Tallassee Student helps starts a new program at school
There is a lot that goes into making a high school football team run efficiently throughout the season. From the coaching staff, to the players, officials, school administration, bus drivers taking coaches and players to and from games, parents, cheerleader, and the band. However, there is one more important piece to the operation and that is the athletic training staff.
Meda Nabors began her journey as a student athletic trainer at Reeltown High School under Head Athletic Trainer Chad Abrams. Nabors ended up transferring to Tallassee High School and wanted to continue serving as a student athletic trainer, but there was one problem, Tallassee did not yet have a program. Though Tallassee did not have a athletic training program, that did not stop Nabors. If Tallassee did not have a program, well she was going to start one herself.
When Nabors had the idea to start an athletic training program at Tallassee, the Tigers had just hired their new head football coach Lawrence O’Neal. One of the first emails that O’Neal received when arriving at Tallassee was from Nabors.
“She told me that she did athletic training with one of my mentors, which is Coach Abrams at Reeltown High School and she wanted to start the program here, so I was already looking for someone to help speed up our practice so that we don’t have to take as many water breaks to tape ankles and all that kind of stuff, so she was just a God send,” says Lawrence.
Nabors now an integral part of the team at Tallassee and is taking from what she learned at Reeltown and trying to implement it at her new school.
“A lot of the things that I learned at Reeltown I’m trying to bring here, because I thought that Coach Abrams actually had a great system there and I want to bring it here as much as possible especially since it’s a new program,” explains Nabors.
Nabors explains that she has several responsibilities as a student athletic trainer.
“We pretty much help our head athletic trainer which is Collin Jones, we help him wrap, before games, some get wrapped at practice, we help with cramps, and then a lot with hydration, and then we help with ice baths,” says Nabors.
When it comes to a future career in athletic training, Nabors is keeping her options open. However, she is trying to also begin helping out with other sports like wrestling.
