Imagine facing a setback that is entirely out of your control: you kick the ball too hard or step on the wrong side of your foot. Within seconds, you could cost yourself a season or weeks of physical therapy and rehabilitation. Injuries are the most frustrating and common setback for student-athletes, and the worst thing about them is that time is the only cure.

The high school is fortunate enough to have their own athletic trainer, Alex Jzyk. The job is far from easy. Jzyk treats dozens of athletes every day, by himself. But with the help of a second trainer, athletes could receive more quality time, which could lead to a faster recovery period.

Jzyk has been working alone for the past four years. He finds it hard to satisfy everyone’s needs.

“The biggest issue is that whenever I leave this office, it gets closed. If someone gets hurt at a practice, but I’m out at a game, there is no one here to help that athlete,” Jzyk said.

Considering the fact that there is only one trainer, and at least 40 students daily that need his attention right after school, the job can be overwhelming.

Freshman Leigh Mitchell has a shoulder injury from swimming. Mitchell said she usually does not have much time to receive treatment, and she has to wait until Jyzk is free. She visits him frequently and sometimes finds it hard to focus.

“It is always crowded. It can sometimes be super loud, which can make it hard to focus on stretching and heating my shoulders. But it honestly just depends on who is down there and what day of the week it is,” Mitchell said.

Jzyk deals with a variety of injuries depending on the season.

“For cross country, I deal with a lot of stress injuries. It starts with kids coming in a little out of shape and then they go and run on the pavement with bad shoes. With the swim team, I deal with a lot of shoulder instability because the girls don’t have strong shoulder muscles. Since they are using their shoulders so much, they have movement issues in the joint,” Jzyk said.

Jzyk treats a lot of football injuries, but he believes that the concussion rate has gone down drastically since last year.  

Jzyk said that the quality of treatment would increase if they had a second trainer.

“If we had two people down here, that would be double the ‘hands on’ time with that athlete,” Jzyk said. “On any given day, I have 30 to 40 kids down here. The time doesn’t change; I’m still seeing the same amount of kids in that time. So if we had another person down here, we would be able to do a much better job at treating the athletes.”

Junior Iris Yang runs for the cross country team, and she is bothered by a knee injury. She visits Jzyk occasionally.

“I think that Alex is able to manage it on his own, right now. However, if he had a second trainer it would facilitate the process and allow him to have more one-on-one time with the student,” Yang said.

The most popular time to see Jzyk is directly after school, but athletes have found other times to get his attention.

“Right after school is really busy. There are always a million people in there. They are either stretching, icing, heating, etc. If you go after practice, and he is still there, then it is fine,” Yang said.

Unfortunately, Jzyk is not always available after practices are over. He could be at a game or a different practice at almost any given time.

“I think that we would greatly benefit by having a second person here,” Jzyk said.  “If I have to go out and cover a game, having someone here to do the rehab with the kids, one-on-one, would be helpful for everyone. It is impossible for me to be in two places at one time.”