Johnson returns to training

Head Athletic Trainer Ryan Johnson returns to sports medicine staff at CCHS after a three year leave. Photo by Porter McLeod.

By BRITNEY BUTLER Junior Copy Editor
Ryan Johnson resumes the role of Head Athletic Trainer after three years.

At the end of each school day, Head Athletic Trainer and CAPS department teacher Ryan Johnson immediately opens up the training room in order to treat all of the athletes in need of help before football practice begins. He believes it is important to treat the athletes in the most timely manner possible in order to assist the football players on the sidelines of their practices.

“I usually get (to school) between 7:30 and 7:45 (a.m.), fulfill my teaching duties and as soon as I can get out of here I go open the training room and do taping and treatments,” Johnson said. “There is the athletic training room in the gym, (it) is my ‘office’. If I get there at 3:30 I want to be out of there by 4:30. Especially when football practice is going on. It’s one of the most dangerous sports.”

Without the help from Johnson and other athletic trainers, junior Kevin Irwin believes that football practice would not run as smoothly as it does today. Irwin is one of many student athletes that Johnson has worked in rehab with during his time back this year.

“If there were no athletic trainers, there would be no football team,” Irwin said. “We’d be hurt all the time.”

Johnson chose the career path involving sports medicine due to his interest in the varying aspects of the job.

“I like the idea of rehab and that’s why I like physical therapy, athletic training, injury evaluation rehab and care treatment,” Johnson said. “But for me the big thing was ‘What am I going to be doing every day? Is it the same thing day in and day out or is there something to make it different?’ For me (the best choice) was athletic training. No two days are the same.”

Johnson chose athletic training over physical therapy because of the ability for him to work with student-athletes as opposed to an older, more static population.[pullquote]I just wanted to get back to doing what made me happy.

–RYAN JOHNSON,
Head Athletic Trainer

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“Athletic trainers work with a lot of athletes,” Johnson said. “Physical therapists will work with everybody, (but) usually it’s older patients, so rehab isn’t always as exciting or as involved which to me was not as interesting.”

The ability to work in an alternative environment as opposed to being indoors all day affected Johnson’s choice to pursue athletic training.

“I liked physical therapy, but I didn’t like being stuck inside all the time,”  Johnson said. “For me the biggest thing was the ability to get outdoors and be involved.”

Johnson came to Clarke Central High School in 2004 working as part-time athletic trainer until the position as a paraprofessional in the CAPS department became available shortly after he was hired.

“I was actually on my way to an interview at the old alternative school and the principal (at the time), Dr. Easom, asked me to step into her office to sit down and talk,” Johnson said. “I ended up being hired and worked a year as a parapro and as a compliance clerk and I’ve been here ever since.”

After working as Head Athletic Trainer for multiple years, Johnson took a three year leave in order to spend time with his family.

“If you can imagine, it was just one person covering everything all year long and some people didn’t really appreciate that as much as an athletic trainer would hope,” Johnson said.

Johnson works with the Moore Center for Rehabilitation as an outreach athletic trainer. The Moore Center places athletic trainers at schools in need of help and after his first year of leave from CCHS he was placed at Apalachee High School, which at the time was in need of a part-time athletic trainer.

“The first year I was not here I was working at Apalachee. The guy from the Moore Center asked if I could help cover (because) the athletic trainer at Apalachee was getting ready to have a baby over the summer,” Johnson said. “I would travel to Apalachee and I would cover until 7:30 or 8:00.”

Although Johnson was not working with the athletic training program at CCHS, he still worked within the school.

“The last two years (of my leave) I was the Co-Coordinator for the 21st Century afterschool program,” Johnson said. “I (also) have been involved in GLAD Time and Advisement for the last two and a half years.”

While Johnson was away, Sheena Watkins, the present assistant athletic trainer, took the place of Head Athletic Trainer.

“When coach Johnson stepped down a couple years ago, coach Sheena Watkins served as our Head Athletic Trainer for the past three years with us,” Athletic Director Dr. Jon Ward said.

During the time that Watkins was Head Athletic Trainer, varsity junior soccer forward Mariah Elam worked with her for an injury on her right knee.

“I hadn’t worked with any athletic trainers before Ms. Sheena,” Elam said. “I worked with her during my freshman year. She was super friendly and helpful.”

Watkins stepped down from her position as Head Athletic Trainer to assistant athletic trainer in order to go back to school to pursue her interest in becoming a physical therapy assistant, opening up the position for Johnson.

“I stepped down because I was going back to school so it was just really hard to juggle athletic training, and then I was working as a fulltime teacher at an elementary school,” Watkins said. “So I decided to just kind of assist on the side.”

As both Johnson and Watkins have stepped down from their positions as athletic trainers at one point in time, they admit that the job is time-consuming and physically draining.

“It’s a severely big time commitment,” Watkins said.  “That’s why a lot of people, they do it for a few years and then kind of have a career change, kind of like what I’m going into. I’m going back to school as a physical therapy assistant.”

Johnson accepted the position of Head Athletic Trainer for the second time at the beginning of the 2013-14 school year. When Johnson came back, Watkins rejoined as a part-time assistant athletic trainer, working practices and Friday home games along with Johnson and first responder Broderick Flannigan.[pullquote]”If there were no athletic trainers, there would be no football team”

–KEVIN IRWIN,
varsity junior linebaker

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“I just wanted to get back to doing what made me happy,” Johnson said. “There (are) growing pains with every change and it’s getting to know the coaches, getting to know the athletes, figuring out who’s good with what and what to expect from each person. That’s been the hardest thing so far just trying to get back in the swing of things.”

The two trainers work together at Friday home games, but also split up the time spent at practices in order to give each other breaks during the week.

“We work as a team,” Watkins said. “We do divide up the work when it comes to practice and the duties at games to give us some more free time, so it worked out because days they don’t come, I can come in for them. Days I can’t come, they can come in for me.”

As the Head Athletic Trainer, Johnson covers all varsity football practices and games while also tending to athletes of any other in-season sports who need help year round.

“In terms of covering entire practices, the one I really focus on is football, but because I am covering football, I am available to everybody,” Johnson said.  “When football is over, we change the schedule to just training room coverage and treatments unless a coach has a particular request. Just because of the danger of football, we cover every single day.”

Although football is the only sport that is required to have athletic training coverage for full practices, the athletic trainers work through all of the seasons to provide services for injured athletes.

“We’re here for all of the sports at  Clarke Central, it’s just the state requires that an athletic trainer is at football games and practices,” Watkins said.

Johnson currently strives to be able to work with injuries of all athletes, no matter what sport they compete in. Elam has worked with both Johnson and Watkins and notices the differences in the roles that the two trainers hold.

“What they do is different because I feel like Johnson is usually more in the trainers room and (Watkins) is usually on the field with the players,” Elam said. “For a game I think the trainer should be on the field ready to help any injured players but for practice days it’s easier to just head to the trainers room.”

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