Each year, the Temple Independent School District recognizes the exceptional staff and students whose hard work and commitment help keep the district’s student athletes in competition.
Temple has a long history of athletic trainers and was among the first school districts in the state to employ athletic trainers when they hired Ron Scott in 1972. Today, the district employs 4 athletic trainers — Windee Skrabanek, Steve Prentiss, Kelly Palmer and Mike Lefner — who have between them a total of 82 years of athletic training experience.
The staff also teaches about 20 student trainers how to care for more than 1,300 middle and high school student athletes each year. Being a student athletic trainer requires a big commitment, but, according to Skrabanek, the efforts put in as a student athletic trainer has benefits that could impact their futures outside of sports.
“We really teach them three big things,” Skrabanek said. “Be accountable, dependable and responsible.”
Some of Skrabanek’s students over the past 16 years have followed in her athletic training footsteps and work for local school districts or health systems. Many more have entered the medical field – taking advantage of the certified nursing assistant or emergency medical technician pathways offered through Temple High School’s career and technical education programs. All sports medicine students come away with soft skills and work ethic.
Student athletic trainers attend games and practices just like members of each team, and they are each responsible for covering two sports — one each semester. They work about 15-20 hours a week to help athletes rehabilitate injuries, stay hydrated in practice and competition, maintain equipment and travel with teams.
“Our athletic trainers — both the staff and students — work with 18 programs,” said Athletic Director Scott Stewart. “They effectively touch more athletes in our district than any coach and they do it better here than anywhere I’ve been.”
The work that the athletic training program undertakes is something that Stewart says is crucial to the success of the athletic programs in the district. The lug nuts, as Stewart affectionately calls the athletic training team, keep programs in competition.
“I’ll tell you what, when you leave here, I want you to go and take all the lug nuts off your car and see how far you get,” Stewart said. “Lug nuts are an overlooked, underappreciated component of your vehicle, but you can’t function without them.”