: You’ve Lost Your Minds

Rant time: Here it is 1:30AM and I’m reading once again about a complex in Georgia with “state of the art” fields that include some things even more than what is available at the Major League Baseball level! To go along with it are some complaints from parents about what they consider to be “nickel and dime” efforts but one of the organizations and some of these parents claim it is simply a matter of business.