Can Turf Fields Pose Health Risks?

By Dennis Read

Athletic trainers are used to watching contests that are played on their teams' fields. Now some are seeing battles being fought over those fields. Recent reports of high lead levels in a few synthetic turf fields have roused critics with concerns about the technology’s safety. However, industry leaders strongly stand behind the safety of their products, countering that there is no evidence linking synthetic turf to illness or environmental damage.

Q&A with Jenny Moshak

By Abigail Funk

It isn’t every day a college athletic trainer is heralded in a front-page story on ESPN.com or in USA Today. But Jenny Moshak, MS, LAT, ATC, CSCS, Assistant Athletic Director for Sports Medicine at the University of Tennessee, recently found herself in the media spotlight as she helped to rehab All-American forward Candace Parker in the midst of the Lady Volunteers’ run to its eighth NCAA national championship last month. Here, Moshak recounts Parker’s injury, what went into her extremely fast rehab in the days before the team’s Final Four game, and how Moshak dealt with the sudden onslaught of interview requests and media exposure.

“Runner’s High” Gains Traction

By R.J. Anderson

New scientific data supports the endorphin-releasing process that has long been hypothesized to follow intense bouts of exercise. The term "runner's high" was once considered folklore by some scientists, but an article published in the March issue of the journal Cerebral Cortex may prompt non-believers to adjust their thinking.

A Sharp Facility

By Nate Dougherty

Herb Rhea, ATC, Head Athletic Trainer at Jenks (Okla.) High School, talks about the health and fitness center that was recently constructed at his high school. The facility, which contains an underwater treadmill, also houses a physical therapy clinic run by a local hospital.

Stimulating Discussion

By Danielle Catalano

Recently, the State University of New York at Buffalo and the National Football League partnered to study the effectiveness of electrical stimulation in the acute care management of orthopedic injuries and edema formation. Here are some of the findings.

Bridging the Gap

By Dr. James Onate

Contributor James Onate, PhD, ATC, Assistant Professor and Director of the Sports Medicine Research Laboratory at Old Dominion University, discusses the need to improve the understanding of applying clinical practice into research and the importance of applying those studies in clinical practice.

Q&A with Steve McCauley

Steve McCauley, LAT, ATC, CSCS, is Head of Health Services for Wynn Las Vegas. He currently provides athletic training services for the 85-member cast of the popular acrobatic show, Le Rève. In this interview, McCauley shares his thoughts on working in the entertainment industry and talks about what it's like to provide coverage for world-class performers.

High Tops and Helping Hands

By Kenny Berkowitz

As a member of the Rainier Beach (Wash.) High School Vikings boys’ basketball team that won the state title in 1998, Jamal Crawford vowed that if he ever succeeded, he’d give back to his school. Since then, as a shooting guard on the New York Knicks, he’s underwritten a $100,000 project to renovate the school gymnasium and created a hometown basketball camp for kids from six to 16 years old. Now, with a benefit called “High Tops and Helping Hands,” he’s championed a new cause: trying to provide a full-time certified athletic trainer for each of Seattle’s 10 public high schools.

Building a Fantastic Facility

By Abigail Funk

Dale Mildenberger, MS, ATC, Head Athletic Trainer at Utah State University, says prior to the August opening of USU’s new sports medicine facility, the school had the worst physical housing of sports medicine in all of college football—at any division. Spanning a paltry 900 square feet and housing one office with three desks for 14 athletic training staff members, three treatment tables, and five taping stations, Mildenberger no longer wants to remember how difficult it was to administer care for the university’s 300 student-athletes.

Q&A with Jeremy Goates

Jeremy Goates, LAT, ATC, is beginning his first year as Head Athletic Trainer at Lawrence (Kans.) High School. Also an athletic trainer at the Kansas Center for Athletic Medicine, Goates is assuming his third full-time head athletic training position at a high school since graduating from the University of Kansas in 2002 and receiving his ATC in 2003. As many athletic trainers across the country begin the school year at a new school, Goates offers some advice on taking advantage of a fresh start.

Q&A with Elaine Winslow-Redmond

Elaine Winslow-Redmond, MS, ATC, performed with the Radio City Rockettes for 11 years. As an athletic trainer, she has created a wellness program for the Rockettes and now is Head Athletic Trainer and Athletic Training Program Director for the troupe. She also serves as an athletic training consultant for the Blue Man Group, the New York Knicks City Dancers, Tap Kids, and the New York City Dance Alliance as well as Norwegian Cruise Lines and the Broadway Theater Dance Workshop.

Winslow-Redmond is a member of the NATA and the association's Council on Employment. She has a BFA in dance from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst and an MS in applied physiology and nutrition from Columbia University. Here, she talks about what drew her to the athletic training profession and explains the challenges and rewards of working with world-class performers.

NFL Holds Concussion Discussion

By R.J. Anderson

On Tuesday, June 19, many of the country’s foremost experts on concussions gathered in Rosemont, Ill., for a breakthrough symposium on an injury that is of growing concern in the athletics community. Prompted largely by the attention surrounding published studies, along with the deaths of four former players in recent years, the NFL Concussion Summit brought league officials and former players together with team physicians, team athletic trainers, and noted neurologists and concussion researchers to discuss prevention techniques and better understand the long-term effects of mild traumatic brain injuries.

Hokies Regroup in Wake of Shootings

By Michael W. Goforth

Michael W. Goforth MS, ATC, is Director of Athletic Training for Virginia Tech Athletics

On April 16, the institution I call home was attacked by one of its own. At 7:15 a.m., a student killed two of his fellow students in West Ambler Johnston Residence Hall. At 9:01 a.m., he mailed a package of writings and videos outlining his actions to NBC News. Two hours after the first shooting, that student chained the entrance to Norris Hall and proceeded to go on a nine-minute, 170-round killing spree that ended with him taking his own life. When he was done, 33 were dead, 25 were wounded, and an entire community was left devastated by another senseless act of violence.

There’s no doubt the events of that day will change our university and its students, alumni, and staff forever. As a school that values its athletic programs and our role in the overall student and community environment, we in the athletic department were all left with a desire to contribute in some way to the healing process and help the community get back on its feet.

Weighing in on the NFL Combine

By Kenny Berkowitz

Earlier this year, veteran athletic trainer Rex Sharp, MS, ATC, Director of Sports Medicine at the University of Missouri and member of the NATA’s District 5 College and University Athletic Trainers Committee, had the chance to attend and observe the National Football League Scouting Combine. A week before the 2007 NFL draft, Sharp talked to T&C about what he took away from the combine, lessons that included the importance of compiling accurate medical records and properly preparing student-athletes for the event.

Preventing MRSA

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