In the age of single-sport athletes and repetitive motions, schools tend to see more sport-specific injuries. Though their job isn’t easy, celebrated or glamorous, the Bastrop High school student athletic trainers do an amazing job of making sure our athletes stay in top shape. The trainers arrive early to every practice and game and even stay late after to make sure each and every athlete has been taken care of. 

“My job is to make sure that all the players, who need to be, are taped and ready to play,” said senior Reagan Ferem. “Then the game starts and the trainers stay on the sidelines giving out water, cleaning up blood, and helping in the off chance that someone gets hurt. After the game, we help with treatment and making sure every player is good to go back into play the next day.” 

Currently, with ten athletic trainers in the program, the resource of qualified human beings is spread thin. Having such a small staff, they really have to work together to divide and conquer, as well as communicate with leadership to achieve the end goal of safety prevention and care. In any sport, the trainers main priority is to make sure their athletes are taken care of. Their hard work and dedication is prevalent and a true testimony to the importance of the program for the school and students.

The best memory so far is when a boy from track was doing hurdles and he fell back onto one of the hurdles and cut open the back of his ear. I remember him coming into the training room holding his ear, blood everywhere, asking for help. I had to call Doc White over asking her to help me and she told me that it was my turn to stitch him up. I thought to myself, ‘What? How could I do this?’ but Doc White told me to stitch him up and so I grabbed the starry strips quickly and pulled together the huge gash and closed the wound so he could make it to the hospital before losing too much blood. -senior Logan Anderson

Throughout the school year, both a veteran and rookie athletic trainer switch on and off to attend different sporting events, but come together during football season as a collective group to make sure the entire team stays unscathed.

“I have always wanted to help people, and the best way I could during school was to become an athletic trainer,” said Anderson. “While I was doing so, I found my passion of helping athletes, and now I want to pursue it as a career.”