Episode Details

Brianna Howard:
The football plays Friday night, so if there's an injury the Friday night prior, we know we have exactly one week to get them ready to go and figure out the most effective way to manage their injury.

Kaiden Brown:
Not only do we help with the athletes with emergency care on the field but we do a lot of behind-the-scenes work with rehabilitation and prevention and helping the athletes reduce and prevent their injuries.

Anthony Godfrey:
Hello and welcome to the Supercast. I'm your host, Superintendent Anthony Godfrey. They work hard to safeguard the health and well-being of student athletes, focusing on injury prevention on-site during practices and during games. On this episode of the Supercast, we head to Mountain Ridge High School to meet two amazing certified athletic trainers. Listen in to hear about the difference they make in the lives of students in so many different sports and activities. One of the trainers is actually a Herriman High School graduate who found huge success after high school as a four-time USA tumbling champion and a world champion gold medalist. We're here at Mountain Ridge with our athletic trainers. Please introduce yourselves.

Brianna Howard:
I'm Brianna Howard.

Kaiden Brown:
And I'm Kaiden Brown.

Anthony Godfrey:
For those who are listening who do not know what the role of an athletic trainer is at a high school, would you please explain what you do and also the relationship with the youth?

Brianna Howard:
Yeah, oh gosh, all at once. So, we work with all UHSAA, so Utah High School Activities Association student athletes that range from our band program all the way through drill and then the typical sports that you see in Friday night lights like football and your both girls and boys lacrosse and everything in between from fall, winter, and spring. All those athletes are under our care.

Kaiden Brown:
Yeah, we're basically in charge of the examination, assessment, rehabilitation, first aid, and emergency care of each and every athlete, each and every sport.

Anthony Godfrey:
I suppose there is such demand that you could never put a sign on the wall that says X number of days injury free. You probably have an injury you're dealing with every day.

Brianna Howard:
We definitely have daily injuries. I think it's probably a grand total of zero for those days. I think our best days are the days where we just have like an injury that we can maintain that doesn't have an athlete actually lose practice time or lose game time. Those are the best days of ones that we can make. We can work them through and put them in a successful spot versus having to limit that practice and game time.

Anthony Godfrey:
Managing the injuries as opposed to dealing with injuries that have just barely occurred.

Brianna Howard:
Yeah, exactly.

Anthony Godfrey:
And that's not because we don't do everything we can to avoid that. It's just in athletics, students are pushing their bodies as much as they can. They're trying to get the most out of it and trying to achieve, and as a result, injuries happen sometimes. Tell me what made you want to be an athletic trainer.

Brianna Howard:
Yeah