Sports medicine classes offer hands-on training

Clovis High School senior student trainer Amanda Thornton tapes the foot and ankle of Clovis senior Jeremiah Clark on Friday at the high school. Clark was getting his foot taped before practice. Photo by Eric Kluth

For Clovis High School students interested in the health field, the sports medicine program can be a good place to start.

Jeremy Davis, in his second year as the CHS athletic trainer, teaches sports medicine I and II classes. In addition to educating people in the field, it also provides him with student helpers.

“It’s fairly new as far as the sports medicine class,” said Davis, a native of Lovington known as “Doc” around the sports programs at the school. “There have probably been sports medicine classes in high schools in the U.S. for about 10 years.”

Davis said his predecessor, Jeanne Ladisic, got the class off the ground during her two years at CHS.

“She’s the one that kind of matched the class up with state guidelines,” he said.

The classes are usually taught over two semesters, Davis said, but because there are currently only about a dozen students, the two levels are being combined this spring.

Davis said a student can travel with a team upon completing Sports Med I, which covers mostly basics like taping players.

“Most (students) take the Intro. to Health class as a sophomore,” he said. “Some of them kind of get started that way.

“We have a textbook that we go through, and cover everything from legal issues to anatomy, first aid and so on. I’d say a lot of kids who take it want to be in the health field.”

Some take the class mainly out of curiosity, but others hope it leads to a career.

Senior Jarod Baldwin hopes to be a fireman/EMT, and plans to take a two-year program starting next year at South Plains College in Levelland, Texas.

“It’s been a starting point for me going into the medical field,” said Baldwin, who plays football and competes in track at CHS. “I know I can do CPR and first aid already, and I think that’ll give me a head start.”

Baldwin said his grandfather is a former Clovis fire chief, and an uncle is a former Portales fire chief.

“I only got interested in this when I was playing sports, and I’d come in and see how Doc took care of things.”

He said when fellow senior Shea Chase suffered an ACL injury in football last fall, it was a learning experience for him.

“We got to do a lot of hands-on things with the way the knee worked,” Baldwin said. “If we had questions, Doc was there to help us out.”

Senior Jessica Hohn is in here third year in the program and hopes to go into physical therapy. She said a couple of students had taken the course with Ladisic and told her they enjoyed it.

“I took sports medicine I with Jeanne and I decided it liked it,” said Hohn, who played basketball and volleyball in high school and next year will attend Newman University in Wichita, Kan. “When I got into this, I just thought it was fun.”

Davis said he hopes the numbers rebound in the future so he can send someone on every road trip.

“All the students work in football at some point,” he said. “That’s where they get the most experience.

“We haven’t had enough to have one for every team, but my goal is to get to that point.”