By
Melissa Nylander and Matt Langseth
Gayle Swann, the school’s athletic trainer for the past eight years, resigned earlier this month after an injured player participated in a football game despite her objection.
Although this incident isn’t the sole reason Swann quit, she said it is latest in a series of events that led to her departure.
“I’m trying to make sure things change so that safety is the number one issue,” said Swann, who also teaches the school’s ROP athletic training class.
The controversy started the first week of October as
Senior D.J. Frommoethelydo suffered a sprained ankle in practice days before the game and, following Swann’s assessment, was deemed unable to play.
A discussion was held between the varsity football coaches, administrators, D.J. and his parents regarding his availability for the upcoming game.
Football coach Trent Strickland said he and the rest of the coaching staff respected D.J.’s decision to participate in the game and let him play.
Strickland said the decision was not made to give the team a better chance at winning the game. It was made because of D.J.’s desire to play, he said.
“We had a player who wanted to play in the biggest game of his life,” said Strickland.
Bus Swann felt strongly that the player’s health was at risk.
“This is not a safe environment for the athletes and it causes huge liability problems for the trainer, coaches, school district and doctor,” said Swann.
As part of the trainer’s duties, any athlete who visits and is treated is entered in the trainer’s log where it states the player’s name, sport, injury, and treatment.
Strickland said he checked the trainer’s log for Swann’s opinion on the status of his player to determine his eligibility.
“(D.J.) was on the log but it did not say he was unable to play,” said Strickland. “Had the trainer told us to take him off after the first quarter we would have.”
At halftime, Principal Mark Corti decided to pull D.J., Strickland said.
“(D.J.) has a passion for the game so he will suck it up and get out there,” said quarterback Nick Grimm.
D.J. thought he was pulled from the game because of his performance. In hindsight, he said it might have been better if would have sat out.
Swann’s decision to quit was not based on this one event
alone. She said there has been an
ongoing problem between her and the some of
As trainer, Swann was responsible for ensuring the health of athletes, not making sure teams win. She said she would have liked to continue her position as the athletic trainer for every other sports but said she was presented with an ultimatum by Corti when she told him of her decision to quit as trainer for the football team.
She said she was given the option of remaining as trainer for all school sports or no sports at all.
Swann chose to quit.
She said her main reason for quitting was to facilitate change within change within the athletic department.
“This should stress to the coaches that communication is at the utmost importance,” said athletic director Fred Albano.
Strickland believes that some players have a negative attitude toward Swann because they see her diagnosis as the reason they can’t play.
It’s as if the athlete is blaming Swann for their injury, he said.
“There shouldn’t be this attitude that the trainer isn’t letting them play,” Strickland said. “It’s the injury that isn’t letting them play.”
A temporary trainer has been hired to work with the teams until the end of the fall sports’s season.
October 2003
Californian