Jennifer KingsbyBeach High School's Jennifer Kingsby received a big honor this week, being named the Jerry Rhea Georgia Athletic Trainer of the Year. Rhea was a longtime trainer with the Atlanta Falcons.
Kingsby is proud of her job and was humbled by the experience, "To get this award was very, very humbling and deeply flattering to even be nominated for it but then to actually receive the award was, and still is, very surreal."
She has been at Beach for nearly 10 years and for Jennifer, being an athletic trainer is more than a job. "Light practice today and we're going to ice it, yes, you're going to ice it," Kingsby told one of her players. "At times it can truly be considered as a calling. You have to understand, you are mom to these athletes, especially at the high school level. It's a privilege."
There is much more to the job than just taping ankles and taking care of bruises. "We have a plethora of medical training, which a lot of people don't realize, every athletic trainer has to be first aid, CPR certified and I also worked as an EMT with Medstar for a while and currently am casual with Southside EMS and it's definelty a help when we had the situation here at Beach with the car wreck, I was first on the scene with those children. My athletic training skills and my EMS skills came into play, came into crucial play."
Kingsby said that the experience of helping you young children after the accident probably helped get her the attention to win the award. Those kinds of skills, all trainers have but hope they never have to use.
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