Number of Athletic Trainers Likely To Rise, Predicts Youth Sports Safety Expert Kevin Guskiewicz

Leading youth sports safety expert, Kevin Guskiewicz, PhD, ATC, explains how a certified athletic trainer (AT) is the "quarterback" of a school's sports medicine team, and how it is important for parents and athletic booster clubs to not only advocate in favor of hiring an AT if the school does not have one, but, in these tough economic times, even raise funds to defray the cost of adding an AT to the school's athletic staff.  Guskiewewicz predicts that the percentage of U.S. high schools that have an athletic trainer will increase above 50% in the coming years, in part as a by-product of the passage of concussion safety laws in a growing number of states.  [Editor's note, March 5, 2014:  Kevin's prediction, made in December 2011, appears to be coming true. The NATA now believes that the number of US high schools with access to ATs has risen to about 60%]