Improving football field safety

While teams across the east will battle it out on the football field on Friday nights, there is still a fight going on off the field.

By: Andrew Doud | WNCT
Published: August 21, 2009

While teams across the east will battle it out on the football field on Friday nights, there is still a fight going on off the field.

The death of a J.H. Rose football player last season raised a number of questions about who is tending to injured athletes.

For Katie Walsh, Director of East Carolina’s Athletic Training Program, the equation is simple.

Walsh said, "If you cannot afford an athletic trainer, you cannot have an athletics program."

Walsh says a licensed athletic trainer is the only person who should be qualified. "Knowing the difference between a head injury and a heat illness is the difference between life and death and they have the same symptoms," said Walsh.

While state laws only require what is called a first responder, Pitt County Schools says they are making strides to do more.

Of the 6 high schools, only 2 have licensed athletic trainers.

They have also implemented what they call a 3 percent rule. It requires players to weigh in before each practice, if the body weight is 3 percent less than the day before; they are dehydrated and can not practice.

They also now provide intensive training for coaches regarding emergency preparedness.

But Walsh says no matter what steps are taken, the most important is having a licensed athletic trainer.

"I can't imagine a parent allowing someone to touch their child who isn't licensed by the state," she said.

Walsh pointed to an incident that happened last week at Cary High School when athletic trainer Eric Hall was one of two athletic trainers to administer CPR to a student who had collapsed coming off the field.

Hall said, "We really didn’t say much to each other. Training took over, we knew what to do. We responded immediately and professionally as quick as possible."

Wake County has an athletic trainer at every high school and Walsh says that’s how it should be in Pitt County.

Pitt County has people at two other schools, Ayden-Grifton and J.H. Rose who are working towards their licensed certification.

They expected to have an athletic trainer at all six high schools next season.