Graphic by Kinsey Ratzman ’21
BY MERYL PHAIR ’21
When Anna Stone ’20 Club Sports Council president at Mount Holyoke, met with Lori Hendricks, head of the College Athletic Department, for their monthly meeting on Sept. 11, she was notified that club sports athletes would no longer receive medical care from the athletic trainers or be granted access to the athletic training room.
The change went into effect immediately, impacting Mount Holyoke’s seven club sports: dressage, fencing, ice hockey, rugby, ultimate frisbee and western riding, all of which had previously utilized the athletic trainers for injury taping, medical evaluations and physical therapy services.
Club sport athletes raised concerns about the implications of the policy change last semester by submitting a letter to the Director of Health Services Karen Engell, Director of the Athletic Department Lori Hendricks, Head Athletic Trainer Ellen Parella and Assistant Dean of Students and Director of Student Involvement Alicia Erwin. The letter sent on Sept. 19, specifically highlighted the health and safety implications of the change and concerns club sport athletes regarding medical treatment going forward.
“The reason that we sent the letter so quickly is because we want to be proactive,” Stone said. “It’s a matter of health and safely and we want to make sure if there are any issues, we deal with them now and not after someone gets injured.”
Hendricks convened a meeting on Oct. 11 with representatives from Risk Management, the Health Center, Student Involvement and Athletic Training to address the concerns raised in the letter and to provide clarity on what steps were to be taken going forward.
“We haven’t been seeing club sport athletes for that long, it’s only been over the past four or five years,” Parella said in an interview. Club sport athletes used to only utilize the Health Center, like other students on campus. The athletic trainers would see them only on a limited basis when they would stop by to get specific advice on injuries. Parella explained that treatment is hard to complete without the full context, so over the past few years the relationship between athletic trainers and club sport athletes morphed into more of the full picture, with club sport athletes’ evaluations, referrals and rehabilitation being handled by the athletic trainers.
From data provided by the athletic trainers, over the course of the 2017-18 academic year, the trainers saw club sport athletes schedule 121 appointments and varsity athletes schedule 5,000. From 2018 to 2019, appointments increased with 350 visits to the trainers by club sport athletes and 10,000 by varsity athletes.
“The usage of the athletic training room by varsity athletes has exponentially increased over the years,” Parella said. “When we add club sport athletes, we’re doubling the population, going from about 300 students to almost 600.”
Besides use beyond injury management like rehabilitation or performance enhancement, the increase in athletes’ use of the athletic trainers is also largely a result of the increasing number of concussions. Parella said the number of club sport athletes coming in for concussions has been particularly concerning. A huge amount of the trainers’ time in recent years has been taken up in performing post-concussion tests and attempting to keep track of athletes themselves.
“With varsity athletes, we have much more control over them,” said Parella. “A club sport athlete would come in for their return to play day one and we’d see them a month later for day two.”
Parella said that with club sport athletes, there was no line of communication with coaches, meaning that there was no way for trainers to know if playing restrictions or treatment plans were actually being followed. Such incomplete treatment leaves the athletic trainers medically liable, which Parella said, “just isn’t smart.”
In the past few years, the level of care provided for club sport athletes never matched the level of care provided for varsity athletes, and Parella said that having that gap is a legal risk.
Parella added that a portion of the injuries they were seeing were not always athletically related, which the trainers aren’t supposed to treat.
While the athletic trainers were treating club sport athletes, the Health Center was medically clearing all those students and retained their medical records. “It was like piecemeal,” Parella said. “They were doing the medical clearance and we were looking at the injuries. We would say they couldn’t play but the Health Center was communicating with the coaches. It wasn’t clean.”
The system of the athletic trainers completing treatment while the Health Center managed club sport athletes’ medical records opened up space for a lot of questions. “There wasn’t a consistency of care,” Hendricks said. “Now the whole process is being streamlined because you don’t have this disjointed information that is housed all over the place.”
