Budget Problems Force Many Schools to Forgo Athletic Trainers

When the Anaheim Union High School District appropriated $130,000 two years ago to hire four certified athletic trainers to split time between the system’s eight schools, the program was lauded by administrators, parents and coaches as a good first step in dealing with the problem of student health care.

“It proved to be an exemplary program, more successful and valuable than we ever expected,” Superintendent Cynthia Grennan said.

Apparently, it was not valuable enough.

Because the shrinking Anaheim system expects to have a $2 million budget deficit this year, it eliminated the training program effective Aug. 15.

“It was purely a financial decision,” Grennan said. “We continue to face declining enrollment, and that translates to a loss of revenue. This wasn’t the only area cut. We also had to terminate 56 teaching positions. My position is to make the first cuts as far away from the classroom as possible.”

Katella football Coach Larry Anderson said, “The district is really sticking their necks out. I know they have to cut, but that’s a real bad place to cut.”

Many parents and coaches argue the system’s financial priorities are in the wrong place, but the problem goes deeper. Red-tape deep. Even after the district announced the program would be slashed, Cypress Athletic Director Robert Walker figured he had an ace in the hole. Armed with $30,000 in booster club funds, he intended to make up for the vanished program by hiring a full-time trainer. But the system wouldn’t allow it.

“I had the money, and I already had the person picked out,” Walker said. “We had enough money to go out and get a full-time trainer. But I got caught up in the red tape. The district only allows us to pay a $2,208 stipend for the whole year. How am I going to get an experienced trainer for that?”

It is a question of commitment, one Orange County schools are reluctant--or unable--to make.

Even budget-conscious administrators admit that a certified athletic trainer--someone with a college degree in fitness or a related field who has gone through an apprenticeship and passed a strict certification test--can help in many ways. Advocates say a certified trainer is a specialist who high school athletic programs should not be without in this age of sue first and ask questions later. He or she is trained to help the athlete prevent, react to and recover from injury.

A nine-year survey of North Carolina high school football conducted for the National Athletic Trainers Assn. found that 71% of injured athletes without the aid of a certified trainer reinjured the same area. The same survey showed that less than 11% of those with access to a trainer became reinjured.

The number of full-time trainers has doubled in the last decade to cover 15% of the nation’s high schools. Fewer than 10 of the 58 public schools in Orange County have full-time trainers, although a few have part-timers who spend from 10 to 15 hours per week taping ankles, staffing games and, with less regularity, practices, where 67% of all high school injuries occur.

Some schools contract through sports clinics to hire part-time trainers, as Anaheim did and as the Huntington Beach Union School District did for more than 10 years before financial cutbacks forced its elimination two years ago. But such coverage creates gaps, both in quality of care and legally.

“Those schools without trainers have created for themselves a significant liability exposure,” said Rick Ball, a Tucson, Ariz., lawyer who specializes in sports risk management. “They’ve been very lucky that something drastic has not happened, frankly. Anyone who denies the value of a trainer does not know the facts.”

Placing trainers in high schools has been a priority in recent years for NATA. In some areas, the lobbying efforts have paid off. In Fairfax County, Va., in suburban Washington, D.C., the nation’s 10th largest school district has a full-time trainer in each of its 23 schools.

“Four years ago, we didn’t have a single one,” school district spokesman Elizabeth Arons said. “But we conducted a study and realized that if we were going to have a quality athletic program, we had to provide adequate safety for our athletes. We determined that the least we could do was have a trainer in every school, so we created 23 positions across the board.”

Lawmakers also have warmed to the idea. Last year, New York state Assemblyman Sam Colman, who represents Rockland County north of New York City, obtained a $105,000 state grant to start a pilot program at three high schools in his district. He gave each of the schools $35,000 to hire a full-time trainer and equip a training room for this school year.

“If I could do it, I would make it mandatory for every high school in the country to have an athletic trainer,” Colman said. “These are our kids’ lives we’re dealing with, and, in most cases, not dealing with well.

