 "Photo: Michael Sue / The Advocate")
As concern over athletic safety rises due to recent physically harmful incidents in the district and other places, the athletic department is in the process of improving its preventative safety measures.
All of the coaches and teachers in the department either have or will receive training in cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and first aid training through Red Cross, Athletic Director John Wade said.
Athletic trainer Brian Powelson said he is personally required to handle any injuries during athletic events and can provide crutches, ice packs, tape and slings, along with other basic first aid necessities.
“Anything for acute injuries,” Powelson said. “Having someone there to take care of that is definitely a plus.”
There have been so many injuries among districts, even deaths, and the school has to step back and ask itself, “Are we really prepared?” Athletic Equipment Manager Benny Barnes said.
There are no real laws for athletic safety in community colleges, but all the schools have an athletic trainer, Wade said.
Physical education professor Jim Ulversoy puts on CPR and first aid training seminars for coaches and teachers.
“I have (trained) most of the coaches,” Ulversoy said. “I have two more coaches I need to train within the next couple weeks for spring.”
CPR requires doing chest compressions to push blood from the heart to the brain. If the blood is not pushed to the brain soon enough, the individual could acquire brain damage and die.
“As far as being prepared, we hope to know the players’ medical history, including their pre-existing conditions,” Wade said. “A lot of times we don’t know about their condition. That’s when medical emergencies happen.”
Ulversoy said he thinks every year athletes should have an electrocardiography (EKG) scan, which would show if they had a heart problem. Some people go through life without knowing they have heart problems until something happens, like the players that collapsed in the high school districts, he said.
Student-athletes believe conditioning and stretching before a game are the best ways to safely prepare.
“All you can really do is stretch and don’t do anything too quickly,” softball player Tori Takahashi said. “We have a really good trainer, and we’re all comfortable going to him.”
Barnes said many times the cause of major injuries stems from athletes not receiving proper treatment.
“It’s such a big difference from four-year schools with trainers everywhere,” Barnes said. “Here, if athletes get an injury, they take time off. They don’t get the proper treatment, then play and get hurt even worse.”
The campus should know the training room is the only medical station the college has, he said.
Wade said the college has a lot of safety measures in place, however, such as a full-time trainer, campus police and Doctors Medical Center being close.
During football games, the college has an ambulance and doctor on-site. For other sports games, they would only be on call in case of an emergency, Powelson said.
“For away games, I will travel with football, but when other teams travel, the athletic trainer at that school would take care of those injuries,” he said.
In the event of a heart-related injury, an automated external defibrillator (AED), located in the Gym Annex Building, could be used to administer a shock to start the heart.
The AED has never been used, but all physical education instructors have been taught to use it, Barnes said.
Wade said, “It can be taken to the Fitness Center or out on the fields on a day-to-day basis, if needed.”
Contact Alexandra Waite at awaite.advocate@gmail.com
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