That’s A Wrap!

Christian Brothers athletes are all quite successful, but no one achieves success alone. Coaches, family, teammates, and fans all help these athletes in their own way. But what happens when an athlete is injured. Who helps then?

The Christian Brothers Sports Medicine Team is here to help. These dedicated student athletic trainers assist and care for all athletes with all types of injuries. Teaming with the best professional head trainers like Mrs. Darci Calista, Mrs. Kolby Kuhn, and Ms. Janet Cortes allows for the best medical care for these athletes.

For these trainers, sports medicine is their sport. A lot of hard work and studying goes toward preparation in caring for all athletes. They must learn the majority of the human anatomy, and before providing care for athletes, they must first pass a test from the head trainers.

Trainers have the opportunity to put to their skills to the test by attending the annual sports medicine competition from March 3rd-5th in La Cañada, California. The Talon talked to two students who are attending this event and interviewed head trainer Mrs. Calista to get a sneak peek into this year’s competitive event.

Students register the day of the competition and begin to meet other students from all over the state and even outside of California. According to Mrs. Calista, the focused body area this year is the lower leg, ankle, and foot, but students still must know about first aid and CPR.

She also explained the process of the competition itself. The day begins with the students taking a 100-question multiple choice test, which then leads to the practical portion, where students perform the skills they learned in training such as taping, assessment skills, and palpitations.

While performing each task, competitors are being judged by college students from the area who grade the budding trainers according to how well they execute each action. She says that this is challenging and competitive because they are competing against many schools that have actual athletic training classes — whereas here at CB, it’s an extracurricular activity.

Despite this disadvantage, the CB athletic team has always ranked highly, so Mrs. Calista has no concerns because she knows how dedicated and prepared her students are.  After the examinations, students receive awards. If a team places, it receives a trophy, and if a student places, he or she receives an individualized plaque. Even if no one places, students still receive participation certificates.

Lauren Regino (’17) and Grace Leu (’17) have participated in this event before and shared how they felt dusing their previous competitions.

“I was so nervous while taping, but I did pretty well,” Grace recalled. “I tried to act really confident — and it worked.”

When it came to the benefits they received from participating in this event, Grace shared that even though it did not relate to her career aspirations, she knew that she wanted to keep going to competition because it was so fun.

Lauren also agreed that sports med is an extracurricular activity she can look forward to after school. To them, it is not only a hobby, but also an engaging learning experience. Both trainers are looking forward to this year’s upcoming competition and are already preparing for success.

Both students think that current and future trainers should participate in this event because it is a really good program and because it’s exciting to learn new things. They believe that trainers should have the chance to demonstrate their skills because of how committed they are.

They recommend CB students join sports medicine because, even if a student doesn’t want to do something medical for college, they should still do it if they enjoy being a part of sports — without actually having to do a sport.

Mrs. Calista hopes for students to join because it is a great place to start learning skills if a student is interested in any kind of medical field. She explains that a lot of students have gone into physical therapy, nursing, and athletic training after the CB Sports Med program. She says that it’s a great way to find out if a student would be interested to take part in the medical, field but it’s also good to just have the experience.

Just like how our athletes receive praise for their success, athletic trainers should receive gratification for the time they put into aiding our beloved athletes. We are grateful for these trainers and wish them the best of luck for their competition in March.