Last week I posted an article pertaining to my high school athletic trainer resigning from his job. I said that I would make no further comments on the subject, but here I am. I simply want you all to understand.

“Dear Gaffney High School, You Lost A Good One This Year” was not intended to bash anyone or anything, including Gaffney football. I love Gaffney football and there are many coaches that I adore on the staff. Any athlete can get caught up in the facade of being hurt, and every athlete has done that at least once in their lifetime, but that is not up to a coach to decide. The athletic trainers are there to decide if the athletes are seriously injured or not. Whether you agree with this or not, it is true, and something has to be done.

I am not writing this to get anyone fired or to make anyone angry. However, if I am stepping on your toes, good; I am glad you are reading. Gaffney High School is now the only 4A school without an athletic trainer. Before this, Gaffney was the only 4A school with 17 Football State Championships and one athletic trainer who was expected to be in three places at once.

For those of you who may be saying, “I don’t know what an athletic trainer is” or “Who even cares?” — an athletic trainer is the first one to see your son or daughter the moment he or she is injured on the court or field. An athletic trainer is the one who works day in and day out to make sure the athletes have water and all of the materials are supplied in case of an emergency. An athletic trainer is always the first one on and the last one off the court or field. He or she works in the background, taking care of athletes and all of their health needs. Whether they need water, a Band-Aid, to be splinted and sent to the ER, or treatment and rehab for the next six weeks, an AT is there.

So, for the 2,000 students at Gaffney High School, they no longer have someone to take care of them if they are hurt. But do not blame the ex-AT who resigned from this position. He was nothing less than the best, and I have experienced this first hand, working as a student AT in high school. To say that he was forced to quit is not an exaggeration because he was being held responsible for things no one person could handle on their own. Some of you may say, “It doesn’t matter; the coaches can take care of them” or “Their parents can just take them to the hospital."

You’re right. Parents can just take them to the hospital. Or you could let the AT do his job. The coaches, no matter what they believe, are not qualified to do anything but call 911. Why? Because athletic trainers are certified professionals.Yes, there were about 20 high school students who would volunteer their time to work as student athletic trainers, but they are not certified professionals and cannot do much more than provide water and basic first aid without the supervision of said certified professional.

“Dear Gaffney High School, You Lost A Good One This Year” was intended to do nothing but open the eyes of innocent bystanders who know nothing of the lack of support for the Gaffney Athletic Training Program. How do you expect one person to teach seven hours a day, do treatments and rehab (while keeping up with files and making sure everything is taken care of properly), attend practices and games for every sport, clean up needed materials, and not want to quit?

Maybe this will open your eyes a bit further. Out of the following eight 4A South Carolina High Schools, Gaffney is the only one with more than 1,400 students that has (had) one athletic trainer.

Dorman: 3 ATs, approximately 2,500 students

Byrnes: 3 ATs, approximately 2,000 students

Clover: 2 ATs, approximately 2,000 students

Gaffney: 1 AT, approximately 2,000 students

Fort Mill: 2 ATs, approximately 1,600 students

Nation Ford: 2 ATs, approximately 1,500 students

Spartanburg: 2 ATs, approximately 1,400 students

York: 2 ATs, approximately 1,400 students

A bit ridiculous, right?

It’s spring, so let’s break this down as if it was a regular spring day. One AT would be required to do the following:

• 8:00 a.m. - 2:30 p.m. — teach Biology and Sports Medicine
• 2:30 p.m. - 3:30 p.m. — this is supposed to be the “planning period,” but there is no time to plan because of the seven games later this evening. So instead this time is spent in the athletic training room doing rehab with athletes
• 3:30 p.m. - 4:30 p.m. — finish up last-minute rehabs; fill the desired amount of coolers of water, Gatorade and ice; pack kits to be fully stocked; disperse the coolers and kits to various fields; and grab dinner because there will be no time until midnight.
• 4:30 p.m. - ? — the following are the listed games for last month- March 15, 2016.

Freshman Baseball – 5:00

JV Softball – 5:00

Girls Track – 5:00

JV Girls Soccer – 5:30

JV Baseball – 6:00

V Girls Soccer – 7:00

V Girls Softball – 7:00

An AT working alone will be lucky enough to attend at least a portion of each of these games, but nine times out of 10, he or she will only see two. So how do they decide? How do they decide which sport is going to be most important on days like these? Because with only one AT, they can only be in one place at a time.

So a girl tears her ACL while playing soccer, then there's a call from a student AT saying that a baseball player has taken a pitch to the face and is knocked out and unresponsive, then the phone rings saying that a runner for the girls track team is having uncontrollable back spasms. What do they do? How do they respond to the angry parents whose child did not have an athletic trainer because they were somewhere else?

After finally deciding which games to attend and each game ends with only a few bumps and bruises, it is most likely going to be around 11:30 p.m. But the day isn’t finished yet. Yes, the Athletic Trainer's day started at 6:30 a.m., and it's been non-stop all day long between teaching, rehab, preparation and games, but now there is cleaning to do. So back to the AT room to clean out each and every cooler before going home a little after midnight.

“Dear Gaffney High School, You Lost A Good One This Year” is simply a call to take action. So please, do not bash the football team and its coaches; they are simply doing what they know to do. Yes, they take the glory off of other sports and clubs, but Gaffney will always be how Gaffney has always been. Instead, help the ones who desire to help. If you are not helping, you are hurting. Take action. Get Gaffney High School two athletic trainers, and give them all the respect you should have given the previous athletic trainer times 20.