![Bloomingdale trainer Scott Allison has several tasks as he works to keep the school’s student-athletes healthy and pain-free.](/sites/default/files/2022-11/221122_Allison_2H.jpg)
Bloomingdale Trainer Performing Invaluable Role in Keeping Athletes Playing
By
Pam Shebest
Special for MHSAA.com
November 22, 2022
BLOOMINGDALE — If Scott Allison looks bored during one of Bloomingdale’s sporting events, that is a good thing.
“Trainers like to be behind the scenes and in the shadows,” the certified athletic trainer said. “We’re only needed in emergencies.
“It’s one of those jobs that if we’re sitting around looking bored, then things are going well.”
But if an athlete goes down with an injury, Allison is quick to run onto the court or field.
In his first year at Bloomingdale, he has found that working with middle and high school students is a lot different than his previous work with the minor-league hockey Kalamazoo Wings.
Treating the hockey team, with whom he spent much of his 22 years, “There was a lot of traumatic stuff like lacerations or deep contusions, overuse injuries like hip flexors or core injuries or broken bones.
“Everything’s acute and fast. It’s a different animal. In hockey, they’re all pro athletes so they know their bodies really well.”
However, high school and middle school athletes are still in a growing phase.
“These kids don’t really know what’s going on a lot of times, so it’s a lot more education on what’s happening,” Allison said.
“Is it an injury, or is it just soreness? You get a lot of kids that don’t understand the difference between aches and pains or an injury. We see a lot of ankle sprains or shin splints because they’re just developing. They’re in that awkward range where their bodies try to grow too fast.”
Allison is the Cardinals’ first certified athletic trainer, a new position for which athletic director Jason Hayes campaigned.
“What we notice is that if a kid’s injured, they’re out a lot less if you have a trainer because it speeds up recovery time,” said Hayes, who also coaches varsity football and is an assistant wrestling coach. “It’s like having a built-in physical therapist on your staff, too.”
Studies support Hayes’ statements.
According to information from The Sports Institute at University of Washington, “‘The athletic trainers know the athletes,” says Stan Herring, M.D., cofounder of The Sports Institute at (University of Washington) Medicine and a team physician for the Seattle Seahawks and Seattle Mariners. “They see the athletes frequently, if not every day. They know when something is wrong. They are medical professionals who evaluate, treat and rehabilitate athletes.’”
The article continued: “Three recent studies suggest that athletic trainers are linked to significant improvements in the diagnosis of concussion in young athletes and significant reductions in ‘time-loss’ injuries that require athletes to take time away from sports.”
Allison sees himself as a teacher as well as a trainer.
“We see a lot more strains or growth issues,” he said. “A lot of it is maintenance and teaching kids what’s going on with their bodies or what they need to do to change things.”
He also meets with parents and coaches to talk about the best way to prevent injuries.
Allison’s day begins about 1:30 or 2 p.m., giving athletes a chance to talk with him before practices or games.
During the action, he always has his first aid backpack filled with the basics: air splints for fractures or dislocations, AED, EpiPens, and bench kits (with taping and bandaging supplies, splints, gauze, ACE wraps, ice bags, latex gloves and other basic first aid supplies.)
He travels with the teams when they are involved in high-impact sports, such as football, and many times he is also called to treat an opposing player if that team has no trainer.
Allison is a perfect fit with Bloomingdale, Hayes said.
His wife, Kirsten, coached the Cardinals girls basketball team for seven years. His daughter Emma, now at Glen Oaks Community College, graduated from there, and his daughter Bailey is an eighth grader.
“We are a very lucky town,” Hayes said. “We had Doc (Robert) Stevens, who had been volunteering as our athletic trainer for 15 years. He’s just aging out.
“About a year ago, he came to me and said that it was his last year. Scott has 22 years experience, and he has relationships here. To me, it was a no-brainer.”
Assistant varsity football coach Lance Flynn, who also coaches the middle school football team, saw Allison in action during competition in the fall.
“First quarter in a middle school football game, a kid broke his arm,” Flynn said. “My own son, Ryder, was on the varsity team and he sprained his AC socket and Scott took care of him.
“If something happens during a game, they can go see him and I don’t have to worry much because I know they’re in good hands.”
Allison’s affiliation with Bronson Sports Medicine is also a plus, the trainer said.
