Sports Medicine helps Yalies get in shape

Eli program strides in treatment of athletes, but improvements are still needed.

By Michael Horn

SARA EDWARD-CORBETT/YH

In the world of sports, there is one field that receives virtually no attention, and yet is essential for all athletes: sports medicine. Yale's Sports Medicine department consists of two parts, the athletic training staff and the sports medicine staff. This department's job, above all, is to care for the health of the athletes, and to help the injured return and play for their respective teams.

Although there has been much discussion about the equity of treatment within Sports Medicine, the majority of athletes have found the trainers to be both helpful and fair. Specialized teams like gymnastics, however, have struggled to make the program work for them.

Vicky Graham and Chris Pecora are the co-heads of the athletic training staff. Including Graham and Pecora, there are eight people on staff: six full-time and two part-time. "We're the first step in care of injuries to athletes," Pecora said. When an athlete gets injured, he goes to the athletic trainers. "A trainer makes an evaluation and administers initial treatment," Pecora explained.

If the trainer feels that the injury is serious, he refers the athlete to Dr. Barry Goldberg, Director of Sports Medicine at Yale. If Goldberg feels the injury warrants more specific help, he then refers the athlete to a specialist. "It's like a food chain," Pecora said.

COURTESY SPORTS PUBLICITY OFFICE The training room is the major tool the Sports Medicine department uses to nurse Yalie athletes back to health and rebuild their strength after injuries.

Beyond this network of referrals, the system is further organized. Each team has its own trainer, with the exception of football, which, due to its sheer size, has several trainers. Each trainer, however, is assigned to multiple teams. "A staff member may be assigned to four or five teams," Pecora said. But he added that a trainer is assigned to a maximum of two teams which share the same season; while a sport is in season, a trainer primarily pays attention to that team at that time and also travels with them. Sports that are out of season are a lower priority. In addition, trainers assigned to football generally only have the football team to worry about during the fall season. The team warrants specialized attention because of its size.

"We try to keep it that a team sticks with the same trainer from year to year," Pecora said. In deciding what team gets which trainer, several factors are considered. Among other criteria, Pecora evaluates the team's needs and also tries to accommodate certain staff members' wishes in regard to what team they want to be in charge of, but noted that this is not a priority. A trainer's background and history with different sports is also factored into the decision. "This is generally not a problem," he said.

But some teams have run into problems with this system, such as the gymnastics team, which faces problems with the organization of the training staff because of the peculiar nature of its schedule. The team's schedule overlaps both the fall and spring seasons. This means that the trainer who is assigned to the team for the winter season is not always able to start working with the team until his duties with the fall teams have ended. Likewise, in the past the trainer has had to leave the team in the spring during the ECAC Championships in order to begin working with the team he is assigned to for the spring season. "Sometimes we've had two to three trainers," gymnastics coach Barbara Tonry said. "This is hard on the kids when you get a new trainer in the championships. Gymnastics is really event-specific."

This year, however, the problem was resolved by the appointment of an extra trainer. "We're working with two trainers right now. One will stay with us into our championships," Tonry said. But she acknowledged that in the past, this has not been the athletic training staff's fault. "It's a logistics problem. It would be nice if everyone had one specific trainer from day one to the end, but how feasible that is financially, I don't know," she said.

One anonymous gymnast who has dealt with the athletic training staff but wished to remain anonymous pointed out a problem with the way in which trainers are designated to a sport. She said that there is a trainer who has a physical therapy degree and a gymnastics background who requested to be with the gymnastics team but was assigned to the track team instead. The track team has 75 people, as opposed to the gymnastics team, which has 12. "This was done for the wrong reasons," she said, citing the fact that the incidence and degree of severity of injuries in gymnastics is significantly higher than in track. Tonry said gymnastics has more injuries per person than any other sport. Although the team may be small in numbers, it still needs a great deal of medical attention.

Other teams also feel there is a problem with the way the trainers' time is allotted. All too often, trainers are unable to stay with a particular team for an extended period of time. "The only disconcerting thing to me is the rotation of trainers," track team member Andrea Anushko, JE '01, said. "They get to know what therapy and taping works for you," Anushko said. "But when the trainer is switched, then you have to keep explaining to them what works for you and what doesn't."

But Pecora said he does his best to maintain continuity from year to year. "We'd always like to have more people, but we're not short-handed," he said.

Qualification for the job is another key aspect of sports medicine. In order to become an athletic trainer at Yale, one must be certified, have experience, and preferably have obtained a masters degree in sports medicine.

The gymnast who wished not to be identified said her dealings with the staff have been mostly positive. "In general they have gone out of their way to try different treatments and are very receptive to communication," she said. "[Our trainer] Chris is very knowledgeable and good and has been very supportive emotionally," she said. "My treatment is ongoing, but I'd say it's been successful." She did note, however, that she had not received this level of solid treatment and receptiveness from all of the team's trainers. "Some of the trainers who are less-qualified are a little less receptive," she said.

The gymnast also pointed out another difficulty. "I have a problem with the fact that although treatment has been of good quality, the knowledge of our sport is not good," she said. "For such a high-risk sport, it is important to have someone who knows the mechanics of the sport. If we get the wrong answer for what we can do, we can get more injured." Therefore, she feels that it is crucial for the trainer with the gymnastics background and degree in physical therapy should have been assigned to the gymnastics team.

The organizational structure in the athletic training department has now been in place for 15 years. "This is the design that many places are going to," Pecora said. He noted that the department has grown as the number of sports has increased. It has also grown in the last ten years because the number of teams practicing during non-traditional seasons have grown. For example, lacrosse and baseball now practice in the fall, and football works out in the spring.

Tonry, who has been a coach at Yale for 25 years, remembers what the training program was like before this new structure and its growth, noting its remarkable improvement. "In the first part we didn't get a trainer," she said. "We never had anyone travel with us until a few years ago. Sometimes we had student trainers."

For the most part, athletes and coaches are pleased with sports medicine at Yale. Fencing coach Henry Harutunian, said his team always has access to a trainer and his sport has never received worse treatment than more popular teams that bring in more money, such as football. "They've always respected my fencers," he said. "I've never had a problem in working with a trainer in 28 years."

Ashley Campion, BK '01, competes on both the women's hockey team and the track and field team. Last spring she broke her leg in pole vault. She said her injury was not diagnosed until three-and-a-half weeks after the incident. "I had taken my last exam, but they were really good to me," she said. "Goldberg went with me and drove me to the various doctors until my parents got here." This year she had back surgery. "[Assistant Athletic Trainer] Dan Watson has been really good about not pushing me to play just for the sake of the game, but in looking out for my health," she said. In terms of what her fellow varsity athletes had experienced in dealing with the staff, Campion was wholly supportive of the Bulldog trainers. "I can only think of positive experiences," she said.

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