Friday, February 6, 1998
The cast of Sports Medicine
FEATURE: Department helps athletes prevent, overcome
injuries
By Steve Kim
Daily Bruin Contributor
Hectic is the atmosphere when this room is full of bodies in
pain and dedicated attendants. It isn’t the emergency room, but
some may argue that this facility is just as important. It’s the
UCLA Sports Medicine department, and it’s what the athletic program
can’t excel without.
UCLA Sports Medicine works in conjunction with a variety of
athletic trainers, physicians, surgeons, student interns, weight
trainers, nutritionists and even a sports psychologist. Together,
their goal is to prevent or rehabilitate sports related injuries
experienced by many UCLA student athletes.
Every day and evening, athletes come in to be treated for
anything from sore muscles to injuries that require surgery.
The most frequent visitors are team members of high-impact
sports such as football and track and field, but they literally
come in all sizes and shapes.
Ask Maria Castro. She’s one of seven certified athletic trainers
here. They do the bulk of the job, with assistance of 30-something
student interns. Athletic trainers not only help in physical
healing, but also act as counselors and educators.
In order to be an athletic trainer in a Division I athletic
school, one has to be certified and hold a master’s degree. Castro
has a master’s in kinesiology. During the football season, Castro
says about 90 percent of the visitors to the training room are
football players. Otherwise, every sport is fair game for
injuries.
Castro said, "It’s hard to tell what team comes the most, but
when they come, they come in a surge. Each team has certain
practice hours and you can tell when you’re going to get a lot of
people coming in.
"But even during the off-season, athletes still practice, so we
treat them year-round."
Athletic trainers focus on assessment, rehabilitation and
prevention. In assessment, athletic trainers decide whether an
injured athlete continues to go through their treatment or should
be referred to a specialist when the proper treatment is out of
their abilities.
In such cases, doctors take over. Matthew Shapiro is a
practicing orthopedic surgeon and associate professor of orthopedic
surgery at UCLA School of Medicine. One of seven medical doctors at
UCLA Sports Medicine, Shapiro volunteers up to six hours a week to
work with student athletes.
Shapiro said, "Rather than having athletes come to the doctor’s
office, we bring the office to them."
In return, doctors have the opportunity to observe numerous
cases of sports-related injuries that the main population rarely
experiences, but are common among high-intensity athletes who push
themselves to the limit.
Through these injuries, Shapiro says doctors can find ways to
devise the best possible treatments for both athletes and regular
patients alike.
Shapiro elaborates on the benefits involved with his position.
"We all get to be involved with a world-class athletic program.
There’s a lot of professional reward in terms of helping athletes
get over injuries and maximizing their performance.
"We’re all very serious about providing the best medical care to
our UCLA athletes. We feel like a part of a family and go out of
our way to make them better."
In the prevention aspect of athletic therapy, athletic trainers
conduct educational lectures or one-on-one sessions on how to take
care of the body by stretching exercises and eating right.
Even simple measures go a long way for athletes who train for
hours a day. Sore limbs are taped or iced to prevent more serious
injuries. And then there’s the "whirlpool."
Fourth-year track and field shot-putters, Wade Tift and Travis
Haynes are each sitting in their own whirlpool. Contrary to what
many may think, this whirlpool isn’t the luxurious kind. It is used
to numb pain and heal muscle scar tissues by cooling the blood.
Tift and Haynes are relieving sore muscles after a hard weight
training session.
"It’s a place of healing. We train hard at UCLA. A lot of the
times as athletes, you think you know about your body, but they
know 10 times as much as you do. They don’t just treat you, they
help you understand what’s wrong with your body so you can prevent
it next time," says Tift regarding the athletic training
program.
As preventable as injury is, it’s inevitable for athletes avoid
it completely. The number of athletes that come in for treatment
require more hands than that of seven athletic trainers. That’s
when student interns come into play.
Student interns consist mostly of aspiring doctors or physical
therapists who make a three-year commitment to volunteering about
20 hours a week. They are mainly based in the Sports Medicine
facility, but they also go out to practice and game venues in case
an injury occurs.
In return, they gain valuable practical experience by assisting
athletic trainers and specialists. Interning through the program
also gives them opportunities to network and get much-needed
letters of recommendation.
Joe Caballero, third-year psychology, pre-physical therapy
student, is one of the student interns at UCLA Sports Medicine. He
found out through a friend about the internship program, which
starts annually every fall quarter, and feels he’s learned so much
more about the field of physical therapy.
As a student, Caballero feels interns can relate more to student
athletes. He said, "For the most part, I think they appreciate the
time we put in. It’s great because they learn about their injury
and are motivated to get better, and at the same time, we’re
learning about the process of treatment and are also motivated to
get better in our the field."
Head athletic trainer and assistant athletic director Geoff
Schaadt definitely appreciates the helping hand that student
interns provide.
Schaadt said, "They are a tremendous part of the program. We
couldn’t function without them."
Actually, the athletic program can’t function at its best
without any of the Sports Medicine staff divisions.
Schaadt said, "In this day and age, it’s virtually impossible
for an athlete of caliber such as UCLA to perform successfully
without an effective sports medicine department.
"To stay competitive, it’s vital to the injured athletes that
the sports medicine staff quickly return them to play as soon as
possible."Ernest Lee
GENEVIEVE LIANG/Daily Bruin
Catherine Manalo, second-year student trainer, massages Peggy
Hall, a runner for women’s track.