TALLADEGA – Talladega High athletic trainer Ashley Davis felt like a traveling trainer last year.Without the benefit of a training room, Davis had to keep all the necessary equipment with her all the time. Davis is able to travel a little lighter this fall as a training room was completed before football season started in August.
“We didn’t have a space for it before,” Davis said before the start of football season. “Now we actually have a room. We have everything set up in there. We have a whirlpool now where we can do therapy and treatment in the whirlpool.
“It just makes things easier because now all students can come to a central location instead of having to come hunt me down wherever I am. It just makes it easier to keep things organized because before I kind of was a traveling trainer. I had to take everything with me.”
The Samford University graduate is in her second year as the athletic trainer for Talladega High and Zora Ellis Jr. High. During that time she’s seen plenty of injuries, ranging from sprained ankles to broken bones.
“I would say the most common injuries are pulled hamstrings or groin injuries, just some basic muscles,” Davis said.
Davis is on hand at practices and games for all sports at THS, but said she has seen more injuries in football than the other sports.
“There are a lot of injuries in football just because it’s a contact sport,” she said. “We do have a lot of game injuries because there’s more intensity … just because they’re not playing against each other. They’re playing somebody else. Sometimes we’ll have a big practice with lots of injuries and sometimes we don’t. Sometimes we have a game with injuries, it just varies.”
With improper conditioning being the main cause of most common injuries, Davis said the coaches at Talladega have done a good job of helping to prevent that.
“Here at Talladega we have a weight program that our students are doing,” Davis said. “We also have conditioning. Our kids are running and they’ve been here all summer working out and that helps a lot. We haven’t had a lot (of injuries) this year. Staying in shape is great for preventing injuries.”
While conditioning, proper hydration and a healthy diet can help athletes avoid those common injuries, Davis said there are other injuries that can occur even if the player is in shape.
“The bad injuries are just freak things that happen,” she said. “We’ve had dislocated bones, different injuries to different organs. Those are just freak things that happen. They’re not common things. They don’t happen all the time. Last year was my first year here and it was also my first year as a trainer by myself. So that was the first time that I saw a lot of injuries. Those are not common things, not things you can predict will happen.”
Davis said conditioning could play a big part in helping people who participate in pick-up games or just play sports with their kids in the backyard.
“Know what you’re doing,” she said. “That’s when an injury can occur when people get out there and act crazy. Conditioning, running, those type of things will help. Just be careful, know what you’re doing.”
