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 Assistant Athletic Trainer Jennifer Mroz was just what the "doctor" ordered for this year's women's basketball team as they made their way to the SoCon championship game. |
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March 17, 2004
Cullowhee, N.C. - March is National Athletic Training Month and this year's theme of "Injury Treatment: Early Care Speeds Recovery" could not have been more appropriate for the women's basketball team's trip to the Southern Conference tournament earlier this month. WCU Assistant Athletic Trainer Jennifer Mroz give us insight into how she handled the ails of the basketball team, which led to special recognition from the team's coaches and players.
Usually by the end of the season, athletes are beginning to feel the effects of participation in game after game, practice after practice. Nagging injuries linger. Muscles they didn't know they had begin to hurt. The SoCon tournament didn't allow for much rest and recuperation. Winning one game meant that you had to play another game the very next day. Those little aches and pains needed to be cared for immediately if the players were going to be ready for the next game.
One way to avoid those sore muscles the next day was to have the players soak their legs in the outdoor pool at the hotel, which at night got just cold enough to be therapeutic. They also rehydrated after the game and the next morning.
Minor aches and pains are common, but it's the more serious injuries that can really throw a curve come tournament time. And there were a few moderate injuries after our game against Davidson in the quarterfinals.
Junior forward Jennifer Gardner displaced her pubic symphysis (the joint where the pelvic bones come together) late in the game after landing hard on her lower back on the hardwood floor.
"Dealing with significant pain and difficulty walking, Jen wasn't sure she was going to be able to play the next day," Mroz said. "However, when we returned to the hotel, we started treatment right away and continued the next morning, using ice, electrical stimulation and a type of exercise called muscle energy. By game time the next day, she was still a little sore, but able to play without limitations or further incident."
Junior guard Ki-Ki Glass also sustained an injury in the Davidson game. She took a charge, drawing the offensive foul, but as a result, landed on her back.
"Stating that she felt like she had been in a "car wreck", we began treatment on her middle back spasms and lower neck spasms," Mroz explained. "Again, ice and electrical stimulation, in addition to stretching, were used immediately and helped get her back in game-ready shape."
After extensive treatment and exercise, the squad responded with possibly their most outstanding performance of the tournament. Without ever giving up the lead, the sixth-seeded Catamounts stunned second-seeded Furman 75-66 in the semifinals to advance to the SoCon championship game for the first time in school history. And to top that off, Gardner gave her best performance perhaps of the season. She led the team with a career-high 15 rebounds, adding 20 points to top the Catamounts (along with teammate Tiffany Hamm).
The WCU coaches and players realized after the game that they could not let Mroz's efforts go unnoticed in the victory, so they brought the team athletic trainer into the locker room afterward and named her the game's MVP.
What's the moral of the story? As Mroz says, "If you find yourself in pain, don't wait too long in getting care, thinking that the pain will go away on its own. The key for Western Carolina University's women's basketball team in the SoCon tournament was being able to get that early care and treatment for their injuries."
Certified Athletic Trainers (ATCs) are medical experts in preventing, assessing, managing and rehabilitating injuries that occur to athletes and the physically active. To learn more about Athletic Training, please visit www.nata.org.
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