Student Athlete Calls for Full‑Time ATs

“You wouldn't let your kids swim in a pool without a lifeguard; why would you let them compete in these sports without having an athletic trainer?” said Maryland Athletic Trainers’ Association President Rachel Moore, MEd, LAT, ATC.

Junie Ro, a student athlete at Marriotts Ridge High School in Marriottsville, Maryland, experienced that risk firsthand. 

After more than three years without a full-time athletic trainer, Ro, a senior and cross country runner, started a Change.org petition to ensure the Howard County Public School System’s $1.3 million allocation for 13 full-time athletic trainers – one for each HCPSS school – remained in this year’s budget.

Two incidents led her to this action.

In January 2024, a basketball player from Hammond High School in Columbia, Maryland, went into cardiac arrest during a varsity basketball practice, without an athletic trainer present. He remained on the floor without medical attention for more than 15 minutes before emergency medical services arrived.

“No one in the school building at the time was qualified to administer professional medical care,” Ro said. “Because of this delay, he is in a lifetime vegetative state, requiring 24/7 care. This would have been likely prevented with an athletic trainer on site.”

The second incident involved her teammates. In August 2025, she said, many of her teammates suffered injuries during a preseason practice. There wasn’t an athletic trainer at the practice to provide care, so she, as team captain, took them to the athletic training facility. Because there wasn’t an AT there either, she said she had to fill ice bags for the injured athletes, call their parents and manage the situation by herself.

“I’m an athlete, and I shouldn’t have to worry about taking care of my teammates’ medical needs,” she said. “So, I realized that this is really an issue that I really need to make one big push for.”

Ro said she was concerned about the possibility that last-minute budget cuts would once again remove funding for Howard County’s athletic trainers – which happened last year. With the help of her dad, Brian Ro, she launched the petition in January.

“I see firsthand when some kids get injured and there’s no athletic trainer present, and it’s up to the parents, coaches or even other kids to try to help them,” Brian Ro said.

In the petition, Ro and her dad encouraged decision-makers to “prioritize the safety and health of our student athletes.”

“Investing in full-time athletic trainers will provide a safety net for students and allow parents and guardians to have peace of mind knowing that their children are protected,” the petition stated. 

Ro said she brought the petition before the Howard County Board of Education (BOE) and urged her friends to disseminate it. 

“I definitely took advantage of [social media and word-of-mouth] to really reach out to my friends from different schools and ask them, ‘Hey, can you spread this petition so we can guarantee that all schools have what you have?’ because some of my friends from other schools have athletic trainers who are always there for them,” she said.

Ro also shared the petition with parents in the county.

“That helps a lot because parents also can get really involved in this, and they do care about the safety of their kids,” she said.

ATs Support ATs

MATA Government Affairs Committee Chair Jane McClean, MSHA, LAT, ATC, said athletic training stakeholders in the Howard County secondary school setting, such as parents, students, teachers and student athletes, sought out MATA’s support of the petition.

MATA responded by sending emails to the county’s decision-makers, said MATA Secondary School Athletic Trainers’ Committee Chair Jimmy Lee, MS, LAT, ATC.

McClean said the association also presented the lack of full-time athletic trainers in Maryland’s secondary schools during the Maryland State Athletic Directors Conference, and Moore spoke to the BOE on behalf of athletic trainers.

“We've testified both verbally and on paper on the importance of having athletic trainers in the schools,” she said.

Moore said she also spoke with the Baltimore Sun in February about the invaluable role of athletic trainers in bolstering the health of student athletes. 

“We're using examples of how they work in different school systems, whether [they’re] employed by the school system or a clinical outreach; whatever best supports the school and the students in that physical way,” she said. “So, we've just provided that support and educational tools from NATA with stats and numbers on how we help.”

Beyond Howard County, over the past few years, Frederick County has been pushing to be fully staffed, just like Montgomery County, Baltimore City and many other school districts, McClean said. She expects this petition to have a chain reaction beyond Howard County, positively impacting the athletic training profession a whole.

“I think it'll cause that ripple effect,” she said. “Looking at it from an educational level, I think it'll be really positive to encourage more of our Maryland graduates to stay in Maryland and continue working. I know we've had a lot of our students who’ve graduated move out of the state for other opportunities just because there weren’t as many [job opportunities] in the state of Maryland. The University of Maryland at College Park is starting to investigate ways to get an athletic training program at their university as well.”

McClean said ATs nationwide are encouraged to advocate for the profession in celebration of National Athletic Training Month.

“If you have the ability, we would love for you to be involved, whether that's you signing the petition, talking to school board members and the county legislators, volunteering with either MATA or any of the other great athletic training organizations that we have in the state, district or at the NATA level,” she said. “Whatever your comfortability is, just get involved. We can always use more support.”

Ro said the petition is an opportunity to further educate the public about the athletic training profession. 

“Many people have a theory that athletic trainers are only physical therapists that are just a luxury for people who can afford extra services, and that's really not it,” she said. “All student athletes who play sports in a school – public or private – deserve the basic safety coverage that is offered by an athletic trainer.”

According to an article published by CBS News, within four days, the petition garnered more than 300 signatures. As of March 3, more than 860 people have signed the petition.

“I'm really glad to see how it's turned out so far, and how much support we've received,” Ro said. 

The HCPSS new operating and capital budget was expected to be adopted by March 3. This article will be updated with information on the status of the budget adoption.