Working to keep athletes healthy

GOLDEN TRIANGLE, Miss. (WCBI)- Only 2 weeks into the 2018 football season, tragedy hits the High School football ranks as Dennis Mitchell, 16, a Defensive Tackle for the Byhalia Indians, collapses and dies Friday night.

No cause of death has been determined, but heat and pre-existing medical conditions have been ruled out. And all high school athletes are required to have physicals before making the team to detect potential problems, but do they go far enough?

“Height, weight, heart, lungs, but in addition, we add to it more of an in-depth muscular and skeletal exam. Making sure that they have good strength, good mobility, with some of our bigger athletes, blood pressure,” said Doctor Keith Watson.

The biggest challenge high school athletes face is extreme heat and humidity.

They have to start preparing their bodies days before the games happen.

“It’s hot everywhere in the south. It’s especially important getting in and out of the heat as quickly as possible,” said Watson.

“It’s what you put in your body the day before. You’ve got to make sure that you are eating the right things, you know, stay off sugar. You’ve got to replenish before the game, and you got to maintain during the game. That’s drinking water, Gatorade, Pedialyte, pickle juice, anything that can help kids mentality,” said West Point High School Head Coach Chris Chambless.

Many High schools rely on athletic trainers to handle injuries and make sure athletes are healthy.

For others, these responsibilities fall solely on the coaching staff.

“Unfortunately right now first time in 23 years since I’ve been coaching we don’t have an athletic trainer, so it’s been a little bit tough for us coaches to have to tend injuries,” said Chambless.

Doctor Watson says that if a player looks to be in bad shape start taking steps to help them immediately.

“If you have a player that is starting to get hot or starting to appear either disoriented or dehydrated get them out of the heat, get their pads off them, get their helmet off of them, get everything off of them, get those layers of clothing off, and have them sit down,” said Watson.

Watson says that when looking at an athletes medical history, they look at everything from previous sports injuries to past car wrecks.