From Friday night lights to the athletic training room, the Homewood High School sports medicine students are committed to bettering athletic performance one injury treatment at a time.
Last year, full-time HHS athletic trainer Ed Harris reinstated the sports medicine class as an elective option for students. Following the COVID-19 pandemic and changes to the athletic training program with new facilities and staff, helping athletes was Harris’s primary goal. However, as he’s grown more comfortable with the latest procedures, bringing back sports medicine education for students was an easy decision.
“After the athletic trainer before me at Homewood retired, COVID hit and we just kind of shut everything down for a year to reduce contact,” Harris said. “It was a good time to hit a reset button. I was able to get accustomed to everything new from the job to the new facilities. I was really focused on athletic training, and then when I was comfortable with that I decided to bring the classes back.”
Harris initially brought back sports medicine education as only an after-school club, and last year solidified lesson plans to create the full class. Students are taught in-class material ranging from anatomy to patient interaction and have the opportunity to implement their learning hands-on with athletes in the training room and on the field.
“In the training room, we have a lot of great recovery tools that athletes can come and use,” Harris said. “A lot of it I don’t actually have to be running, but somebody needs to be in there while athletes are using machinery, so (sports medicine students) get to interact with the athletes and learn more about the injury rehabilitation or recovery process like an extra set of hands while I focus on athletes with more acute injuries.”
Harris hopes that the students in his class will invest in a future of athletic training, using their high school knowledge as a basis for a master’s level education. He believes it takes dedication and hard work to make a career in the field of sports medicine, and has designed the curriculum to prepare students for success.
“I have printed skill sheets where they’ll check off different skills on levels one through four,” Harris said. “In the class setting, I have lessons to help them learn those skills. Like this morning we learned to do evaluations and palpitations for range of motion in different body joints, things like that.”
While most students have the opportunity to work in the athletic training room, the most sought-after position is on the sidelines for varsity football games. Students get to observe first-hand how trainers treat in-game injuries, an invaluable experience for those wishing to progress in the field of sports medicine.
“There’s a little competition with who gets to work with us at games,” Harris said. “There’s a couple of people who were coming up here and helping me during the summer, so they were my first choice. But I told my other students if they don’t do a bad job at the JV or freshmen games then they have a shot at the varsity lineup. So it’s kind of like a step process.”
One of these students is HHS sophomore Taylor Powe. After watching her sister Mickiah on the sidelines for sports medicine class last year, she decided it was something she wanted to pursue as well.
“She had such a great experience, so it definitely seemed like something I wanted to do,” Powe said. “It’s helped me realize that I want to go to PT school and help people.”
Powe feels the class will help her be as prepared as possible to reach her goals.
“I love being there and helping out, the environment is really fun,” Powe said. “But I’m also learning a lot when I get to handle the supplies and observe the trainers treating more serious injuries at games.”
Above all, Powe believes the life lessons she’s learned from her participation in sports medicine will benefit her most.
“The most important thing I would say I’ve learned though is patience,” Powe said. “Sometimes there’s a lot to handle at once, people need things from you and the athletes are being awkward when you’re trying to tape them, so I’ve learned how to deal with all of that the right way.”
