From blood, sweat, and so many tears, athletic trainers at Woodgrove High School tackle it all.
Athletic trainers and coaches around Loudoun County have successfully gotten the school board’s approval to hire 11 new trainers, adding one trainer per high school. Many athletic trainers around the county have been lobbying since January 2024 to make this change a reality. Athletic trainers are a crucial part in sports. There are injuries in almost every athletic activity, and athletic trainers are there to help diagnose and treat the athletes.
Woodgrove High School’s head athletic trainer, Mr. Paul Peterson, was one of the pioneers of this very much needed change. Peterson has been an athletic trainer in the collegiate level for 7 out of his total 36 years of experience. Peterson helped spread awareness for this movement by gathering other athletic trainers throughout Loudoun County and lobbying at school board meetings. Eventually their efforts paid off, and the school board put the policy in place. Now every high school in LCPS has more than one trainer.
Due to Peterson’s efforts, Woodgrove has welcomed a new trainer, Mr. Mark “Wags” Wagner. Wags has worked for a variety of schools including Heritage, Potomac Falls, Stonebridge, Parkview, and Loudoun Valley before coming to Woodgrove High School. ”I had a very close connection with Paul Peterson, he was like my mentor…The athletes were also very receptive and I felt connected with them, hands down this was the best school for me where I felt like I fit in,” added Wags. He was offered a full time position at many schools but chose Woodgrove.
The education necessary to become an athletic trainer is quite rigorous, requiring an entry level masters degree program. Currently, Woodgrove is also home to Lauren Standish, a second year graduate student for the (Master of Science in Athletic Training) MSAT program at Shenandoah University. Up to this point, she has completed four years of undergraduate work and is now working on a two year masters degree program. ”My time at Woodgrove so far has been great! I’ve learned so much under the eye of athletic trainers Paul Peterson and Mark Wagner,” Standish stated. Every year, athletic trainers learn 50 (Continuing Education Units) CEU so learning new things is never a problem for them.
Head coach of the track team Mr. Kent Staneart stated that the athletic trainers were very important to the team. They work to diagnose injuries efficiently and accurately, keeping the athletes healthy. Staneart stated, “Track is not a very injury prone sport, but there are wear injuries such as runners knee, ankle injuries, and various shoulder injuries.”
Athletic trainers play a vast role in keeping athletes healthy and safe. Having two athletic trainers accessible to every high school in the county is crucial to athletes’ health and well being. Adding an extra trainer is a great thing that is a major change in Loudoun County. Students are lucky at Woodgrove to have such great athletic trainers.