This piecemeal communication also complicated how club sports athletes accessed information on where they were to receive treatment and the next steps going forward. Lexi Lobdell ’20, captain of the Dressage team, said that although dressage doesn’t use the trainers to the same degree as contact sports like ice hockey and rugby, the change presented challenges. One of her teammates was doing push ups during a lift in Kendall and had a muscle spasm. “I didn’t know where to send her,” Lobdell said. She wasn’t able to send the teammate directly to the trainers for feedback, but didn’t know who she should see at the Health Center. Lobdell said that the majority of information they have received about the situation had come “through the grapevine.”
Hendricks also added that the change was consistent with peer New England Women’s and Men’s Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) institutions, of which Mount Holyoke College is a member. The majority of NEWMAC schools across the country have club sports athletes treated by their health centers while the varsity athletes are seen by athletic training. Some club sports at schools like Amherst College hire their own trainers, if they have the resources. Hendricks said that she has talked specifically with the club sport athletes about the cost to hire a trainer who would come to campus and be available for a set number of hours. They are looking at resources available through Student Government Association funding and other fundraising efforts.
Dance majors who had been using athletic trainers were also included in the change. Parella said that it was a similar gray area because whether they were Dance majors or just taking a dance class, there were no medical files or documentation to handle ongoing care and trainers were never in communication with the Dance department or any resident or visiting choreographers.
Engell explained that when she came to the College there wasn’t an established medical clearance process for club sport athletes, a program she has since implemented and which is now a key point in the Health Center’s connection with club sports. She explained that the College Health Services provides the same services to club sport athletes as to all Mount Holyoke students.
“The difference is one of our primary connections with club sport athletes as a subgroup of the student population in the clearance process,” Engell said. Club sports follow a similar clearance process as varsity athletes, but requires different forms.
Engell added that Health Service works closely with the athletic trainers to treat and support student athletes.
“We’re working on understanding what the need is, what club sports athletes are looking for and Dance majors as well,” Engell said.
Engell said that she has received a lot of questions about equipment especially for rehabilitation purposes, because the Health Center doesn’t have the same space or physical resources the trainers have. Engell said she is open to those discussions about how to improve this area for both club sport athletes and all students on campus.
Athletic trainers provide preventative and rehabilitative care, so there is an added concern among club sports athletes that injuries will increase without athletic trainers. Without the athletic trainers there is also a potential extra financial burden added onto club sports athletes, who will need to pay additional medical bills and co-pays as they seek sports-specific medical care and physical therapy outside of the College.
“Nobody knew about the issue until we were back on campus so that didn’t give us any time to figure out who was going to pay for treatment at the health center,” Lobdell said. “Is it going to be covered by the team, by individuals, by the school?”
Club sports and varsity athletes are both covered under a sports injury insurance plan. There is a backup secondary plan available which can limit students’ own personal expenses for significant injuries. Physical therapy is a service that the Health Center does charge a fee for. However, there is a prepaid Health Center option which costs $110 per semester for unlimited access to physical therapy. Health insurance plans have to be decided on in the beginning of the academic year but the prepaid option can be chosen after an injury. Engell said that often, the prepaid option is cheaper because by two or three visits, it’s already paying for itself.
On Oct. 22, Hendricks attended the Club Sports Council meeting to report out her follow-up to the Club Sports Council letter and to hear any additional info. Engell met with Stone on Tuesday, Nov. 19 to discuss what the Health Center could address while working with the Club Sports Council going forward.
According to Engell, they discussed the possibility of holding workshops for students to learn how to address rehabilitation techniques on their own. Engell said that she can see how some positives could arise from the situation with the Health Center being able to work more closely with the student body and more directly address concerns they may have.
“I don’t want people to have misconceptions about the issue,” Stone said. Her priority is seeing what club sports can do and to self-advocate as much as possible. “At the end of the day, we just want to have a good time and stay safe,” Stone said.