Ilana Hambro is an ASU Cronkite School of Journalism student assigned to cover Mesquite High School for AZPreps365.com. 

The injuries to NFL athletes Damar Hamlin and Tua Tagovailoa last season drew international attention. It also prompted many questions aimed toward the athletic trainers about how to proceed in those situations. 

After collapsing on Monday Night Football, Hamlin was loaded into an ambulance while paramedics attempted to resuscitate his heart. Earlier in the season, Tagovailoa took a frightening hit and had to be carted off the field. Both cases sent a gut-wrenching shock through everyone watching, not sure what to do next. 

A school located in Gilbert has an athletic training department that didn’t take this news lightly. 

Aware of the recent events in the NFL, Mesquite High School’s athletic training department had an immediate response. While word was spreading about ways to alter the procedure of response if something like this were to happen, Mesquite athletic trainers Kayla Pavelski and Megan Marquart did not need to think twice about making changes to their system.

“Emergency preparedness is not something that you can really check a box to complete,” Pavelski said. “It is an ongoing process so at the beginning of the year we actually had a meeting with our EMS crews and fire department of Gilbert where we were able to go over our emergency action plan with them and were able to provide a smooth transition of care if we were to call EMS.” 

When they first heard about the news, the athletic trainers discussed that this event was “every athletic trainer's worst nightmare but we're all more than ready for it in case this does happen,” Marquart said.

Marquart said that the students asked a lot of questions. However, with regard to what Mesquite’s athletic training department changed when this news was developing, she reiterated that there was no change to their current procedures. 

“Truly nothing changed. We had our emergency action plan already put into place,” Marquart said.

Mesquite had already transformed the game with regard to athletic training long before these recent events. Its educational program for students who want to be involved in sports medicine has students helping athletes at their school where they can actually demonstrate what they are learning. One student in the class and the sports-medicine club, Jordyn Baca, shows up to games and assists the athletic trainers on the sideline.

“As a student, I follow their lead and they tell me what to do,” Baca said. “I am able to work with some athletes and I can help them with their rehab or certain taping that they allow me to do based on if I have it signed off or not.”

Marquart teaches this 10-person class on campus and takes pride in the ability students have to get hands-on experience in the training room, at games and with some of the athletes' treatments and rehab alongside Marquart and Pavelski. With the benefit of being well-versed in Mesquite's emergency action plan and having a specific role, Marquart will continue to encourage Mesquite students who are interested in sports medicine to get involved.

“I really want to expose my students to healthcare in general and some of the basics that are going to tie in with all different careers and professions,” Marquart said.