They say everything is bigger in Texas, and in the case of The Colony High School, located in its namesake town outside of Dallas, that certainly rings true. With three fully outfitted athletic training rooms and state-of-the-art facilities, The Colony High School is equipped to care for their athletes like they’re at a college.
Three Athletic Trainers make up the sports medicine team at The Colony, all hailing from the state of Texas and finding their way there in various ways.
Tyler Romine, the first of the team to arrive at The Colony, originally wanted to be a welder. His aunt, however, had different ideas – she found an Athletic Training program and encouraged him to try it out. Hesitantly, he said he’d give it a year, and it stuck. He’s now been with The Colony for 21 years as an Athletic Trainer.
As luck would have it, his college roommate, Cody Carpenter, joined him at The Colony a year later. Carpenter began his career in athletics as a high school athlete in a small school, aspiring to be a football coach. He had never heard of athletic training before. When he got to college, he wanted to get on the sidelines of football games, and a friend introduced him to the athletic training program. From there, he transferred to Texas Christian University (TCU) to get his degree, was roommates with Romine, and has now been working with him at The Colony for 20 years.
Kelsea Campbell, the final Athletic Trainer on the team, knew she wanted to be an Athletic Trainer since her sophomore year of high school. After sustaining an ankle injury during a soccer incident that led to surgery, she was introduced to athletic training and quickly knew that’s what she wanted to do. The year she began at The Colony, her younger brother started school there, and she’s now been an Athletic Trainer for him and many other athletes for the past 6 years.
When it comes to their favorite products for their athletes, all three were quick to agree the Therm-X modality and Athletic Edge Hydration SmartCarts are their most used.
“[The SmartCarts] limit the amount of stuff we have to roll out,” Carpenter says. “The storage on the SmartCarts is huge for me. We’re able to put everything in there.”
Both Campbell and Carpenter especially agree that the Therm-X has been a gamechanger for treating ankle sprains. In the past, the team used buckets of hot and cold water, but with the Therm-X, they can do everything with one modality.
“The kids like it better, too,” Campbell says about the Therm-X. “So, it’s just more usable.”
Romine adds that the new Firefly Recovery modality is one of his favorite products to use with his athletes. Its ability to quickly limit swelling has proved to be hugely beneficial for baseball pitchers especially.
“They will pitch a game, throw 85 to 90 pitches. They’ll put [Firefly] on afterward for recovery, and the next day they feel like they’re three days ahead of where they would be,” he says.
All three agree that the best part of working at The Colony High School is the community – Carpenter noted they maintain relationships with their student athletes’ years after they leave the high school.
“It’s made the city of The Colony feel like home, just because of the relationships we’ve built over a 20-year timeframe,” he says.
Romine adds that, on top of the community support, The Colony’s district is hugely supportive of their athletic programs, giving them the tools they need to care for high school athletes at a college level.
“The amount of financial capital they put into making sure the facilities are at the top level is amazing,” Romine says. “Not many Athletic Training facilities have what we have, especially at a high school.”
Photos by: Duane Green
