SLU AT Students Make the Most of Their Clinical Opportunities at Affton HS

SLU AT Clinical Site Spotlight - Affton High School

By: Brian Leach (SLU MAT Class of 2019) and Emma Yonkers (SLU MAT Class of 2020)

Affton High has certainly kept us on our toes. From shoulder dislocations to ruptured eardrums, it is never boring at Affton. Couple this with a very knowledgeable and helpful preceptor (Becky Stigen, MS, ATC), and you have one great clinical site. Becky’s style of leadership is to put you in the driver seat of your own education, but is never far away to answer any questions you might have. This is a perfect fit for Brian because, well, he likes being in the driver seat. Baptism by fire is kind of his thing. Being in the driver seat can be uncomfortable at times, but is a necessary piece of the academic pie. He enjoys being uncomfortable because he loves growing. And we can tell we are growing a great deal this year.

Our typical day at Affton begins in the athletic training room at 2:20 pm. At 2:30, the kids get out of class and the athletes storm the room for taping, treatments, rehabs, and general advice. Then we head up the hill to either practices or games depending on the day.

Before beginning at Affton, as with most places, our main goal is to be helpful. Over the summer, Brian earned his CSCS so that he could better facilitate that goal. This has come in particularly handy in the prevention and rehab side of things as he has been granted some reasonable level of autonomy when taking the athletes through exercises. One of his goals in the short term is to help eager athletes at Affton reach their performance goals in the off season

This is one of a series of posts by the Saint Louis University Athletic Training students featuring their clinical site and their preceptors. The number, quality and diversity of clinical instruction are major assets for the SLU AT Program.