Some schools without trainers

Spencer Patterson

Thursday, Aug. 15, 2002 | 9:50 a.m.

Southern Nevada's prep football season kicks off with officially sanctioned practices today, and for nine area high schools, the threat of injury looms larger than ever.

Sunrise Children's Hospital this week notified the Clark County School District that it no longer can afford to supply the district's east-side high schools with certified athletic trainers.

"Unfortunately, with the turn in the economy, a lot of things had to be looked at," Sunrise spokeswoman Ann Lynch said of the four-year-old program. "It got to a point where Sunrise could not keep up with the financial burden."

The hospital and the School District shared the program's costs. Lynch said Sunrise contributed approximately $200,000 annually, a majority of the overall cost. She also confirmed that most trainers in the program will lose their jobs as a result of the program's elimination.

Boulder City, Chaparral, Desert Pines, Eldorado, Las Vegas, Rancho, Silverado, Valley and Vo-Tech -- which does not have a football team but participates in other sports -- could be without regular trainers for the entire school year, CCSD athletic director Larry McKay said.

"I don't know that we're going to be able to solve the problem this year," McKay said.

"There is no backup plan right now. No one else can pick up the program at this late a date, so I'm not sure what we're going to do. It looks like we're not going to have trainers on every campus like we have."

McKay said he was informed of Sunrise's decision Monday, four days before the start of football practice and two weeks before students resume classes Aug. 26.

"Unfortunately, it happened at such a time when it was impossible to resurrect any sort of program before school starts," McKay said. "I just wish we had a little more time to come up with a viable way to provide the service we have in the past."

Lynch said the hospital notified the School District the program could be in jeopardy earlier this summer while pursuing alternate sources of funding to sustain it.

"The reason we were that late was we didn't want to let go of it," Lynch said. "We wanted to continue to support the young women and men in the community. We kept hoping against hope somebody would give us some help, but it wasn't there."

In the past, Sunrise trainers spent more than 20 hours per week at practices and games.

"We're used to having quality trainers out there, and to lose them will be a major step backward," Las Vegas High football coach Kris Cinkovich said.

HealthSouth Rehabilitation Center will continue to provide trainers for 11 west-side schools, according to Jim Porter, regional outreach coordinator for HealthSouth. Porter, who has a son on Silverado's football team, said he will meet with McKay next week to discuss options for helping the nine east-side schools without trainers.

"We're considering any way we can help," Porter said. "It is absolutely critical that these kids have athletic trainers. Studies show that the number of injuries that have to be managed outside the high school significantly drops with trainers on campus."

Henderson schools Basic, Coronado and Foothill will maintain that area's long-standing relationship with trainers from St. Rose Dominican Hospital.

"(Sunrise's announcement) is quite significant," St. Rose head trainer Scott Byleckie said. "We had made such strong inroads in getting athletic trainers throughout the School District. Now there are going to be kids injured without proper medical personnel on the field to take care of it."

Lynch said Sunrise will continue to work with Bishop Gorman, in that the private school has promised to contribute more money to the program.

Green Valley High will continue to receive help from trainers from Green Valley Physiotherapy Associates.

Sunrise's announcement comes one year after heat-related illnesses and asthma were blamed for the respective deaths of Minnesota Viking Korey Stringer and Northwestern University's Rashidi Wheeler.

"We had two kids go down in one day last year -- one from the heat and one from a head injury," Foothill coach Ray Fenton said. "And our trainer was invaluable."

Still, as McKay noted, most schools in the District did not have certified trainers on campus before the formation of the local program.

"We got along without trainers before. We've had doctors and trainers only at football games in the past," McKay said. "But you get used to a standard of service, and when you pull back from that standard, people get upset and rightfully so."