“With Bronson, we can offer a lot more and expedite getting in to see doctors or specialists if we need to,” he said. “We’re on the same system as the doctors, so we can diagnose and send notes to the doctors and they can send notes back to us.
“If there’s anybody we need to keep track of with the doctors, I can talk with the doctors and figure out how that’s going. If anybody needs to see me, they know I’m here early if they just want to come down to talk.”
Bronson also provides certified athletic trainers at 21 other southwest Michigan high schools: Brooke Vandepolder (Battle Creek Central), Lindsay Aarseth-Lindhorst (Climax-Scotts), Amanda Monsivaes (Comstock), Makenzie Hodgson (Delton Kellogg), Salvador Robles-Soriano (Gobles), Holly Ives (Richland Gull Lake), Katelyn Baker-Contreras (Kalamazoo Hackett Catholic Prep), Lizzy Smith (Kalamazoo Central), Emma Beener (Kalamazoo Christian), Holly Sisson (Kalamazoo Loy Norrix), Nico Talentino (Mattawan), Aaron Eickhoff (Otsego), Quincey Powell (Parchment), Malorie Most (Paw Paw), Jessica Bakhuyzen (Plainwell), Lance LeTourneau (Portage Central), Janelle Currie (Portage Northern), Carrie Calhoun (Schoolcraft), Chelsea Harrison (South Haven), Alexis Walters (Three Rivers) and Natalie McClish (Vicksburg).
Pam Shebest served as a sportswriter at the Kalamazoo Gazette from 1985-2009 after 11 years part-time with the Gazette while teaching French and English at White Pigeon High School. She can be reached at [email protected] with story ideas for Calhoun, Kalamazoo and Van Buren counties.
PHOTOS (Top) Bloomingdale trainer Scott Allison has several tasks as he works to keep the school’s student-athletes healthy and pain-free. (Middle) Bloomingdale athletic director Jason Hayes, left, and assistant varsity football coach Lance Flynn. (Below) Allison packs his bag for another full afternoon. (Ankle-taping photo by Andreya Robinson; all other photos by Pam Shebest.)
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Health & Safety: A Look Back, Gallop Ahead
By
John E. (Jack) Roberts
MHSAA Executive Director, 1986-2018
August 7, 2015
By Jack Roberts
MHSAA executive director
We are just completing year six of eight during which we have been addressing the four important health and safety issues that, for ease of conversation, we call the “Four Hs.”
During the 2009-10 and 2010-11 school years, our focus was on Health Histories. We made enhancements in the pre-participation physical examination form, stressing the student’s health history, which we believe was and is the essential first step to participant health and safety.
During the 2011-12 and 2012-13 school years, our focus was on Heads. We were an early adopter of removal-from-play and return-to-play protocols, and our preseason rules/risk management meetings for coaches included information on concussion prevention, recognition and aftercare.
Without leaving that behind, during the 2013-14 and 2014-15 school years, our focus was on Heat – acclimatization. We adopted a policy to manage heat and humidity – it is recommended for regular season and it’s a requirement for MHSAA tournaments. The rules/risk management meetings for coaches during these years focused on heat and humidity management.
At the mid-point of this two-year period, the MHSAA adopted policies to enhance acclimatization at early season practices and to reduce head contact at football practices all season long.
Without leaving any of the three previous health and safety “H’s” behind, during the 2015-16 and 2016-17 school years, our focus will be on Hearts – sudden cardiac arrest and sudden cardiac death.
Coinciding with this emphasis is the requirement that all high school level, varsity level head coaches be CPR certified starting this fall. Our emphasis will be on AEDs and emergency action plans – having them and rehearsing them.
On Feb. 10, bills were introduced into both the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, together called the “Safe Play Act (see below),” which addressed three of the four health and safety “H’s” just described: Heat, Hearts and Heads.
For each of these topics, the federal legislation would mandate that the director of the Centers for Disease Control develop educational material and that each state disseminate that material.
For the heat and humidity management topic, the legislation states that schools will be required to adopt policies very much like the “MHSAA Model Policy to Manage Heat and Humidity” which the MHSAA adopted in March of 2013.
For both the heart and heat topics, schools will be required to have and to practice emergency action plans like we have been promoting in the past and distributed to schools this summer.
