High School Sports Injury Essay

“More than 3.5 million children ages 14 and younger get hurt annually playing sports or participating in recreational activities” (Sports Injury Statistics). Athletic injuries are, unfortunately, very common among teens, college athletes, and professional athletes. Most recreational, travel, or high school teams do not have a trained medical professional present at all of the games, and this can be costly if an injury were to occur. Most college sports teams have a trained medical professional on staff, however, some schools are not fortunate enough to be able to afford to have a medical professional at every game. Professional teams are almost always required to have a trained medical professional on staff, but it is important to make sure

A study conducted in 2012was done by a man named Todd Neale to evaluate the importance of athletic trainer involvement in high school sports. “Compared with high schools that did not have access to a trainer, those that did had significantly lower overall rates of injury in girls' soccer and girls' basketball, primarily driven by relative reductions in recurrent injuries of 83% and 66% for the two sports”, (Neale, Todd). Neale discovered through his study that athletic trainers were able to identify injuries early on, treat the injuries properly, and help the athlete return to his or her sport at a quicker rate. Through his study, Neale discovered the percent of injuries that occurred at schools without athletic trainers was about 20% higher than those with an athletic trainer. In his study, Neale’s results showed “The concussion rate was significantly higher at schools with access to an athletic trainer -- 8.05 times higher for soccer and 4.5 times higher for basketball -- probably because trainers are better at identifying signs and symptoms of concussion than coaches and athletes themselves”, (Neale, Todd). Neale, and many others involved in the study, concluded that athletic trainers are essential in high school sports in order to lower the risk of injury for athletes, and help those who are injured recover