RM welcomes new athletic trainer

by Julia Fine SPORTS WRITER

The importance of having an athletic trainer behind the bench, on the sidelines and around campus is often overlooked. Injuries at sports games are not a rare occurrence in high school, and happen frequently. Athletic trainers put in a lot of work every day behind the scenes as they help keep student-athletes healthy and safe. In the past few years, there have been various different trainers who have helped support MCPS student-athletes at their respective competitions. Recently, RM has been very lucky to have a new athletic trainer on campus that is with our school full-time. In the past few years, there have been various different trainers rotating to help fill the role of athletic trainer, but none were fully assigned to the school. Across the country and specifical ly Montgomery County, the short age of athletic trainers has been an ongoing issue. MCPS has worked with third-party vendors to hire trainers for high schools, and now most schools have trainers. But, according to a study from the American Academy of Pediatrics in 2019, 34 percent of high schools do not have an athletic trainer.

Dahlia Dyson, the new athletic trainer for RM, has already lege. “Originally, when I went to school I thought I was going to do medicine,” Dyson said.

As a college athlete, Dyson struggled with many injuries and turned to her school’s trainers for help. “No one believed that I was really injured,” Dyson said. “Then one trainer came in and finally believed me.” After discovering how important the