Poison!!????
Athletic Training
Hi ATs! For your Pre-Season Blues, here are 2 short, funny (well I think they are funny) stories from basketball per diem coverage.
Story 1: School Nurse Poisons Player
I was sitting in my little nook of the gym, working high school basketball. It was pretty early in the afternoon. The freshmen were playing and coming up were JV and then Varsity games. Next to me, both home and away boys’ varsity coaches and our athletic director were having a casual chat. The opposing coach stops the conversation and looks at me. He says, “You the trainer?” I say, “Yes, I’m the athletic trainer.” Here’s the rest of the conversation:
Coach: “Good. At the last school we played at, they had a nurse covering the game and she poisoned my best player!”
Me: “Um, that doesn’t sound right.”
Coach: “Oh yeah, he went to see her for a headache, then spent the rest of the afternoon in the bathroom. I have no idea what she gave him”
Me: “Wow, that’s crazy!”
I then got up and went to check on anything in the athletic training room. I really did not believe that the nurse did anything to another team’s player and was not about to listen to any more of this coach’s nonsense. About 2 hours later just before his varsity game, the same coach asked me if I had any Advil. Even if it was legal for me to give it out.. Um No-Freekin-Way!
That was story #1.
2. BYO-H20:
My first day of winter sports games, I asked the basketball coach if we had water for both team’s benches (Logical question, right?) :
Coach: “We’ve never done that before! We don’t even have water on our own bench!”
Me: “Well, we’ve got the coolers….”
Coach: “Our kids bring their own water bottles, and fill them outside at the fountain. We don’t need it”
Me: “Fair enough, does the other team bring their own water as well?”
Coach: “I don’t know”
Me: “I’ll check with the AD”
Me to AD: “Hey, should we put out a cooler for the other team?”
AD: “We’ve never done that before…”
Me: “Do we bring water to away games?”
AD: “Yes, of course we bring our own water! I don’t trust some of the other schools we play! Those kids would probably poison our coolers! We probably shouldn’t put water out for them unless they ask. I wouldn’t want them to say that we put something in their water!”
Me: “OK!”
So that’s story #2. Noticing a trend here? Crazy right? What I learned from these conversations:
Take your environment and audience into account and if necessary, ask a few questions before doing things that might seem second nature to you. Some schools districts have very interesting cultures and attitudes and you definitely don’t want to be on the wrong end of accusations. Those are my 2 stories of the day.
Anyone else got any fun stories like this to share? We’d love to hear them!
