Students participate in a wide range of sports, from wrestling to bocce.Those sports cause students to develop an equally wide range of injuries. Athletic trainer Brenna Allen is here to provide physical therapy for students and help them recover.
Allen grew up in South Florida and went to college at Barry University in Miami. She said she enjoyed sports and wanted to do something in the medical field, so she combined the two and found her passion in athletic training.
While working, Allen encounters ankle sprains more frequently than other injuries. “Ankle sprains are the most common injury I see in athletes. They usually require a week or two with no practice or games, plus a week of physical therapy. The second most common injury is muscle strains, which require a mix of time off and physical therapy to treat,” Allen said.
Head injuries are also a common occurrence for Allen; concussions and heat illness are especially prevalent during the fall season. According to Allen, “Heat illness is very common during the fall season because athletes aren’t conditioned to the heat and training in it. If someone is passing out due to heat illness, I’ll put them into an ice bath and call 911 and monitor their vitals.”
Senior basketball player Brenden Famulare said ankle sprains aren’t what bother the basketball team all winter. “We had a couple of ankle sprains, nothing major, but knee pain bothered most of the team’s athletes. Almost every single person on the team has some kind of knee pain or injury; some had muscle pain around the knee, while others had more severe problems with the knee itself. Thankfully, Brenna helps the team out by providing injury care and physical therapy.”
Last year, junior Gabriella Gbebry injured her hip muscles during a lacrosse game. “It hurt so bad when I pulled my hamstring. At one point, it wasn’t just painful to play, but it was also painful to walk. I went to Brenna, and she had me do PT exercises plus some time off. She wrapped it, gave me stretches to do at home, and did TENS (transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation). The combination of the PT she provided plus the time off helped ease the pain and get me back in the game.”
The biggest part of Allen’s job is emergency care, such as broken bones and panic attacks during games. “A lot of injuries that I encounter are scraped knees, bloody stuff, and panic attacks during games,” Allen said.
Certain sports come to Allen seeking care more than others. According to Allen, “Football comes in the most during the fall season just because of their numbers and the heavy contact that their sport includes. A lot of ankle sprains occur on the football team. Currently, it’s mostly lacrosse players. In general, a lot of athletes’ injuries consist of scraped knees and some minor bloody stuff.”
According to All Sports Physical Therapy, “A 2018-2019 National High School Sports-Related Injury Surveillance Study also gave football the top spot, with 455,449 injuries related to that sport that year.” This ranking was followed by soccer, basketball, volleyball, and baseball/softball.
