Monday, March 9, 2009

10 Things I Think I Think


Any NFL fan has probably seen the monday morning column on the Sports Illustrated website by the great Peter King. In his weekly Monday Morning Quarterback article, he concludes with a section that has this title. So, in an effort to quick hit several points, I present you with the 10 Things I Think I Think:

1) Regional meetings are the life force of District 6 – I had the pleasure of attending the Central Texas Athletic Trainers’ Society symposium this past Saturday at Georgetown High School. I want to thank Joe Gonzalez and the rest of the CTATS board for having me and running a terrific symposium. While the professional meetings were terrific, one of the most exciting things about the meeting was the large number of students who were lined up to attend the meeting. Between CTATS, GHATS, NTATS and all of the other regional organizations, the things that they do for athletic training as well as inspiring students to attend and become excited about our profession makes me proud to be an athletic trainer.

2) HD television is one of the greatest things ever invented!!!! Here in Keller, we are currently working to create a concussion policy to assure that we are taking care of our athletes with head injuries in the proper way – we have begun to utilize the ImPACT program in dealing with head injuries, which used properly can be a tremendous tool in the evaluation and management of these injuries. One of the channels I now have because of HD television is called HD Net which has a terrific show called Dan Rather Reports. This week DRR is focused on concussions in sports – the first half hour is devoted to head injuries in adolescent athletes and their effects and the second half hour is dedicated to former NFL stars that have horrible ailments stemming from head injuries suffered when they played. If you have HD Net, I encourage all athletic trainers to watch this show. If you do not, you can buy it for $1.99 on iTunes. All athletic trainers should watch this show and all coaches should have to watch the first 30 minutes.

3) Registration is on-line for the 60th Annual NATA Meeting and Clinical Symposia. I encourage each one of you to attend and volunteer to help show the hospitality of District 6 to our colleagues from all over the world.

4) Not going to spill the beans, but you are not going to want to miss the Keynote Speaker at this summers SWATA Meeting in Arlington. More info to come…….

5) Soapbox moment – voting is one of the most important things you can do as a SWATA member to help get your voice heard. We have three extremely qualified candidates running for the SWATA Executive Board in this year’s election, which is scheduled to open on April 2nd. Please do some research as you prepare for the election, make informed choices and encourage your colleagues to take the time to vote – it doesn’t take any longer than 2 minutes, I promise you.

6) Kudos goes to the ATSA Advisory Committee and the 53 students who attended the Competency Workshop in Dallas last month. It was a wonderful weekend and the turnout was great.

7) For all the secondary school AT’s out there (not that you’re counting), but less than 60 school days left

8) 28 days until Opening Day – many of you know what I am talking about (sorry, had to throw that one in there)

9) Good at trivia? If you want to try your hand at some athletic training trivia, take a trip over to the Young Professionals blog.

10) Now, to end this blog, I am going to venture off and try to explain the picture above. On March 12, 2008, my brother-in-law was deployed to serve 15 months in Irag with the United States Army. My daughter and I went to Home Depot and bought a flag set to put on the outside of our house with one goal : to fly the flag every day until “Uncle Andrew” came home. Other than a few bad weather days, this flag has flown outside our house so that we can think about him and the other soldiers serving our country. It has taken a lot of windy days and a bit of a beating, but it has flown proudly outside our house for 363 days now. Well, Uncle Andrew is set to come home this week and we are extremely proud of him and what our soldiers do for us each and every day. If you are related to or know some soldiers serving our country, know that our family prays for them every day. What will we do with the flag? Probably take it down and retire it. But I can guarantee you that we will replace it and continue to fly a flag in support of the great men and women of the military. We’re proud of you Andrew and welcome home!!!!

2 comments:

BJ Maack said...

Great post Mr. Traylor.

Joe Gonzalez, ATC, LAT said...

Thanks again David for stopping in at CTATS. We appreciated you coming by and talking with us!