As fall arrives at CHS, the athletic trainers led by certified athletic trainer Dawn Robertson prepare to treat and evaluate the injuries accompanied by the fall sports season. The group, which meets daily, works for the prevention, evaluation, and treatment of sports related injuries.

The organization typically holds a call-out meeting at the beginning of each sports season. Currently, however, Robertson has a full group of kids and no more slots are available for new members at the moment. The student athletic trainers are assigned to a sports team and help prepare items such as ice and water.

“The student athletic trainers, they earn a certificate their first sports season that they work with me,” Robertson said. “And they’re actually learning about athletic training.” For every additional season, the students receive a varsity award similar to what a varsity athlete would receive.

Students learn how to use a wide variety of tools while working, such as the shark and the vacuum splint. “The shark, it’s used to help remove tape, so once we do like an ankle tape job when the athlete’s ready to remove it, we use a shark,” Robertson said. “The other thing that we use are vacuum splints, so in the event that we have an athlete that suffers a fracture, we have a splint that we actually just draw the air out of and it will hold the fracture firmly in place until they are seen in the emergency room.”