SLU AT Student Finds Creativity and Collaboration are Key at Rockwood Summit HS

SLU AT Clinical Site Spotlight - Rockwood Summit High School

By: Maria Lingardo (MAT Class of 2020)

Being at a university last semester, we were never short on resources, modalities, and almost anything you can imagine. In contrast, resources are not as plentiful at Rockwood Summit High School. This means that we must be creative and work with what we have in our athletic training room. My preceptor, SLU AT Program Alum, Tony Mosello, MAT, ATC, LAT and I try to be creative as possible when it comes to formulating rehabs and functional activities for recuperating athletes.  

A typical day at Rockwood begins around 2:00 pm. Tony and I go over the plans for the day, including which athletes we should be expecting to see. The after-school rush begins around 3:00 pm when kids come to get taped before practice, heat, or just stop by to say hi to Tony and me. We then do a quick check in with all the teams who are practicing to make sure coaches are up to date on the status of their players. Sometimes, we will get a call on the walkie talkie saying someone who needs help and we are on our way. There is no shortage of respect for and trust in Tony from coaches, athletes and parents.  

Rockwood Summit has proved to be a fantastic clinical site for me. Learning from Tony has been a great experience. Tony employer is Mercy Sports Medicine and it's interesting to see how that aspect works, as he splits time between working in the clinic and working at Rockwood Summit. It’s nice to be able to see the different employment possibilities for an athletic trainer. We talk about how he is able to communicate with majority of other high school athletic trainers in the area, as well as physical therapists, physicians and more healthcare professionals. Collaboration between them all is definitely a staple at Rockwood Summit.  

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.