Yelm High School’s sports medicine program returned home from its trip to the 23rd annual California Regional High School Sports Medicine Competition on Sunday, March 17, full of pride, memories and a sense of accomplishment.
At the competition in Northridge, California, the Yelm Sports Medicine program took fifth place as a team in the small-schools division, while the anatomage team, which competed to answer anatomy-related questions, placed fourth as a unit. YHS student Rio Slevin was named Athletic Training Student of the Year and placed third overall in the advanced sports medicine division. All participating Tornados attending the regional event competed in a medical specialty test and a mini-quiz knowledge bowl.
“Some of the students worked incredibly hard to excel with the anatomage. They put in a lot of time, effort and energy,” Gary Clinton, Yelm’s sports medicine instructor, said. “Those students put in exceptional amounts of energy, which includes working in practicum with Brittany (Babkirk), our athletic trainer, after school. The kids that really spent a lot of time in there and really did quality learning experiences really excelled in the oral practical parts and some of the written tests. In a lot of life, it comes down to how much you prepare. Those that prepare more, oftentimes, achieve higher goals.”
The 12 Tornados who made the trip to Southern California were Slevin, Sydney Chamberlain, Kyara Fitzpatrick, Kyla Hall, Janessa Holbrook, Sophie Hurschler, Trissani Madigan, Destiny Mathews, Sophia Minnick, Lucy Mohrweis, Kijika Rosen and Maddy Sapegin. Throughout the school year, members of the program learn about the human body and its relationship with sports. They also help at sporting events with taping ankles, bringing water to the athletes and observing their teachers and advisers work with YHS athletes.
“It was a great experience. The students wouldn’t have went if I couldn’t have trusted them to be great students that make decisions and be able to fit into a group environment — spending four and a half days with a group of students. There has to be good dynamics that creates a positive experience. It was great in a wide variety of aspects,” Clinton said. “The students were incredibly thankful for the support they had to be able to go, along with their ability to prepare. They may not have fully understood what was expected of them, but by the time the competition came, they were grateful for the efforts they had put into performing well. They were very proud of themselves as a program of how they did.”
Slevin said the students who attended the competition were incredibly thankful for the opportunity to attend the trip to Southern California.
“It was great to be able to experience this with the team because we’ve all become friends, and so, throughout the trip, other than the competition, it felt like a vacation with friends,” Slevin said, “especially considering the fact we got so many amazing experiences for $100. I know we were all amazed by that. It was a once in a lifetime opportunity.”
Slevin added that the team visited Universal Studios for a day, and she recounted studying anatomy cards with several other students in line, waiting for a ride.
Clinton and Slevin each said the excursion to the University of California, Los Angeles, was one of the trip’s highlights. YHS graduate and former defensive standout on the Yelm football team Isaiah Patterson connected the sports medicine team with a tour of some of the facilities on campus.
“The UCLA tour was really fun. We met up with Isaiah Patterson, and it was cool to be able to see the university through the eyes of not only a student, but an athlete. Getting to see the locker rooms and training rooms there, it was amazing,” Slevin said. “It was also amazing being able to see, “wow, this is what Yelm gets you.” This is a Yelm grad, someone that’s came through Yelm High School in general and the sports medicine program, and they’re doing so successfully and so amazing.”
Clinton said he loved the tour with Patterson, who enrolled at UCLA in January after graduating early at YHS. He’ll compete on the Bruins football team this fall in its inaugural season in the Big Ten conference.
The longtime sports medicine instructor said the team saw UCLA’s training room, the team’s locker room and Patterson’s locker, specifically.
“We were able to see UCLA from an athlete’s side. UCLA is in the middle of a city, yet it’s a beautiful campus with a lot of beautiful buildings and facilities. I really enjoyed learning about the cultures and traditions,” Clinton said. “It was awesome to see how Isaiah had grown as a person and as an athlete. We see them as students in Yelm, athletes in Yelm and they’re able to be a standout person. But when you see them in that cultural expectation of excellence, not only as an athlete but as a student, it was awesome.”
Up next, Yelm’s sports medicine program will compete in the state competition at the Tacoma Convention Center in April, Clinton said.
“In that competition, we’ll do really well because the students are able to prepare for a variety of events. Rather than being told, ‘You’re all going to do the same tests and activities,’ they’ll be doing different specialties that they’re able to prepare more specifically for,” Clinton added.
A trip to the National Competition in Las Vegas this June is a possibility for the anatomage team, he said.
“If the team gets broken up into those that want to go and those who don’t want to go, we’ll see what decision they make,” Clinton said. “They saw the team that was named national champions last year at that competition in California last year, and they saw what it took to be at that level and at that expertise.”
