By Christian Malone
VALDOSTA — Brad Miles could see an injured athlete from 100 yards away.
In this case, the injured athlete was a cross country runner, wearing a knee brace and walking with coach John Miller. Miles took the girl into the training room, examined her, recommended she take some aspirin and do some light jogging, and had the girl ice her knee. No sooner had Miles finished looking at the girl’s knee when another runner, this time a boy, came in, saying his ankle was hurting him.
At Valdosta High School, it seems like there’s always an injured athlete to treat, or a potential injury to prevent.
“Look at how many sports we have here, and how many kids are on each team,” Miles said. “That’s a lot of athletes to protect.”
Miles has been an athletic trainer for 25 years. He takes all of his duties very seriously, and says he’s doing his best to not only treat and rehabilitate injuries, but also to prevent them.
“Our trainer, Brad Miles, and his whole staff do a real good job of keeping our kids healthy, and keeping them hydrated,” Valdosta head football coach Rick Tomberlin said. “We’re blessed to be able to have him and our other trainers helping us out.”
Now in his third season as Valdosta’s trainer, he has the benefit of good training facilities, supportive coaches who trust his judgment, and plenty of help.
Miles has five student trainers from Valdosta State’s athletic training program, and two volunteer assistant trainers, Tieka Skrine and Earl Thomas. He also has the support of Dr. Ben Hogan, a former Valdosta quarterback who has been the team’s doctor since 2001.
“I can’t say enough about Tieka and Earl, and the job they’ve done,” Miles said. “As far as I know, they’re not getting anything to do this for the high school, and I hope that will change. They have been such an invaluable help, as have the VSU trainers. Every year, VSU sends us several student trainers, and they do a good job with these kids. I would have a hard time taking care of 150 football players, and doing the other sports as well, without any help.”
“Having Dr. Hogan’s support has been huge,” Miles added. “He played here, so understands Valdosta football. He has given a lot to this program.”
Valdosta has always made sports medicine. In the early 1970’s, former Wildcats football coach Wright Bazemore hired Dr. Jose Campa as the team doctor. For three decades, Campa gave countless hours of his time to the Wildcat athletic programs and Valdosta High athletes. When Campa made suggestions to Bazemore about keeping athletes healthy — such as abandoning the standard practice of giving players salt tablets and not letting them have water breaks — Bazemore listened, respected Campa’s medical knowledge, and told his staff to do whatever Campa recommended. Valdosta was also one of the first high schools in South Georgia to hire a full-time athletic trainer, adding Brian Davis in 1996.
“This school has made it a priority to have a trainer,” Miles said. “Taking care of the players is a big priority with Tomberlin. He wants his players on the field, but he also doesn’t want them injuring themselves even worse. At a program like Valdosta, with all of the success they’ve had, you would expect they’re going to make it a priority to keep the players healthy.”
More and more high schools are hiring full-time trainers, and to Miles, that decision is a no-brainer.
“I think every school in our region has a full-time trainer now,” Miles said. “I’m here, (Philip) Pieplow is at Lowndes, Moultrie and Tifton have trainers, and I know Houston and Warner Robins do. You have to have somebody taking care of your athletes, helping them heal from injuries and preventing other injuries from happening.
“Even at the schools that can’t afford a full-time trainer, they should get a local doctor to be the team doctor, and be on the sidelines during games. The coaches should be certified in first aid, and know how to administer first aid if they ever need to. Every coach I know cares about the kids, and wants them to be safe.”
In addition to treating injuries and taping ankles, Miles and his staff are also in charge of keeping players hydrated, no small feat in the summer heat of South Georgia, where the temperature has gotten over 100 degrees at times this summer.
“You have to keep players hydrated, whether it’s water or Powerade or some kind of liquid,” Miles said. “If the players aren’t participating in a drill, they have the coaches’ permission to go get water. But we emphasize that they have to do it.”
Another thing the training staff is in charge of is the lightning detector. When there is the potential for lightning in the area, Miles hands the hand-held lightning meter to one of the VSU trainers, who is constantly watching it. If lightning gets within 12-20 miles, the coaches are alerted. If it gets much closer, everybody is taken off the field.
Miles and trainers like him have many duties, and they do all of them to help keep the players healthy and safe.
“When an athlete is out here practicing or playing in a game, we are essentially those kids’ guardians for that period of time, and we have to do our best to take care of them,” Miles said.
