The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
ATHLETIC AIDES HELP COMET TEAMS
Students spend Friday nights assisting players from sideline
Before taking the field on a Friday night, some Amherst football players need help bending their arms and legs.
Some need help straightening them out.
Either way, they have student athletic aides to help.
Along with the teams and the band and those in the stands, Marion L. Steele High
School students assist on the sidelines when the Comets play.
The athletic aides come
from the high school’s Medical Health Technology program, a two-year track for students interested in pursuing various medical careers.
The program is overseen by med tech instructor Kim Haney, who began her career with Amherst students as an athletic trainer in 1990.
“My favorite thing is probably all the different opportunities we get, like doing this, and we get to volunteer at hospitals and see different careers,” said Haley Hart, 17, a senior. “It really helps us get to know what we want to do in life, and we just get to see a lot of cool stuff.”
“It definitely teaches us how to be caring and how to help people in a bunch of different ways,” said Ava Kalonick-Gordon, 16, a junior.
On Sept. 21, they were part of the field crew of athletic aides with junior Bailey Smith, 17, and senior Hannah Jones, 17.
Before the game, the girls said they wanted to explore medical careers in
part because experiences with health issues in their families stirred their desire to help people.
Bailey said she is interested in trauma surgery and Hannah hopes to become a speech language pathologist.
Ava and Haley said they still are exploring their health career options.
But before any of that would happen, there was a football game to play.
Pregame
On Sept. 21, the Comets football team had a 4-0 record.
The team prepared to face the Berea-Midpark High School Titans.
Cheerleaders, band members and parents began arriving at the stadium hours before kickoff.
The athletic aides took their posts in the fieldhouse with Tiffany Rathwell, of Rehabilitation Consultants, who serves as the team’s sideline athletic trainer.
The aides watched Rathwell tape wrists and ankles, and sometimes did the job themselves.
They helped the football players bend and twist as needed to get loose for the game.
And there was water to take care of.
The aides are responsible for filling two white pressurized tanks used for sideline hydration.
Those tanks ride on dollies and have squirt nozzles to refill the water bottles that the student aides carry for the players, coaches and referees.
They also scoop ice into a sideline cooler that will supply cold packs to control swelling.
Leading up to kickoff, the aides said locker room atmosphere becomes intense when Coach Mike Passarrello, his assistants and the players get fired up.
“It’s definitely a cool experience being, like, in the locker room,” Ava said. “Even though you’re not on the team, you’re still here when it’s all happening.
“It gets a little loud when the coach talks to them. They scream a lot.”
Game mode
When the team goes on the field, the athletic aides follow.
They spread out along the sidelines, standing in front of the players and next to the coaches.
The aides move with the
team, following the line of scrimmage up and down the field.
During timeouts, the aides go on to the field to deliver water bottles to the Comets and the referees.
“When kickoff starts, you are in game mode,” Bailey said. “You’re not a player, but you’re still paying attention.
“When timeouts come, we need to be out there before the whistle is done blowing. So, we need to know where we’re at. We need to know what situation is going on.”
Watching the ball is not just for fun, the aides said.
When players head out of bounds, sometimes the aides need to jump out of the way.
“You need to be really vigilant because you can look away for a second, and suddenly, you look up, and there are football players running straight toward you,” Hannah said. “There’s a slight moment of panic and then you’re like, oh, wait, I need to move.”
On Sept. 21, Hannah carried the cut kit, which she said she “consider a privilege.”
It a first aid fanny pack with gloves, gauze and tape.
The aides understand
the Comets’ athletic scrapes and bumps may not have the same urgency as a car crash or heart attack.
Even so, players need quick treatment in the moment of the game.
“A lot of what I do every game is, I clean blood off the jerseys,” Hannah said. “If you are seen with blood on your jersey, you’ll get taken off the field.”
Players who don’t drink enough water can face cramping or worse.
If needed, the aides also will help band members, cheerleaders, coaches or anyone on the sidelines.
Post game
On Sept. 21, the Comets won 45-38.
The team stayed undefeated, but not without a back-and-forth battle from Berea-Midpark.
A few players came off the field with injuries, but it did not appear any would cause an early end to the season.
As the student section emptied onto the field to celebrate with the players, cleanup was relatively easy for the student athletic aides.
They set the empty water bottles, tanks and cooler back in the fieldhouse.
First aid kit and supplies would be restocked and ready for the next contest.
The sideline duty is a voluntary way to gain hours of experience for the Medical Health Technology program.
The athletic aides agreed it’s also a great way to spend a Friday night, win or lose.
“This is definitely my favorite way to be at the game and watch the game,” Haley said. “Me, too,” Ava said. “I feel like it’s more rewarding than anything,” Bailey said. “When they get a touchdown, we’re not supposed to be cheering.
“But I’m out there like, yes! When you’re out there, it’s you’re kind of like waiting to go in the game as well.”
“There’s a spirit of the game,” Hannah said. “I’ve experienced the game as a cheerleader on the sidelines, I’ve experienced it in the risers.
“But my favorite way to witness the game and be there is definitely be right up along the field with all of the guys. The guys get excited, and it’s a real cool experience that there’s no other way to get unless you’re just right there.”