Yelm Sports Medicine students set to compete in California in AACI Regional competition

Twelve students in Yelm High School’s sports medicine program will join YHS sports medicine and medical careers instructor, Gary Clinton, on a trip to Pasadena, California, as the program is set to compete in the American Academic Competition Institute (AACI) Regional competition, on Saturday, March 14.

The 12 students set to head south for the competition are Rylan Beaudin, Kinsley Corak, Hayden Hahn, Falen Kelso, Ally Kincaid, Tyeyo Larson, Sofie Miera, Jaliyah Moseley, Bruce Polley, Noah Riutta, Bella Ruiz and Cali Stein.

Clinton, ahead of the trip to California, told the Nisqually Valley News on Wednesday, March 4, that his students have been working hard all year long to prepare for the regional competition out of state.

“The kids, all year long, we’ve been working on curriculum and instruction,” Clinton said. “In the years we go down to California, we have to change the curriculum a little bit so we can cover the things that we’re going to go over earlier in the year. We’ve been doing that. The advanced class is by far the largest number of students I’ve had and they’re incredibly academic and intellectual.”

In the weeks leading up to his program’s departure for California, Clinton said his students have been meeting twice a week in the early morning hours before school starts. He added that 14 additional review sessions have been held for students.

While in California, the YHS advanced sports medicine students will take a written test and a practical exam. All 12 of the students’ scores will be combined and an average will be found to determine the team’s score.

“Two out of the three years we’ve gone, we’ve finished in fifth place,” Clinton said. “My personal goal, and I feel that it’s achievable, is to finish in the top three for our overall team scores.”

Additionally, one of his students will participate in medical abbreviations as a specialty test, and three students will compete in a general academic knowledge quiz bowl. Four of the students traveling will compete as part of the anatomage team, and one of the students, Miera, is up for a unique honor — high school athletic training student of the year.

“I will be competing in the National Athletic Training Student of the Year, which is a pretty big deal,” Miera told the Nisqually Valley News on Wednesday, March 4. “I made it into the top three finalists, and I’ll be presenting in California to what seems like a very big crowd. I’m looking forward to that. I’ll also be doing anatomage with my three other teammates, and our expectation, as we told Mr. Clinton, is that we’d try our absolute best to get first place.”

Miera added that while the preparation for the upcoming trip to California has been in abundance, she expects all of the hard work to pay off upon arrival.

“It’s been a really busy, really dense year. It’s also Mr. Clinton’s last year, and we wanna make it work for him and go out with a bang,” Miera said. “We’ve labeled this year as the ‘Victory Tour,’ courtesy of the Hunger Games. We’ve been prepping really hard all year long, and began our official prep for California in January.”

Polley backed that sentiment and said though a lot of time and work has gone in ahead of the program’s trip, he expects it all to pay off during the competition.

“We’re studying palpation points, special testing, regions, muscles — all sorts of things,” Polley said. “It’s a lot to study all at once, so we’re devoting a lot of time for this one competition — and it’s great that it’s before the state competition.”

Additionally, Polley said he’s grateful and thrilled to have the opportunity to travel back to California and compete in the AACI Regional competition.

“The opportunity is amazing,” Polley said. “I used to go to California all the time to visit family, but I haven’t been since before COVID. Going separate from my family is going to be an entirely different experience.”

Corak said the 12 students set to travel to California are leaving Washington with the expectation of placing higher than the program has historically. Clinton said the program has finished in fifth place overall the last several times the Tornados have competed in this specific competition.

“We’re trying to place a little bit higher than we did last time, since we’re on our victory tour,” Corak said. “The preparation has been good. We meet twice a week as a class from 6:30 until school starts. There’s definitely a commitment level because we have to wake up early and keep each other in check. A lot of the time we’ll stay after school too just to make sure we’re prepared.”

She added that the 12 students have shared goals and expectations of working together as a team — and claimed they all hold each other accountable and to a high standard of work.

“Our goals and expectations are to do good as a team and work together because we have a lot of standards for each other,” Corak said. “It means a lot to be able to do this trip. It definitely is an accomplishment to be one of the 12 students that are able to go. It definitely means a lot to me.”

Kelsoh told the Nisqually Valley News that she’s aiming to make the most of this trip, as she anticipates a future career within the medical field.

“We’re going to have a lot of fun down there,” she said. “For the competition aspect, we’ll go over anatomy, physiology, injury prevention — it’s a lot of testing and learning all these different things that will help you in a career in the medical field.”

Like her previous classmates have stated, Kelso believes that all of the extra work — the early mornings and long hours — have already paid off in terms of each student’s individual knowledge.

“I feel like the extra work has paid off. I feel more prepared for my career and what I want to do in life. I definitely have a passion for this, so it helps,” Kelso said. “I hope to get closer to my classmates during this trip, build good connections and talk to more professionals to get insight about certain careers and how this class can help me prepare for that.”

In a time where Yelm Community Schools faces uncertainty with budget cuts and restraints, Clinton said he’s extremely grateful that his students will have the opportunity to travel down south and compete in the AACI Regional competition.

“There were some concerns on whether we would or wouldn’t be able to do this trip,” Clinton said. “For us, it’s one of those cultural expectations and I feel really fortunate that we were able to find support to do this. The students worked really hard to fundraise and cover a majority of their costs to go down to California. This year is probably my brightest group of students that I’ve ever had. I’m really excited for this year. "