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Sports
t A
Veto F.
Roley
Sports editor
Perry Hospital
serves local
athletes well
Professional and college teams
arc treated well.
Well-trained athletic trainers treat
athletic injuries, making it possible
for the athlete to return to the play
ing field in the best possible condi
tion, missing as little action as
possible. It seems that once an ath
lete makes it past the high school
level, he has it made.
In fact, many high school ath
letes never make it to higher levels
of competition because of the lack
of good medical care. Many are
hampered by the slight ankle sprain
that gets worse through misdiagno
sis. Eventually, the ankle gets to
where the player can not play.
But, Perry High School and
Westfield Schools are unique. Perry
Hospital has two athletic trainers
which provide what college and pro
fessional athletes receive, good, on
site medical care.
And, Perry Hospital provides
Chip McCarty and Mike Edgar at
no charge to the local schools. It is
a service to the high schools, to the
athletes who participate in the high
school programs.
We are not talking here about a
team doctor who only appears on
Friday nights, or an athletic trainer
who only appears on game night;.
We are talking about full time em
ployees dedicated to the high school
athletic programs. Last year, Mc-
Carty worked some weeks 60 or
more hours a week, seeing nearly
20 student athletes a week.
This program encompasses both
the game and practice limes. Also,
McCarty and Edgar give a free early
morning clinic to the athletes
during the sports seasons. All at no
charge to the athletes.
The hospital also provides free
physicals to the athletes at the local
schools. Yes, I know that there was
a $5 charge for the physicals; but,
that money went to the board of ed
ucation for equipment.
The doctors who provided the
physicals performed the physicals
free of charge, the hospital donated
the equipment. And, the physical
therapy department of the hospital
organized the event.
The hospital recently conducted a
two day seminar on athletic injuries
at the Houston County Agricultural
Building. Athletic trainers from
outside the county were brought in
to conduct classes at the seminar,
classes on everything from shin
splints to throwing mechanics to
how to treat a shin splint. The
coaches were even treated to a cat
fish diner the second day.
If you have attended even the
most basic of seminars, you xnow
the cost of a seminar runs S3O or
more. Yet, Perry Hospital put on
the seminar free of charge.
And, I'm not saying that Perry
Hospital docs not get anything out
of these free programs to the local
high schools. Even Jim Peak, ad
ministrator at the hospital, will
admit that the hospital gets a great
public relations reward from the
services. The hospital also gets in
some preventative treatment, which
saves costs and time if an athlete
does have to be admitted.
But, the hospital does not have
to do what they do. Most high
schools are able to find doctors that
will provide free or reduced priced
physicals; but very few hospitals
will provide free full time athletic
trainers.
And, the rewards they get out of
the program probably do not match
the money they put into the pro
gram. I’m sure that there arc other
public relations and marketing
strategics that the hospital could do
to bring in the same amount of
goodwill they get from the physical
therapy program at a reduced cost.
But, as Peak points out, the
hospital is a member of the com
munity. This is a way that the hos
pital can give back f o the commu
nity. The program serves all strata
of the community, since it serves
the community's athletes, who
come from all strata of the commu
nity. The program helps those who
couldn't afford the service on a regu
lar basis, as well as those who can.
Although the presence of the
trainers is hard to miss on the side
lines at games, it is something that
the hospital docs quietly. It is
Please see Roley, page 8A
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Mike Edgar (left), new Perry hospital athletic trainer, and Chip McCarty take a break
from working on their budgets for the school year.
Panther
cheerleaders
take camp
championship
By VETO F. ROLEY
Sports Editor
The Perry Panthers cheerleading
spirited away the grand champi
onship trophy at a University
Cheerleaders Association camp held
at Oglethorpe University last week.
By winning the grand champi
onship of the camp, the Panther
cheerleaders will make a return ap
pearance at the Citrus Bowl in Or
lando, Fla. In addition to the top
prize, the squad also was named the
camp champion in the sideline
competition, and the junior varsity
group won the camp championship
in the sideline competition. The ju
nior varsity was also named most
improved squad.
Two members of the team were
named to the all-star squad.
LaTashia Askew took all-star
honors off the varsity squad, while
Katie Stephens was named off the
junior varsity squad.
"UCA all-stars," said chcerlead
ing coach Elaine Stephens," are se
lected independently from the
Local softball starts Monday, Aug. 1
Both Westfield and Perry High School will start
their softball seasons with the first day of practice
Monday, Aug. 1.
