In the words of Allen Iverson "We're talking about practice"

“We are only having try-outs, we don’t need an Athletic Trainer to be here”. Dan Cochran would most likely strongly disagree with that statement. On June 15, 2011, during a try-out for a high school lacrosse team, the high school sophomore was struck in the chest with a lacrosse ball and his heart stopped beating! There was an NATA Certified Athletic Trainer present, Cyndi Kelder. There was an AED on site. There also appears to have been a risk management program that resulted in a response that saved this young man’s life.

Negligence is conduct that falls below the legally established standard for the protection of others against unreasonable risk of harm. In order to present a claim for damages under a theory of negligence, the plaintiff must prove that the responsible party failed to meet a reasonable standard of care as it relates to the plaintiff. Typically this standard of care has meant the customary or usual practice.

This event, and the response to it, is further proof that having trained personnel on site, a certified athletic trainer, for ALL athletic events, games, JV games, practice, work-outs, try-outs, etc. should be the “standard of care”. In fact, I would go further and suggest that the failure of an organization or scholastic institution to have a certified athletic trainer would fall below the “accepted standard of care”. I doubt that anyone present that day would disagree that the presence of a qualified certified athletic trainer and the implementation of the risk management program resulted in saving an athlete’s life.