DE PERE (NBC 26) — When it comes to high school sports, NBC 26 often highlights the the players, the coaches and even the fans who support their teams.
This week on Youth Sports: Beyond the Score, we take a look at some of the unsung heroes: the trainers who help keep the young athletes healthy and safe.
- The 2024 high school football season began on Thursday and continued into a full slate of games on Friday.
- Each team is staffed with trainers who help players with injury prevention and treatment, and who also rise to the occasion in the case of an emergency situation.
- Video shows trainers practicing different emergency situations that could arise during a sporting event.
Earlier this summer, Prevea trainers gathered for their annual Emergency Action Training Day, practicing scenarios for everything from concussions to spinal injuries to CRP-related events.
“We’ve all seen from the Damar Hamlin event two years ago with the NFL," Jeremy Metzler, the medical director at Prevea Sports Medicine, said. "That didn’t just happen by accident."
"How everything worked, that was all practice and trained," Metzler said. "So that’s really the main reason for this is just to kind of go through the scenario so when you see it on the field for the first time or on the court or on the rink, it’s not the first time you’ve thought about it.”
In addition to his services as a primary care sports medicine physician, Metzler also services St. Norbert College athletics and the Green Bay Packers on game days.
“We watch games differently than the general population does," Metzler said. "I’m looking for injuries. I’m looking for a guy getting up too slowly. If it’s a pass down the field, I’m probably looking in the backfield to make sure everyone’s getting up there versus watching the play down the field.”
Metzler said emergency services are vital no matter the level or age of the athlete. However, at a youth sporting event trainers can play an even more pivotal role.
“The coaches at that level probably aren’t as trained in first aid or CPR like the athletic trainers are," Metzler said. "Sometimes they just aren’t able to recognize the conditions that our athletic trainers are trained to recognize.”
“In a situation where something goes wrong, they’re not going to be prepared to handle it," said Jordan Moehn a Prevea athletic trainer at Kimberly High School. "That’s where we come in. We are the experts in this field."
In his work with Kimberly, Moehn more frequently handles basic injury evaluations and treatment. Emergency scenarios aren't as common, but he said they are just as important.
“Obviously the goal is to never need to use these skills but if you don’t have the skills in a situation that you need them, well then you’re in a bad situation," Moehn said.
He acknowledged those situations can be stressful, but said medical personnel need to trust their training.
“Everything we did here kind of becomes second nature," Moehn said. "We just start acting. Start doing."
"All the emergency situations that I’ve been in at the end of it you look and time seemed to go by really fast," he added. "Because you do everything how you were taught, how you were trained, how you’ve practiced. And that’s how you get the right outcomes.”
It's all in a day's work for some of the unsung heroes of high school sports.
“I love what I do," Moehn said. "I’ll tell you what, this job is so rewarding."
"You really get to get a direct connection with the athlete, with the kid, in a way that you don’t always get in other professions," he added. "They trust you, you trust them and then you work together to achieve the same goal."
