Physicians and athletic trainers from Northside Hospital Orthopedic Institute were on the sidelines at Mercedes-Benz Stadium this week as teams competed for state football championships.
Mike Cain, ATC, manager of Source Sports Medicine, was among them. He has worked with the football team at Milton High School, which won the Class 5A state championship.
Cain spoke to Peachtree Sports Network during Milton’s semifinal game against Lee County on Dec. 6 about his work, and the work of his colleagues at Source. Together, they serve nearly 40 schools in the Atlanta area, and that number is expected to surpass 50 next year.
“We are really looking forward to it and we are really growing,” Cain said.
He noted Milton trainers have had about 1,600 “patient encounters” with student-athletes in all sports since June.
“They’re seeing a lot of athletes,” Cain said. “We’re very proud of our athletic trainers over here. They do a great job working with these kids, not only with the 1,600 patient encounters, but they’ve done about 1,000 sports-specific rehabilitation plans for these kids, so they’re keeping them in the school, doing their rehabs here.
“Really, they’re doing a great job of keeping these kids on the field.”
Cain said one of the biggest misconceptions about sports injuries is about concussions, and that people often think a trip to the Emergency Department needs to be the automatic first step.
“That’s not necessary at all times,” Cain said. “What our folks do is, we’ve got a great Concussion Institute with Northside Hospital.
“We’ve got two incredible neuropsychs (neuropsychologists) with Dr. (Daniel) Charek and another one in Abby Feder (Ph.D.) over in Duluth that do a great job getting those kids in and getting them back on the field safely,” Cain said.
“There’s a lot of different ways here at Milton and all of our schools. They do a return-to-play protocol that gets these kids back safely and enjoying the sport that they love.”
Cain emphasized to parents that the Source athletic trainers — part of the Northside network — are “qualified, highly trained health care professionals.”
“They are not individuals that just go and take a certification class somewhere,” he said. “They spend hours — years — at schools taking classes. The folks that we have on the field: Trust them. They know what they’re doing. They have your kid’s best interests at heart.”
In addition to Milton, Source served state football champions in Grayson (Class 6A) and Hebron Christian (Private A-3A), plus Pope in flag football (Division 3) and North Gwinnett in game day cheerleading (Class 6A).
Runner-ups during the fall included Lambert (flag football), Collins Hill (game day cheer), Cambridge (competition cheer), North Gwinnett (girls cross country) and Hebron Christian (softball).
Learn more about sports medicine care at Northside.
Pictured: The athletic training staff from Woodstock High School gets ready for a game this season. Northside Hospital Orthopedic Institute – Sports Medicine supplies athletic trainers to more than 40 high schools in the Atlanta area.
