x
Breaking News
More () »

STL athletic trainers putting in extra work to keep our kids safe on the football field

Heat exhaustion, spinal cord injuries, concussions - this team is preparing for the worst.

St. Louis — High school football kicks off in the St. Louis region in just a matter of days. And a group of athletic trainers is doing everything they can to make sure they're ready.

“I think a lot more procedures are being put into place," said Jason Muchow, director of sports medicine at Mercy Hospital.

"Football of course … with the preparation, the tactics, the equipment, is so much better now than it was ten or fifteen years ago.”

Muchow's team of athletic trainers at Mercy is part of the growing movement to make football a safer sport, especially for local high school athletes.

Although they can't control what happens on the field or the equipment being used, they can control how to better treat severe illnesses and injuries resulting from football.

Nearly two dozen athletic trainers from Mercy Hospital met at Parkway Central High School to take a one-day annual course on how to treat football injuries. It's an important re-hash to freshen up on what they already know but rarely have to implement.

“Especially in the case of a spine-injured athlete, we've got to determine how to maintain that spine position and get that equipment off of him safely," said Muchow.

The trainers go over how to treat heat exhaustion, spinal cord injuries and sudden cardiac arrest. They prepare for the worst to make sure they are at their best when an emergency strikes.

Having such extra training isn't unheard of. The Parkway Central athletic director welcomed the trainers with open arms.

“It’s critical to the health of our student athletes," said John Theobald, who has a full-time Mercy AT at his school.

“I think most of our parents are, I don’t want to use the word comforted, but feel a little bit better about things knowing that we do have such quality people on our staff," he said.

Theobald feels football is exponentially safer than it was 10-15 years ago, in part because of better awareness regarding injuries.

“The return to play protocol is really probably the number one topic that’s talked about," he said.

Another reason athletic trainers are important? According to the National Athletic Trainer's Association (NATA) only 37 percent of public (28 percent private) secondary schools in the U.S. have a full-time athletic trainer on staff.

“We want to be prepared [that] our athletes are in the best care in those situations so that we can cool them, we can stabilize them," said Michael Aaron, the Mercy athletic trainer for Parkway Central High.

Mercy sports medicine partners with 22 schools in the St. Louis area for high school sports. If you find your school doesn't have a full-time athletic trainer you can provide someone already staff with EMT training.

Two other options:

What can a school do if there’s little to no budget for an athletic trainer?

In the St. Louis metro, Mercy Sports Medicine serves as the official medical provider for the St. Louis Cardinals, St. Louis FC, St. Louis Ambush as well as University of Missouri St. Louis. Local high schools include Parkway School District, Rockwood School District*, Christian Brothers College, Clayton*, De Smet Jesuit, Festus, Fox School District, Hillsboro, Ladue Horton Watkins*, Pacific, St. Clair*, Valley Park, Union, Westminster Christian Academy and Whitfield School. In addition, Mercy Sports Medicine works with St. Louis Scott Gallagher Soccer Club and Rawlings Tigers Baseball and Softball Club.

Before You Leave, Check This Out