Do you know the people that are ready to take care of you when you get hurt during a sports game? No. How about the people that give you your water? No! Okay… You have to know this one for sure. Who were the first students to come back to Santiago after the Covid Outbreak and are the reason that sports got clearance to also come back? Did you guess Sports Med? If so, you’re correct.  

Santiago Sports Med is a group of students under the advisory of Mrs.Watson, the Sports med teacher, and Megan, the medical director that wishes to improve health care for athletes by educating and creating a course that closely resembles a first aid course.  Some of the course may incorporate hands-on experiences teaching skills that later allow students to help during team events and practices. The students later benefit from this program if they choose to go into the medical field because they have a background in it. Santiago’s Sports Med is a very fundamental part of why Santiago functions the way it does.  Without the team, the injured players would have to fend for themselves. 

I recently joined Santiago’s Sports med team and I originally did it because I just found it interesting but there was no initial – like I’m doing this to learn or to be apart of something that can be beyond more just a class. Having this class online, at first, I decided I was going to hate it. Like it’s supposed to be interactive, right? How can sports Med be interactive online? Then I started learning about the way the human body works, and the laws behind it, and things I needed to succeed in the class and realized that sports med is more than just a class regardless of whether it is online or not.

Then we had the plan to come back to school. That scared me – the idea that so much pressure was being put on us. I was also excited because the class I originally found so interesting was going hands-on.  We did all these basic instructions on what to do when we come back and how we’ll be sectioned off. Then it came time for me to go back to school. On the day we went back to school it was kind of a bittersweet feeling I mean I haven’t seen this place (Santiago High School) since March 13th and all of a sudden I am apart of the first students to step foot on campus. As I’m walking to the gym I realized I kind of missed Santiago and I felt grateful to have the opportunity to come back. I enjoy seeing people regardless of if I have a face mask on because after 8 months of isolation it was fun to reconnect with some people.  I also realized that if Sports Meds weren’t here sports most likely wouldn’t be as efficient as it is now. We are the backbone of sports and not many students realize that.  

 So, therefore, say HI to your heroes behind the mask.