The
neutral
corner
By Keith Flynn
Kaleidoscope Sports Editor
If someone had wandered into
Justice Center last fall and asked for
directions to the training room, they
would have been greatly disap
pointed. The “training room” con
sisted of a tiny whirlpool bath and
an ice machine dangerously wired in
a janitor’s closet. There was no
trainer. Coaches taped their own
athletes physical weaknesses. The
coaches were the first to get to their
athletes who were injured on the
court or the field. “That,” says
Linda Murray, UNCA’s new athletic
trainer, “is ridiculous.”
The turnabout came in March
when Linda Murray began assembl
ing UNCA’s current training room.
Murray, a graduate of UNC-Chapel
Hill and Mars Hill College sports
medicine programs, cringes when
she thinks of the condition of
athletic training procedures last
year. The events that brought Mur
ray to UNCA are very telling in
terms of the training program that
existed until February of 1982 at
UNCA.
Mars Hill College and UNCA were
playing a women’s basketball game
in Justice Gym when. Brenda
Caldwell, a sophomore hooper for
the Lady Lions, crashed to the floor
on her back. Linda Murray, student
assistant trainer for Mars Hill Col
lege, immediately went to the aid of
the player.
Caldwell was in pain and ex
periencing numbness in her legs and
feet. Trainer Murray asked UNCA
Thursday Oct. 21, 1982 / Kaleidoscope / 5
Old dogs can learn new tricks
officials present at the time for a
backboard to place the player on to
keep her immobile as possible as she
was transferred to the training
room. “We don’t have one,” she was
told. She then asked for a stretcher.
The reply was again negative. Play
was stopped for eight full minutes
as Murray racked her brain for a
solution to the problem.
Finally, at the urging of the game
officials and fearing the worst, Mur
ray allowed Caldwell to be lifted and
carried manually to the bleachers.
An ambulance was then summoned.
“It was the scariest moment of my
training career,” says Murray.
As it turned out, Caldwell had on
ly strained back muscles and is
again playing basketball this
season. It could have been much
worse.
A few days later athletic director
Ed Harris called Mars Hill inquiring
about the expense and availability
of an athletic trainer. Linda Murray
was recommended by Director of
Sports Medicine, Dr. John Wells.
Two weeks later Murray and UNCA
came to terms. She came here in
March of 1982.
Murray began assembling a
suitable training room and looked to
establish an adequate budget. “The
first year is the hardest,” says Mur
ray, “besides building the training
room I have to educate the coaches
and players alike to make them
aware how this room may help
them.”
The UNCA athletic training
Athletes like UNCA’s Pat Jolley can pew be treated efficiently by new
training facilities
Staff pho to by David Pickett
"A Complete Meal on a Bun"
budget is set up to get one large
modulation piece of equipment per
year. These cost thousands of
dollars. The first such piece to grace
the new training room will be an
ultra-sound machine. This machine
radiates heat into a particular body
segment and has a greater concen
tration to speed up the healing pro
cess.
The most common athletic in
juries occur at the ankle and knee
areas. These take time to heal. A
twisted ankle, for instance, depend
ing upon the severity must first
undergo cryotherapy (application of
ice packs) for up to 72 hours before
heat can be applied to the injury.
Heat applied too soon can have a
reverse reation and cause the swell
ing to re-occur. Ice has no such ef
fect.
Murray is intent on decorating the
training room. She plans to put up
curtains and posters as well as infor
mative muscle charts. She feels that
the athletes should know what
muscles are being treated. With the
muscle ^charts and instruction
posters she has simply to point to
the injured area on the chart. Thus,
the athletes are made aware of their
bodies as well as the injury. “The at
mosphere is extremely important,
says Murray, “it is a belief that com
fortable surroundings aid the heal
ing injury.”
According to Murray, there are
three distinct segments of athletic
training. The first is composed
primarily of emergency care on the
field when the injury occurs. The
second consists of therapy and
hopefully a quick recovery to get the
athlete playing again. The last third
of the procedure is pre-practice tap
ing and educating the athlete about
the consequences of his or her in
jury.
The most common lingering ill
ness that develops regularly in knee
injuries is tendonitis. Tendonitis
sets up when an injury does not heal
properly and inflamed tendons flare
up at every twitch of physical activi
ty. It is often a foundation for the
development of athritis in later
years.
UNCA is the last state university
to hire a full-time athletic trainer
and to construct a training room for
its athletic programs. The room,
large and spacious with all the basic
training accommodations, has been
thoughtfully constructed with com
fort in mind. Although it lacks some
modern machinery that will enhance
its efficiency, the room on the whole
will be fully equipped as well as any
in the state. These items are expen
sive and take time, but the athletic
department is taking the steps to
purchase them.
The first major step was
acknowledging the existing problem
and hiring Linda Murray. All
athletes can attest to greater securi
ty and better performance with con
fidence in the “doc” — the trainer
who knows their importance to their
programs and honestly cares about
their health first.
Open 7 Days
252-9072
372 Merrimon Ave.
Asheville, NC 28803
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