PEA RIDGE — There’s a new face on the sidelines at Blackhawk games.
Jamie Mann can be seen on the sidelines of football, basketball and soon, baseball and softball games.
But, she’s not a coach or player.
She’s there to both prevent and treat injuries.
Mann, a certified athletic trainer with Northwest Medical Center, Bentonville, attended all the home football games and as many home basketball games as possible.
“I take care of all the athletes’ injuries; I treat them,” Mann said. “I attend high school football games, home and away andas many of the junior high games as possible.”
During the football season, there were a few concussions and dislocated shoulders, as well as some sprains, but no serious injuries, she said.
Mann attends practices and supervises some workouts.
“We work on core strengthening for prevention of injuries,” Mann said, explaining that when athletes are in good condition, they’re less likely to be injured.
A certified athletic trainer with nine years of experience working with high school athletes, Mann began working for SMART Sports after working for five years as the head athletic trainer at the Bolles School in Jacksonville, Fla., where she worked with all varsity and junior varsity sports, including football, baseball, softball, tennis, swimming, lacrosse and wrestling.
“We are working with several schools to provide athletic trainers for their schools,” Mann said.
“Medicine is changing as we learn more about the body,” Mann said, adding that most coaches now are accustomed to working with athletic trainers.
“In the ’60s, we pushed them to play even when injured, we don’t do that now because we know what damage it does,” she said.
Mann earned her bachelor’s of science in exercise science with a minor in athletic training from Florida State University and is now six months away from completing her master’s degree in human movement from AT Still University on-line. Mann graduated from high school in Virginia Beach, Va.
Mann also works in rural medicine in Huntsville, where she works once a week evaluating patients with orthopedic injuries.
Her husband is the assistant women’s swim coach at the University of Arkansas.
Mann is an active member of the National Athletic Trainer's Association and is licensed in both Arkansas and Florida.
Area, Pages 10 on 01/13/2010