Grant propels Chandler middle schools to get athletic trainers
Arianna Grainey for Dignity Health
Athletic trainer Matt Brewer wraps the hand or wrist of a Basha Accelerated Middle School student-athlete. Brewer is a year-round, full-time trainer who rotates between the middle schools in the district in a three-year program funded by a grant from the Korey Stringer Institute.
Arianna Grainey for Dignity Health
Athletic trainer Matt Brewer works with a Basha Accelerated Middle School student on a trainer’s table. Brewer is a year-round, full-time trainer who rotates between the middle schools in the district in a three-year program funded by a grant from the Korey Stringer Institute.
When Suzie Squires first learned about a grant that would help some Valley schools, she knew it met a strong need.
Squires, the athletic training manager with the Dignity Health Orthopedic and Sports Medicine Institute, knows not even the majority of high schools in the U.S. have their own certified athletic trainers.
Chandler Unified getting trainers at its seven junior high/middle schools — even for three years through a grant — is a positive development.
“It’s more than just trainers at ball games,” Squires said. “It’s enhancing care and expanding health care. And it’s for an age group that’s at a critical time as far as making or breaking habits.”
In 2022, the Dignity Health Foundation East Valley was awarded a three-year, $180,000 grant through the "innovATe" project offered by the Connecticut-based Korey Stringer Institute.
Founded in the name of an NFL player who died after summer training camp heat exposure — an issue front and center in Arizona sports — the grant program helps to put trainers at Chandler-area middle schools for what Squires says is both for immediate treatment of injuries and for proactive, preventive health education.
Squires points out certified trainers do anatomy and injury-related teaching to young athletes. For some Chandler student-athletes, talking with the trainer is their first exposure to any health care professional besides a pediatrician.
“Teaching is done both one-on-one, especially with kids that already have recurring or chronic issues, and in classes,” Squires said. “Some there’s some check-in. But there’s also a lot of outreach and teaching, too.”
The Stringer Institute has been “great,” Squires said, and the terms of the grant don’t restrict or limit trainers from what their duties would be if they were hired by a school district.
Chandler Unified has been supportive of the grant since the start of the process, Squires said, adding she’s hoping that support carries over beyond the approaching end of the three-year grant, regardless of whether the grant is extended or a new one replaces it.
“There are so many other ways to support middle-school and all school sports, from having AEDs on site to climatizing to playing-surface conditions,” she said.
Chandler’s junior high schools are Andersen, Bogle, Payne, Santan, Willis and Basha Accelerated Middle School. There’s also Arizona College Prep Middle School.
The funds enabled the placement of a dedicated athletic trainer to provide comprehensive medical care and injury prevention services to student athletes across CUSD junior high schools through Dignity Health’s Orthopedics and Sports Medicine Institute, a release states.
“This grant allows us to significantly enhance the resources available to junior high school players in a variety of sports,” said Julie Alvarado, chief philanthropy officer at Dignity Health’s foundation.
“Every athlete deserves access to the specialized care of an athletic trainer,” said Christianne Eason, president of Sport Safety and Education and director of innovATe at KSI, in the release. “For adolescent athletes, who are still growing both physically and cognitively, this support is just as critical, if not more so, than it is for collegiate or professional athletes.”
The Dignity Health Orthopedic and Sports Medicine program was established in the East Valley in 2014 and has served more than 30,000 student-athletes across 45 schools and nine districts, the release states.
As part of the program, Dignity Health employs more than 30 athletic trainers who provide services at many East Valley high schools for their student-athletes.
The Stringer Institute’s "innovATe" project is funded through the Education fund established through the NFL concussion litigation.
The National Athletic Trainers Association states only about two-thirds of U.S. high schools have designated certified trainers on staff. The rest of the high schools — along with most junior highs — must rely on coaches, school staff or contracted help who have at least some first-aid and sports injury knowledge.
“This program takes a big weight off of coaching staff’s and athletic department’s shoulders,” Squires said.
Jason W. Brooks is a News editor for the Daily Independent and the Chandler Independent.
He covers the Chandler area for both yourvalley.net and the monthly print edition while writing for and assisting in the production of the Daily Independent.
Brooks is a well-traveled journalist who has documented life in small American communities in nearly all U.S. time zones.
Born in Washington, D.C. and raised there and in suburban Los Angeles, he has covered community news in California, New Mexico, Arkansas, Iowa, Nebraska and northern Arizona.
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