Attending his first football game as a first-aid-certified athletic student aide, Larson Smith (11) was finally able to help a wounded football player under the instruction of athletic trainer Christina Scherr during the game at El Camino High School, Sept. 16. 

“During that game, the amount of scratches, wounds and bleeding I had to deal with was immense,” he said. “It was super exhausting. Christina gave me directions on how to treat people, but for the most part, it was just me alone figuring out what to do because every wound is going to be different.”

Smith worked as the football team manager last year. During his time working with Scherr as the team manager, Smith learned about student aides and what they do, deciding to switch to becoming a student aide this year. 

Smith has personal experience with being an injured athlete. He has suffered from chronic shoulder pain when his shoulders slide out of their socket. Because of this he does not play contact sports, including football. 

“Having those injuries myself and that pain has made me a lot more empathetic with people who have injuries and who are getting hurt on the field,” he said. 

Scherr typically has student aides only during football season, and they help her with setting up games and practices and with injuries.

 “Things for practice like getting water bottles, or getting stuff ready for games, and setting up the field are what we do for home games,” Scherr said. “When traveling for away games, we get extra gear packed up. Most of my student aides are first aid and CPR- AED-certified, which allows them to help me more with owies or boo-boos on the sidelines versus just getting water or just being an extra set of eyes and ears.”

Smith was able to get first-aid-certified and CPR-AED-certified through a testing process with Scherr.

 On game days, Smith starts setting up and taking water to the field shortly after school ends. When the JV team is halfway through their game Scherr and Smith head onto the field where they help the JV team until the varsity players arrive.

“As the JV game nears its end and all the varsity players start to come down before their game, I typically tape all the varsity players’ wrists,” he said. “Then when the game happens, I’m there on the sideline and if an injury happens, I’m permitted to go out with Christina to learn and look around and you know, just see what’s going on. Then after the game, it’s just just a matter of taking everything out and taking it back to the office and helping to clean up in general.” 

Scherr said that she thinks the student aides who go through this program realize that there’s a lot more that goes on behind the scenes. 

“There’s a lot of work that goes into it and it’s a big responsibility, so I think my aides take it with pride and are happy to do that because they want to help when someone gets hurt or injured,” she said. “Seeing your teammates or friends in their most vulnerable state, it’s important to help and support them. There’s a lot to be learned from this, whether or not my aides choose to go into medicine or healthcare.”