Athletic training afoot

Pleasant Valley High School was one of 15 high schools throughout the country recently awarded $50,000 to develop an athletic training program. The grant is part of a joint initiative involving the NFL, the National Athletic Trainers’ Association, Gatorade and the Professional Football Athletic Trainers Society.

An NFL press release notes that the presence of trainers reduces student athletes’ injury rates and improves diagnoses and decisions on whether athletes should return to play following concussions and other injuries.

Pleasant Valley has nearly 1,200 students, but it lacks an athletic trainer; with the newly awarded funding through the so-called Athletic Trainer Initiative, the school hopes to employ an athletic trainer with teaching credentials to cover sporting events as well as teach medicine and health classes.