Although fall sports practices are in full swing, one team of M-P students is working hard, hoping to spend as little time as possible on the playing field.
Students in the Marysville-Pilchuck student trainer program combine classes with hands-on experience to help treat injuries and support the spectrum of Marysville athletes.
As soon as football practice kicked off Aug. 15, sports medicine instructor Tim McTee and a couple of his students were on the sidelines watching the athletes, as they will be at all the schools sports offerings. McTee said footballs popularity is a draw to the program, but students come to the class from a variety of backgrounds.
I get a lot of athletes who think it will be kind of nice to learn how to take care of some of their injuries, McTee said. I get a mixture of those ones and kids who are going into premed or theyre interested in medicine and theyd like to do some hands-on to find out if theyd like it.
Marysvilles particular sports medicine program allows students to get as involved as they want. While some busy students choose to take only the class, others specialize in treating athletes in a particular seasonal sport.
Athletic letters are awarded to trainers who clock 200 hours, but some go well beyond that in a school year.
We just had one of our kids graduate with over 2,000 hours of experience, McTee said of M-P alum Laura Stogin who started the program as a freshman. McTee added that sophomore Katie Mueller is on pace to match Stogin, clocking an estimated 500 hours in the training room last year.
Some of the programs veteran students like senior Bobby Kossak, who will serve as the sports medicine club president in his fourth year with the student trainer program, have covered four or more sports. Its an impressive feat, as athletes in different sports are prone to different kinds of injuries, McTee said.
With football being a collision sport, the injuries are a lot worse. You worry about spinal injuries and you want to rule that out, spinal and head injuries. In volleyball, they get a lot of ankle sprains, knee sprains, he said. And then a team like swim and dive, its almost primarily overuse injuries.
At M-P, the end of the sports medicine season is signaled by a Quiz Bowl-like competition in which various schools trainers compete under pressure.
In addition to three written tests, trainers have to get up in front of two or three different instructors and demonstrate a skill thats picked out of a hat, he explained. Its pretty nerve-wracking, but its a lot of fun.
Sounds like another day on the job.