FROM THE ARCHIVES From the September 1, 1955 issue of The First Aider
You Need Help, Coach
Part of your job, as a high school coach, is the proper care and treatment of the athletic injuries incurred by your athletes. In accepting the job of coaching sports you automatically accept the responsibility of prompt injury care for your boys.
Oftentimes during practice, a perplexing problem arises. “Should I continue to coach the squad or personally administer to an injured player?” A player injured on the field requires your immediate attention. Your first act is to check the seriousness of the injury. In most cases, injury care is routine. With a sprained ankle, for example, the standard procedure is to wrap the ankle with an elastic bandage, apply cold packs, and X-ray. If you have properly instructed a student trainer, he can carry out this procedure and get the boy safely to the doctor for an X-ray.
The student trainer can be vital to your success. You can concentrate on coaching, knowing that your instructions on injury care are being carried out.
A Keystone To A Successful Season
Your training room can become the basic foundation of your athletic program. It can be a keystone above which you build a successful athletic season because it is headquarters for prevention and injury care.
This training room must be equipped with those products necessary to treat or prevent injury. It would be suicidal to plan otherwise.
Your training room should be the cleanest, neatest place in town. Your athletes should be educated to help keep it that way. Make cleanliness a part of your program.