For the head section, the legislation would amend Title IX of the 1972 Education Amendments and eliminate federal funding to states and schools which fail to educate their constituents or fail to support students who are recovering from concussions. This support would require multi-disciplinary concussion management teams that would include medical personnel, parents and others to provide academic accommodations for students recovering from concussions that are similar to the accommodations that are already required of schools for students with disabilities or handicaps.
This legislation would require return-to-play protocols similar to what we have in Michigan, and the legislation would also require reporting and recordkeeping that is beyond what occurs in most places.
This proposed federal legislation demonstrates two things. First, that we have been on target in Michigan with our four Hs – it’s like they read our playbook of priorities before drafting this federal legislation.
This proposed federal legislation also demonstrates that we still have some work to do.
And what will the following two years – 2017-18 and 2018-19 – bring? Here are some aspirations – some predictions, but not quite promises – of where we will be.
First, we will have circled back to the first “H” – Health Histories – and be well on our way to universal use of paperless pre-participation physical examination forms and records.
Second, we will have made the immediate reporting and permanent recordkeeping of all head injury events routine business in Michigan school sports, for both practices and contests, in all sports and at all levels.
Third, we will have added objectivity and backbone to removal from play decisions for suspected concussions at both practices and events where medical personnel are not present; and we could be a part of pioneering “telemedicine” technology to make trained medical personnel available at every venue for every sport where it is missing today.
Fourth, we will have provided a safety net for families who are unable to afford no-deductible, no exclusion concussion care insurance that insists upon and pays for complete recovery from head injury symptoms before return to activity is permitted.
We should be able to do this, and more, without judicial threat or legislative mandate. We won’t wait for others to set the standards or appropriate the funds, but be there to welcome the requirements and resources when they finally arrive.
Safe Play Act — H.R.829
114th Congress (2015-2016) Introduced in House (02/10/2015)
Supporting Athletes, Families and Educators to Protect the Lives of Athletic Youth Act or the SAFE PLAY Act
Amends the Public Health Service Act to require the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to develop public education and awareness materials and resources concerning cardiac health, including:
- information to increase education and awareness of high risk cardiac conditions and genetic heart rhythm abnormalities that may cause sudden cardiac arrest in children, adolescents, and young adults;
- sudden cardiac arrest and cardiomyopathy risk assessment worksheets to increase awareness of warning signs of, and increase the likelihood of early detection and treatment of, life-threatening cardiac conditions;
- training materials for emergency interventions and use of life-saving emergency equipment; and
- recommendations for how schools, childcare centers, and local youth athletic organizations can develop and implement cardiac emergency response plans.
Requires the CDC to: (1) provide for dissemination of such information to school personnel, coaches, and families; and (2) develop data collection methods to determine the degree to which such persons have an understanding of cardiac issues.
Directs the Department of Health and Human Services to award grants to enable eligible local educational agencies (LEAs) and schools served by such LEAs to purchase AEDs and implement nationally recognized CPR and AED training courses.
Amends the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 to require a state, as a condition of receiving funds under such Act, to certify that it requires: (1) LEAs to implement a standard plan for concussion safety and management for public schools; (2) public schools to post information on the symptoms of, the risks posed by, and the actions a student should take in response to, a concussion; (3) public school personnel who suspect a student has sustained a concussion in a school-sponsored activity to notify the parents and prohibit the student from participating in such activity until they receive a written release from a health care professional; and (4) a public school's concussion management team to ensure that a student who has sustained a concussion is receiving appropriate academic supports.
Directs the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to develop public education and awareness materials and resources to be disseminated to schools regarding risks from exposure to excessive heat and humidity and recommendations for how to avoid heat-related illness. Requires public schools to develop excessive heat action plans for school-sponsored athletic activities.
Requires the CDC to develop guidelines for the development of emergency action plans for youth athletics.
Authorizes the Food and Drug Administration to develop information about the ingredients used in energy drinks and their potential side effects, and recommend guidelines for the safe use of such drinks by youth, for dissemination to public schools.
Requires the CDC to: (1) expand, intensify, and coordinate its activities regarding cardiac conditions, concussions, and heat-related illnesses among youth athletes; and (2) report on fatalities and catastrophic injuries among youths participating in athletic activities.