Athletic Training: Their Unseen Dedication
By Ian Busking
Many people love watching and playing sports, but there are some very important people and groups that work behind the scenes to make sure the games and practices run smoothly. One of those groups is athletic trainers. These trainers specialize in preventing athletes from getting injured and focus on their recovery.
At Owasso, there are a couple of athletic trainers and student assistants that make sure every athlete in every sport is at their maximum potential.
One of the athletic trainer assistants is senior Brenden Anderson. Being an athletic trainer, lots of things have to be done to keep everything going the way it should. There are many things that Anderson and the rest of the trainers do to ensure the safety in each sport.
Anderson says, “Ensuring safety in each sport is tough and always varies in different circumstances. This year, we faced COVID-19 so the whole training staff has been cautious.”
There are a lot of things that the athletic trainers do to keep the athletes from getting injured so they can remain healthy throughout their season.
Anderson replied to this with, “Injury prevention is something that occurs the whole week of game preparation. Athletes need to eat correctly throughout the week to avoid cramping but the rest is up to rehab and taking care of the little injuries to prevent bigger ones later on.”
Photo of the Athletic Trainers
To make sure the athletes, trainers, and coaches are on the right page to getting the quickest and safest recovery possible, the coaches and trainers collaborate to make sure that happens.
Coach Collins, the Owasso cross country and track coach says “The trainers are fantastic. If we have an injured athlete, they contact me to tell me what treatment they have received and how to proceed with the injured athlete's training. I think we do a lot to keep our runners healthy as possible but running is so physically demanding on runners' joints and tendons, so injuries are almost unavoidable. Our trainers do an unbelievable job of helping our athletes get back to racing.”
Even though you don’t see how much athletic trainers really do, they work non-stop to make sure that the Owasso Rams sports teams are ready to compete at their maximum potential.