08/27/2026
Sports Medicine students at the Smith County Career Center will have the opportunity to gain hands-on experience this football season by working alongside athletic trainers during home football games throughout the Smith County School District.
The students will gain hands-on experience with many of the same responsibilities and techniques they are learning in the Career Center’s Sports Medicine course.
“My students, who are not playing sports or cheering, will be on the sidelines doing pretty much everything I do,” said Sports Medicine Instructor Ashely Middleton. “Students will focus on pre-game taping, injury evaluations, etc.”
The Sports Medicine course is available to Year 2 students at the Career Center. Students take Health Science during Year 1 before having the option to enroll in Health Science II or Sports Medicine during their second year.
Middleton is working to create a smooth transition between the two courses by introducing skills in Health Science that students can build upon if they choose Sports Medicine as a second-year course.
“This school year, at the end of our Health Science course, we’re going to start teaching students taping techniques,” said Middleton. “They will need to know these techniques for our Sports Medicine course when they start because they need to know the techniques when we hit the ground running in August with football season.”
Those lessons are already underway for the this year’s group of Sports Medicine students.
“We just finished up wrist taping techniques in our Sports Medicine course,” said Middleton. “We started ankle taping techniques this week.”
Students will participate at home games only within the district. With assistance from South Central Regional Medical Center, athletic trainers will be available at all Smith County home football games.
“For now, we will just do home games [here in Smith County] because I know there will be an athletic trainer for them to follow on the sidelines,” said Middleton.
Several students received an early introduction to the experience during the Smith County Jamboree.
“Our students are excited for the opportunity,” said Middleton. “I had some help from our students at the Smith County Jamboree this past Friday night.”
For Middleton, the opportunity is also about helping students make solid decisions about their futures based on the experience they receive through the course.
“I’m excited for students to get real-world experience,” said Middleton. “It’s the best way to figure out if this career is something they want to pursue [in college and as a career].”