Westfield Hornets head coach Billy Sellers said that
his players should report to the field at Westfield at 10
a.m. He said that all his players should bring gloves
Coaches
learn much
at seminar
By VETO F. ROLEY
Sports Editor
Over 30 coaches learned how to
handle sports injuries Tuesday and
Wednesday at an athletic injury
seminar sponsored by Perry Hospi
tal.
Coaches learned about how to
properly fit athletic equipment,
stretching and flexibility, C.P.R.,
heat illness, strength training, nu
trition, speed training, shin splints,
neck and back injuries, ankle in
juries, shoulder mechanics and turf
toe in the seminar.
Perry Hospital athletic trainer
Chip McCarty, who organized the
seminar, said that a lot coaches had
degrees in English, social studies
and other fields, and had not taken
basic athletic training classes. He
said the coaches indicated that they
would like to see a lot more hands
on, basic skills demonstrated such
as taping knees and ankles.
"One coach told me that nobody
seems to care about the coaches,"
said McCarty, "and that we should
do this every year."
McCarty said the purpose behind
the seminar was to give some of
the coaches a basic knowledge of
athletic training so that they could
provide first .response care "until
qualified personnel got to the ath-
Fish will bite
This is the time of year that a
lot of old timers called dog days.
' I'm not at all certain where the
term originated, but it means, in
general, that everything tends to
slow down drastically because of
the heat. And, late July through the
middle of September has some aw
fully hot days.
Fishing seems to suffer just as
much during this time, and catching
a good mess of them seems nearly
impossible. Really, the fish arc
still where they were several weeks
before; but, it’s a lot more aggravat
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Perry High School cheerleaders LaTashia Askew (left)
and Katie Stephens were named to the all-star team at a
University Cheerleaders Association Camp last week.
schools. Candidates are evaluated by
college staff and cheerleaders from
across the United States." She said
only seven percent of the partici
pants in UCA camps nationwide
were named all-stars.
"I think this is the closest thing
to Marine boot camp," said
Stephens of the week. "They do a
and other equipment they need or want.
Perry High School head coach Kelly Britsky said
that her players should meet at the Perry High School
gym at 3 p.m. for tryouts. They also need to bring
their gloves.
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John Hay demonstrates on former Perry High School
standout basketball player Tarvis Felton the method for
taping a shin splint as Perry High School coaches (l-r)
lete." He noted that while Perry
Hospital provided trainers to West
field and Perry High School, many
teams did not have qualified trainers
on the sidelines.
The seminar was also designed
to educate a coach about what hap
pens when a trainer goes on the
field so that he could "understand
in the hot days of July-September, but when its cool
ing to get them to bite.
There are couple of things that
you can do to help your chance in
catching a few fish.
One thing you can do is to fish
during the hours of darkness, prefer
ably from about 12 midnight to
about three or four in the morning.
Fish tend to feed a little more when
the water cools even a couple of de
grees.
One of the favorite methods for
catching bass, crappic and white
bass is to fish lighted docks that arc
near deeper water. The key here is
Houston Times-Journal
better job of teaching technique, be
cause you have the best in tech
niques (teaching at the camp), and
the latest rule changes."
In addition to learning all of the
material the cheerleaders will use
during the season, Stephens said the
teams learned important safety and
(pyramid) building techniques.
what we are doing," said McCarty.
Perry High School head coach
John Stephens said the seminar was
very practical in nature. He noted
that he went to a lot of seminars
and clinics where the information
was presented at a "different level"
from the coach's level.
Stephens said that he had gotten
k
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Fishing I
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deeper water. The lights will draw
the bugs, which draw the baitfish.
Bass will will come out of deep wa
ter several times during the night to
feed on die easy prey.
Noisy topwalcr lures and plastic
Saturday, July 30,1994 "H0u5t0n Times-Journal
Page 6A
Mike Edgar joins Perry
Hospital as athletic
trainer for high schools
By VETO F. ROLEY
Sports Editor
Mike Edgar feels like he is in
the big city.
When he was interviewing for
the job of athletic trainer with Perry
Hospital, Edgar was with Chip
McCarty, also an athletic trainer at
Perry Hospital, when he was told
that Perry was a typical small
Southern town. However, Edgar
quickly corrected McCarty, letting
him know Perry was a large town,
having several stoplights in town.
New Blockton, Ala., the home
town of Edgar, has only one traffic
light.