“And it’s not just catastrophic injuries we’re talking about. It’s sprained ankles and knees and everything in between. If you can afford to have athletic programs, you should be able to afford someone who can keep the athlete from going out and reinjuring something before it’s healed.”

Colman knows that he cannot obtain special state funding forever.

“My idea is to show them how valuable the program is . . . and to convince them to take it over next year or the year after that,” he said.

Two years ago, California state Sen. Joe Montoya’s bill to set up state guidelines for certifying athletic trainers passed both houses. But Gov. George Deukmejian vetoed it.

Administrators at county schools with full-time trainers consider the position a necessity. In many cases, the split occurs down public-private lines.

“Some may consider it a luxury, especially when money is tight, but that’s not the way we look at it,” said Father Patrick Donovan, principal of Servite, which has had a full-time trainer for several years. “To us, it is an essential part of a good athletic program. It buys us some safety.”

But such purchasing power is rare among public schools.

“The strange thing about Orange County is that they were making such progress in the area of trainers, in Huntington Beach and Anaheim, but now they’ve cut back,” Ball said. “At one point, Orange County was a leader. But now most of the ones who had trainers don’t have them anymore. I know money is tight, but I find it hard to believe they’re willing to cut such a vital safety valve.”

But most local administrators are realistic. They know they must gamble with part-timers getting paid by the hour, or, in some cases, none at all. This year, the Huntington Beach system agreed to pay a part-timer at each school for 15 hours per week.

“What can I do in 15 hours a week? Not much,” said long-time Ocean View trainer Virginia Terry, who had been full time until this year. “Football itself takes more than 15 hours a week, a lot more. At that limit, I have to skip some practices, just come in and tape and not stick around. Used to be, I’d be here 50 to 60 hours a week.”

Terry remains bitter about the cutback.

“I’m worried for the kids,” she said. “If the school is committed to having a good athletic program, it should be committed to safety.”

Mission Viejo has a trainer who also is a substitute teacher. He covers all practices and games, but often is not available during the school day.

“That’s not near enough,” Mission Viejo Principal Robert Metz said. “We have a good trainer, but I wish we had him on in a full-time, teaching capacity. But it’s better than nothing, and that’s the way we approach it.”

Beyond taping ankles, putting athletes in a whirlpool or supervising rehabilitation, an athletic trainer is a neutral observer.

“One of the main functions of a trainer is to be able to tell a coach that an injured player isn’t ready to play,” Walker said. “That might sound small, but you need that neutral person who isn’t involved to be a stopgap.”

“We are given a lot of support as far as that’s concerned,” Servite trainer Mark Gladini said. “It’s my call, and it’s an important one.”

But Gladini is trained to make that call. A 1983 Servite graduate, he spent three years as a student trainer, graduated from Cal State Long Beach, worked as a physical therapist for three years, earned his training certification and this year became his alma mater’s trainer.

“I also serve as the equipment manager, but that doesn’t really take me away from my training duties,” Gladini said. “I’m here all day just like a teacher or a coach, available to treat injuries before school in the mornings, at lunch or whenever. And I’m at every practice.”

But the biggest reason trainers find it tough getting high school jobs has nothing to do with their qualifications in training. It’s that they are not certified in teaching.

NATA recognized the problem years ago.

“It’s a legitimate problem we are trying to tackle,” said NATA spokesman John LeGear. “For years, potential trainers didn’t bother getting teaching certificates or the proper academic hours, because they didn’t want to be teachers.

“What we are trying to show the current generation is that if they want to be trainers on the high school level, they don’t have any choice. We try to encourage them to go ahead and get their teaching credentials.”

Lynn Ingram, Mater Dei trainer, said most young trainers have picked up on the idea.

“It improves your odds,” said Ingram, who also teaches physical education.

But it’s a game of odds all around.

“One of these days, something’s going to happen,” Ingram said. “When it does, I hope it happens at the right place.”