Support in Sports: a look behind the medical tent

The Idaho High Schools Activities Association wrapped up the season at the State Championships on Saturday.

The runners have been training for months, all culminating in this event. It’s a time when athletes will give it their all for the last race of the season.

“[At] these events, like today, people are overexerting,” said Brent Faure. “They’re giving it their all in order to compete at the highest level, and that’s what you’d expect from somebody at the State tournament.”

Faure is the director of the Portneuf Medical Center’s sports medicine program. He and his team of Certified Athletic Trainers can be found at amateur sporting events across eastern Idaho, like the Cross Country State Championships.

“We’re here for the big thing that happens out on the course or at the finish line,” Faure said.

With more than 750 athletes competing and thousands of spectators, covering the full 80 acre course is no easy feat for Faure’s team. It requires six volunteer nurses, three Bannock County Search and Rescue staff members, eight athletic trainers and six mobile units to cover the ground.

“We can get to anybody that has a problem out on the course. In less than one minute, somebody’s on top of them,” Faure said.

The medical staff can provide a wide range of care for the athletes: injury evaluation and consultation, taping and bracing, hot and cold therapy, electronic muscle stimulation, ultrasound, assisted stretching, massage, and advanced first aid, according to the program’s website.

“They come across the [finish] line, and they collapse. Our athletic trainers try to help them up and keep them moving, and if there’s a problem with somebody, then they bring them into the tent where they can get some additional care,” Faure said.

Faure said he and his team are there to benefit the community, and they don’t charge the athletes for their services.

To see the results of the 2019 State Championships, click here.