When there is an athletic injury at Druid Hills High School, the coach does not suddenly have to trade a whistle for a white coat.
The coach does not have to say, “What now?”
The coach can simply say, “Jen will handle it.”
Jen Serwitz is an athletic trainer provided Druid Hills in a marketing deal with Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta and CHOA’s Sports Medicine Program. Druid Hills is one of 11 schools in the metro area that use a CHOA trainer.
Serwitz works 20 hours a week at the school, which might cost $600 a week straight out of pocket. But Children’s Healthcare is allowed advertising space in school athletic programs and can hang banners and signs in the gym and on fences around playing fields to defray the costs.
The school pays just $3,000 for the use of an athletic trainer, according to athletics director Trey Palmer, and the rest of the fee is made up with in-kind marketing, which also includes public service announcements and links to the CHOA Web site on the school’s Web site.
Other schools using the service are North Springs, Mt. Paran Presbyterian School, Centennial, Riverwood, Milton, Pace Academy, Wheeler, Kell, Dunwoody and the Atlanta International School.
Serwitz typically works from 3-6 p.m. school days and at weekend games. She evaluates injuries on the field and in a training room located in the high school. Already this season, Serwitz managed to get a player back on the field for the Red Devils when the player might have missed significant time with a groin injury.
“If we didn’t have a trainer when a player gets injured, it’s the parents who have to come down to the field to help get the athlete to the ER or take them to the family doctor who might just say put ice on it, rest it,” said Alan Redd, the boys soccer coach. “With Jen here, the player might get some ultrasound, some electric stim, as well as the ice and rest.
“We can get them back quicker.”
Some schools pay more than $3,000 for the 20 or 30 hours a week, depending on their budgets and needs. Harold King, a former assistant trainer with the Atlanta Falcons who manages Children’s Sports Medicine Community Outreach program, said more schools might use the Children’s Healthcare athletic trainers’ program if budgets were not so tight.
Indeed, many schools have trouble just getting athletes equipped. Any money that comes in through advertising in a school’s game program or on fences or gym walls goes toward travel and equipment first, King said, and there is not much left over.
There are some booster clubs which raise money to pay for the athletic trainers, but many metro schools do not have sufficient booster programs.
Wheeler High has a stipend in its athletic budget for an athletic trainer. The money, approximately $4,000, is provided by Cobb County.
The school then does marketing and promotions for CHOA, which carries a price tag of about $5,000 to $6,000, according to athletics director Peter Giles. The rest of the funds for the trainer come from athletic event gate receipts.
Children’s Healthcare cannot provide a free trainer and then ask schools to push athletes toward CHOA doctors because of Stark Laws, or the anti-kickback statutes. King said he is aware of doctors in the metro area who are affiliated with high schools and provide trainers for free, as long as they come to that doctor for surgery or treatment. King would not divulge the names of the schools.
“When there is an injury that needs follow-up care, we ask them if they have a pediatrician and if they say yes, we fill out an evaluation form for them to give to their doctor,” King said. “If they say no, we can recommend doctors for them to see.
“We don’t force our doctors on to a school. If they want to go see one of our doctors because of the relationship we have with them, that would be great. But we don’t say, ‘You have to go to a Children’s doctor because we’re out here.' ”
CHOA not only provides a trainer, but it also talks to athletes about nutrition and conditioning.
King said some schools could pay part of the cost for a trainer if they were willing to give up the stipend for an assistant coach. He said an athlete who is on the shelf with an injury might be able to get back sooner and contribute to wins, making the trainer as valuable an asset as an assistant coach.
“A coach might say they have won numerous state championships without an athletic trainer, but there could also be schools who did not win state championships because injuries were not properly managed,” King said.
Mike Cammack, the athletics coordinator for DeKalb County schools, said coaches recognize the value of having an athletic trainer around campus, but they would likely balk at giving up a coaching position. Supplements for assistant coaches in football, for instance, are approximately $3,000 to $4,000, a pittance for the hours the assistant puts in.
“I don’t think giving up a coaching position would be popular among coaches,” Cammack said. “We don’t supply enough coaches as it is. It would be hard for the coaches to give one up.”
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