According to many students, sports medicine is one of the most popular classes at Athens Drive. As part of the Medical Sciences Program, sports med. teaches students how to care for their own injuries and the injuries of others.

“Students learn how to prevent injuries  and taping,” said Drew Phillips, teacher of sports med.

Students also receive a lot of hands on experience during after school hours, which are required to pass the class. They help fix athlete’s injuries on the field, as well as work in the nearby training room to practice technique.

“More hands on work is done outside of the class than in,”  said Phillips.

For a student in Athens Drive sports, six hours are required per semester. For students that do not participate in sports, 12 hours are required per semester.

Angelina Vasselli, a freshman who took the class during the first semester, enjoyed spending time working with her friends in the training room.

“We got a lot of laughs out of not being able to rip the tape and doing a really bad job. It’s an easy class if you payed attention and didn’t fool around.”

Vasselli talked about how many of the students in her class acted up, and that the class  was more enjoyable when you payed attention. Vasselli also mentioned that the taking diligent notes was very important.

“We took two front and back pages of notes every day.”said Vasselli.One of the things she recommended the most for students planning on taking the class, was to have plenty of paper.

Overall, Vasselli said she liked the class and enjoyed watching the occasional movie on a Friday, or learning and watching videos about sports injuries. Vasselli’s favorite part of the class was the time spent in the training room where she could hang out and work on the skills she learned in class.

Phillips said his favorite part of teaching sports med is “Helping athletes to teach themselves. Everyone gets hurt at some point, and this is usable later in life. Like, if you don’t want to go into math, you don’t need a lot of the math they teach you, everyone can use this.”

Phillips also said that the best way to excel in this class for students planning on taking it in the future is to pay attention, study and complete all hours.

Vasselli, who took the class because her older brother recommended it for her, because he had Phillips and really liked him, thought that overall, “the class was really interesting, as long as you payed attention to the notes.”

The Sports Medicine class supports the health science academy, educating athletes and other students in the different ways to dress wounds and care for injuries, as well as prevent them. Vasselli added that after taking Sports Med. “She felt more prepared to deal with her possible injuries in dance.”