McCarty said that Edgar's small
town values were one of the reasons
that he got the job as the second
athletic trainer at Perry Hospital.
"We knew that we had to bring
the right person in," said McCarty.
"We had to bring someone in who
could work well with me and, more
importantly, work well with the
kids and the community. We have
some of the same policies."
Last year, McCarty was the only
athletic trainer on staff at Perry
Hospital, and was responsible for
all the programs at Westfield and
Perry High School. Jim Peak, ad
ministrator for the hospital, said the
move to hire Edgar was made to
improve the coverage of the pro
gram.
"We had one trainer covering
two schools," said Peak, who said
that a contract trainer was hired for
two games of the football season.
With the different seasons and prac
tices of the two schools, Peak said
that one person was pretty much
stretched out.
At times, said Peak and Mc-
Carty, McCarty put in seven day
weeks, working over 60 hours a
week. "That was not in the best in
terest of (McCarty)," said Peak.
"I didn't ask for help," said Mc-
Carty. "They (the hospital) came to
me and asked if I wanted help."
Even though Edgar will provide
help for McCarty, McCarty will
still be at both schools, with the
two trainers rotating between the
schools, allowing the athletes at
each school to become familiar
with each of the trainers and vice
versa, and making it where Mc-
Carty will not have to choose one
school over another. "With me be-
Elaine Stephens (cheerleading), John Stephens
(AD/head football) and Bob Jones (head
baseball/defensive football coordinator) look on.
several things from the seminar, in
cluding some information on
throwing mechanics.
"Everything in here is valuable
stuff that you don't learn in college
or anywhere else," said Westfield
Schools head coach Ronnie Jones.
"All coaches need to be at this
thing, especially coaches that don't
worms arc a favorite among the
dock fishermen.
Night fishing is an entirely dif
ferent world if you have never been.
Before you go out and tackle such
an event, there are a couple of
things that you might want to do to
make your outing a little easier.
The first thing is to know the area
you are fishing so that you can nav
igate in the darkness. Landmarks in
the dark don't look anything like
they do in the daylight.
Always carry a light jacket and
ran suit and a couple of good work-
ing in the community so long,”
said McCarty, ”1 can't choose one
school over the other."
Even though Edgar is from a
small town, he has seen major col
lege competition, coming from Di
vision I-AA power Troy State'. In
their last year in N.C.A.A. Divi
sion II football, the Trojans made it
to the semi-final round. After
spending two years between Divi
sion II and Division I-AA, the Tro
jans made an immediate impact on
the Division I-AA ranks, bowing
out in the semi-final round again.
Edgar was a trainer on all four of
those teams.
He does not see a problem step
ping down from the Division I-AA
arena to high school sports. "As a
general rule, athletes strive to better
themselves. The mindset (in high
school and college players) is the
same—to work hard to get better
and try to win ballgames."
"I love being on the field," said
Edgar. "A lot of trainers wind up in
clinics, but I'm not an indoors per
son.
"I really like working with kids.
You can be an adult-type model,
and you can be a friend."
Edgar said that he became a
trainer because it allowed him to
participate in sports at the high
school level without having to go
into coaching.
"I didn't care about coaching,
about Xs and Os; but, I enjoyed
working in sports," Edgars said.
"I've seen a lot of kids who could've
been helped (with injuries), who
could've went a long way if they
had someone to help them."
"Mike's going to be a tremen
dous asset to the program," said
McCarty.
"What we liked about Mike is
that he has a lot of on-field football
experience, as well as a well
rounded background in all sports,"
said Peak. "He will fit in well with
a small community, and do well
with the kids as well as with par
ents and coaches."
"We're excited," said Peak. "We
think with two trainers we are go
ing to be able to give the kids bet
ter coverage than last year."
"Everybody that I've meet so far
has been real nice," said Edgar. "It
is the personality of a small town."
have trainers."
McCarty said that 34 coaches at
tended the seminar, double the
number from last year. He said that
coaches from all over the Middle
Georgia area were at the seminar,
with good representation from
Westfield, Perry High School and
Perry Middle School.
tng flashlights. Also, make certain
that your boat is in good working
order for night fishing and has all of
the necessary lights in working
order and other required equipment.
If night fishing is not your
game, and it's not mine, then you
may want to limit your fishing to
early morning hours before the sun
gets up, and late in the evening just
before sunset. This is fnore our
speed, except we will stay a couple
of hours after the sun gets up and
fish the dropoffs and points after the
Please see Fishing, page 8A