What do you do at Logan High School as the Athletic Trainer?

I can’t speak for what the duties of every trainer at their high school are, but I will describe to you a little bit about what I do from day to day at the high school. In general, most Athletic Trainers’ responsibilities include prevention, assessment, treatment, and rehabilitation of athletic injuries and health care administration (paperwork!) to name a few things.

My duties throughout the year are different. That is, I do different things during the fall season compared to winter or spring seasons, and during the summer. I’ll talk a little bit about what I do each season.

During the summer and during the school year, I work all day at the Hocking Valley Physical & Occupational Therapy Center. There I perform rehab on injured people, such as factory employees, ‘weekend warriors’, high school athletes, and various other populations referred to the clinic by any local physician. I also prepare myself for the upcoming school year by taking inventory of my training rooms, ordering all the supplies that I’ll need, and getting stuff where I need it to be. I’ll stop by the football conditionings in the summer from time to time as well. I also get in some Continuing Education courses to sharpen my skills as an ATC and keep me up to date with the current trends of sports medical care.

The fall is the busiest for me. Official preseason conditioning for most fall sports starts a couple weeks before classes begin. I’ll spend most of my time with the Varsity football team. 2-a-day practices last for a couple weeks. There may also be a scrimmage or two. I have to attend every football practice and game. Concerning the other sports, such as volleyball, soccer, and cross country, I try to go to the games/matches when I can if there are no football obligations. Otherwise I’ll check up with the coaches a few times a week to see if any athlete needs to see me. Once classes start, I make myself available in the training room at the high school for the last period of the day for rehab of any injured athletes.

Then comes along the winter sports season. Since most of the events during the winter season take place at the Middle School’s facilities, I move most of my supplies to that training room from the high school training room. I’m kept quite busy with the many basketball games of boys and girls freshman thru Varsity. Home games are always my first priority, and I do travel to some of the away Varsity games. There is also a Varsity wrestling tournament that lasts all day long that I attend. Again, I make myself available at the end of the day at the high school’s training room for rehab.

Lastly is the spring season. The majority of my time is spent with either Varsity baseball or softball. During April, there are at least 4 home games per week, so I’m quite busy. All games are played at Mingo Park which is on the other side of town from my training rooms, so I must get all my supplies from the training room and then transport it to the games, then take them back after the game.