Athletic Trainers vs. Injury Management Specialist: Who's looking out for your student athlete?

We need to address an error and make a clarification regarding a story we ran last night at 11, today during our morning editions and on wnct.com.

In our report on the personnel Pitt County Schools have in place to keep your children safe during athletic events, we used part of an interview with Pitt County Schools spokeswoman Heather Mayo out of context.

Our story should have stated that Pitt County Schools have one licensed athletic trainer and seven injury management specialists on staff who service the six high schools in the county.

We also stated that Jaquan Waller, the JH Rose Football Player, who died after sustaining a pair of injuries last week, didn't get clearance from injury management specialists at JH Rose before last Friday's game.

To clarify, he was checked out by an injury management specialist on Thursday and was released to return to action.

We apologize for those errors.

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Nearly a week has passed and people are still asking questions about the death of J.H. Rose football player Jaquan Waller.

A medical examiner said the cause of death was a rare condition following two small brain injuries, from playing football. But it has raised questions about the safety of student athletes here in the east.

Are the people watching after your children on the athletic fields are as qualified as you think?

Violent hits are part of the game but Jim Bazluki, who spent 10 years as an athletic trainer at ECU, says having the right personnel in place to handle a hit that can injure a player should be just as common.

"If you start an athletic program, you should hire an athletic director first, an athletic trainer second and coaches third, because then you’re saying we want to have a program and we value safety over winning,” Bazluki said.

But he claims that's not the outline in Pitt County.

"Pitt County is behind the ball and has chosen not to pursue getting licensed athletic trainers in their school," Bazluki said.

At high schools like J.H. Rose, Pitt County has what they call, “Injury Management Specialist” and first responders.

First responders work in the school and have CPR and first aid training. Injury management specialist work in athletics and, in addition to first aid and CPR certification, they also take courses in training in injury management.

Only D.H. Conley High School has an athletic trainer.

While injury management specialist and first responders may not have the same credentials as a licensed athletic trainer, Pitt County isn't breaking the rules.

Bazluki feels, "Injury management specialist is a term that was invented by Pitt County schools to fit underneath the law because the law says in order to use the term athletic trainer they have to be licensed."

But the law does not say North Carolina schools need to have full times athletic trainers.

To be an athletic trainer, you need to have a degree from a four year accredited school and pass the National Athletic Training Association Board of Certification exam.

During football games, Pitt County has volunteers from the medical community like a doctor or physicians assistant on the side lines but not a full time licensed athletic trainer.

Mayo said, "We have tried to employ licensed athletic trainers in the district when positions become available but it is a difficult process."

"If it was a priority it can be done," said Bazluki. And he says the first priority needs to be the safety of student athletes.