Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
State’s trainer services near last
Jesse Herrington has seen local high schools do a better job of making athletic training services available to their student-athletes in recent years.
But a recent report shows there’s still plenty of work to do statewide.
The report, produced by the Korey Stringer Institue at the University of Connecticut, has Arkansas tied with Idaho for 47th out of the 50 states and the District of Columbia with only 39% of secondary schools receiving athletic trainer services.
However, Herrington, a trainer at Rogers High School, said nearly all of the schools in the northwest corner of the state have access to trainers in one way or another. Mercy Hospital and a few other entities around the area have helped in that process, he said.
“I think we’ve done a good job of maximizing what we have in place, but wanting to have more,” said Herrington, who is in his ninth year at Rogers. “The only school up here that doesn’t have someone is Decatur, I believe. And Mercy has tried to send someone on Friday night to their football games, depending on the schedule and availability.”
The only states that ranked lower than Arkansas were North Dakota (38%), Oklahoma (32%) and Alaska at 13%, according to the 2018 report. Those states are far from the national average of 66%.
By comparison, New Jersey leads the way with 90% of its schools receiving athletic trainer services. Hawaii is a close second at 89%, while Connecticut and Delaware are tied at 88 percent apiece.
Herrington serves as cochair of the secondary schools committee of the Arkansas Athletic Trainers Association and was hoping to push the importance of trainers in schools as part of National Athletic Training Month in March. But the coronavirus pandemic shut down schools and thwarted his effort.
“We just want to highlight the need for athletic trainers throughout the state,” Herrington said. “The biggest need is to continue to get more athletic trainers in the high schools around the state. Having an athletic trainer, they can help you set up policies and procedures to keep athletes safe.
“It’s a layer of protection in all honesty — for the schools, coaches and administrators by having an educated health professional on staff. The profession is constantly evolving and we’re learning more about things like concussion, sudden cardiac arrest or heat-related illness for example. One of our primary duties is to stay on top of all that.”
Rogers Public Schools has been on the leading edge of the movement to put trainers on staff. David Roller, who remains on staff today, was the first athletic trainer hired by a school in Arkansas in the summer of 1996.
But that came following a tragedy.
Kendrick Fincher suffered a heat stroke on Aug. 7, 1995, following football practice at Elmwood Junior High. The 13-year-old died 18 days later at Arkansas Children’s Hospital in Little Rock of multi-system organ failure caused by the heatstroke.
“After that happened, I think they started looking to see what they could do to make sure that never happened again,” Roller said.
SMALL SCHOOL STEPS UP
Oftentimes, finances are an obstacle for smaller schools to be able to afford to hire athletic trainers, Herrington said.
Greenland, a Class 3A school, decided it was important enough to make the investment and hired a trainer this year. Lee Larkan, Greenland football coach and athletic director, couldn’t have been more
pleased.
“It’s the best thing we’ve done at Greenland,” said Larkan, who is about to finish his 19th year with the Pirates. “It takes so much pressure off the coaches.”
Larkan thought hiring a trainer was a good idea after attending several Arkansas Activities Association meetings where they talked in depth about topics like heat-related illness and sport-related concussions.
“There are so many more things they are asking of coaches,” Larkan said. “We just want to make sure our kids are safe, and our superintendent was 100 percent on board with it.”
The benefits are immense, Larkan said.
“Say a kid sprains an ankle on Monday afternoon, they can get evaluated by someone who knows what’s going on,” Larkan said. “They can get rehab during lunch period or a free period — if they have it — or before or after school.
“She knows so much more, especially on things like the concussion thing. It’s been a lifesaver for us.”
Taylor Bowker was hired at Greenland after graduating from Arkansas and enjoyed the experience, but the 26-yearold admitted it was difficult at times.
“It is scary to tell the head coach in the middle of a close game that his star player can’t play,” Bowker said. “But they’ve been great to work with. I told myself if I can get through this, nothing’s going to scare me past this.”
Something else that was disconcerting was finding out she was unique. Bowker is among only a couple of athletic trainers employed by schools in the 3A-1 Conference.
“That scares me some, too,” Bowker said. “If I’m there and a player from another team needs something, I always offer my services. But I’m really happy where I am. One of the perks of being at a small school is everybody takes care of everybody, and they have kind of adopted me really fast.”
BIG CHANGES
Trainers today are dealing with significantly more than sprained ankles, pulled muscles or the occasional broken bone.
“Back in say 2011, a trainer would have a fanny pack with some tape and that would probably be about it,” said Patrick Skinner, director of Rehab Services at Mercy Hospital in Rogers. “Today, they will have lots of equipment you would see in an ambulance like and AED (automated external defibrillator) or oxygen.”
But a game-changer for trainers has been the invention of the electronic medical record.
“It’s not sexy or glamorous, but it’s allowed us to get more accurate information,” Skinner said. “Before it was never a skill or competency issue with the trainer. You had a communication chain that might be relying on a 12-year-old relaying information. Now the information is communicated smoother between player, coach, parent, trainer and maybe even the doctor.”