October 28, 2022
By JAMES EVANS
Rutherford County Schools
Brad Rohling always wanted to be part of athletics.
He grew up in Lawrence County before attending Middle Tennessee State University, where he majored in athletic training.
A former mentor of his invited Rohling to come to Auburn University where he completed his master’s degree and worked as a graduate assistant. Upon graduation, he was offered a full-time athletic trainer job and stayed for two years before returning to Rutherford County.
Rohling’s been an athletic trainer serving the school system since 2004 and now oversees approximately 20 athletic trainers. As part of their duties, athletic trainers provide preventive and emergency care, including concussions, cardiac arrest, spine injuries, broken bones, sprains, heat strokes and asthma attacks.
In this Q&A interview, Rohling explains the role of athletic trainers and how they provide care for students in the short- and long-term.
QUESTION: Give a concise definition of what an athletic trainer is and what they do.
ANSWER: Prevention and care of athletic injuries is the definition. Starting this year, everybody coming out has to have a master’s degree in order to be eligible to sit for the exam. We take a national exam, pass it and we're also nationally certified and state licensed as athletic trainers.
Q: What are some examples of the services you provide?
A: I mean, it's preventative care. It's rehab of the long-term injuries or the short-term injuries. The kid you see that gets hurt on Friday night with the little ankle sprain. We're with them all next week to try to get him back and ready to play. The kid that tears an ACL and he’s out six months. We're with them every day, gradually taking them through progressive rehab to get them back to where they were. It's also a lot of injury prevention. You know, “My shoulder’s bothering me, my neck hurts, my leg hurts.” Those are some of the little things we deal with on a day-to-day basis.
Q: You all cover all the high schools and you are expanding into middle schools this year through sponsorship arrangement. What can you tell me about this sponsorship?
A: That started this year with our new sponsorship and we now are hiring people to cover the middle schools. We were able to expand our staff and expand our coverage to the middle schools. It is an agreement with TOA, Saint Thomas Rutherford and Results Physiotherapy. They came on and they're the official sports-medicine providers of Rutherford County Schools. They have their doctors on our sidelines, they take care of our kids, and they wanted to be involved with and work with us. … Those three entities are now our official providers and so they provide us sponsorship dollars, and we allocated those dollars to hire athletic trainers.
Q: What got you into this profession?
A: I’ve always been around sports. I always liked sports. I always watched sports. I wasn’t athletically talented enough to play sports but I knew I wanted to do something with sports. When I was in high school, I went and shadowed a physical therapist. I kind of said, “I like what you do, but I don't want to be in these four walls. Like I want to be more aggressive, I want to work with athletes, you know, I want to work with football.” And he said, “Well, have you ever heard of athletic training? You may look at that.” I was very lucky in that when I first went to school, that's what I started doing, and I never changed my mind. How many people changed their majors in school? I never did.
Q: What’s the most rewarding part of your day?
A: When I was practicing every day, that kid that you're there when they blow out their knee, and you're the one that's got to tell them, “This is what has happened.” They can't walk, they’re on crutches. You work with them every day for six to eight months and get them back to playing at a high level, and then that kid goes and scores a touchdown.
Q: Are athletic trainers a necessity or a luxury?
A: I definitely think it's a necessity because who is taking care of your kids? You know, our coaches are trained in a little bit of first aid. But when it’s third-and-one, we don’t say, “Hey, I’ve watched some football, let me call the play.” And when a kid goes down, the coach is just going to say, “Hey, you got this, you’re the specialist.” That's why we're there. That's our specialty. That's our education. That's our background. We're there for the kids to take care of those kids when an injury occurs. I mean, we play these teams that don't have athletic trainers and you just see the coaches and they’re like, “I wish I had one of you guys.”