Kayleen Alexander, SMC Athletic Trainer, to provide needed athletic training services to Beulah and Hazen School Districts.
Join us in welcoming the newest member of our rehabilitation team, Kayleen Alexander, MS, LAT, ATC! Kayleen is the new full-time Athletic Trainer for Beulah and Hazen High School Districts.
Filling the Gap
By: Ryan Schlehuber | Beulah Beacon Editor | Aug. 22, 2024
As a student-athlete at Beulah High School, Kayleen Alexander was playing hockey and softball when she noticed something that was missing. Getting taped up before games and practices, dealing with aches and pains, minor and, at times, major injuries – it’s all part of being a student-athlete. But all that care and help usually came from one person – the coach, a person who has everything else on his or her plate with regards to the team, players, games and practices.
Starting this fall season, however, Alexander will be the one offering that medical assistance as a full-time athletic trainer for both Beulah and Hazen high schools. Beulah’s Board of Education and the Sakakawea Medical Center of Hazen agreed to a separate, one-year $20,000 contract, as a trial basis, to have Alexander, and other SMC trainers (as back-ups), provide athletic trainer services during practices and games for all sports for the 2024-25 school year. Hazen High School, at the moment, has a verbal agreement with the hospital for the services of a full-time athletic trainer and expects to sign a contract soon, according to Athletic Director Bret Johnsrud. “We’re on board with this 100%,” he said. “We just need to get the contract signed.”
Both Beulah and Hazen schools had long relied on its coaches and offered in-kind benefits to medical experts attending a local sports game. Now both schools will be covered in games and practices with a legitimate medical care expert on site. “Having someone who can assess athletic injuries and care for them immediately at games and practices is a great benefit,” said BHS Athletic Director Jason Simpfenderfer. “It will allow our coaches to coach and have an actual professional trainer taking care of the student-athletes.”
Johnsrud said it also takes the guesswork out of the equation for coaches. “It allows kids to get feedback from professionals immediately, and coaches don’t have to guess,” he said. “A lot of coaches have basic CPR skills, but with injuries, athletic trainers have a way better eye for those things and can fix them or refer them on immediately.”
Alexander, 23, a 2019 Beulah High School graduate, recently earned a master’s degree in athletic training at the University of Mary. She has had extensive clinical experience while in college, working stints at Legacy High School in Bismarck, a high school in Glendale, Ariz., St. Mary’s High School in Bismarck and then working with the hockey team at St. Thomas University in St. Paul, Minn.
She found interest in the physical therapy profession after visiting a clinic while in high school and knew she had to pursue it. “In high school, you’d get injuries but there was no athletic trainer, so we always went to physical therapy and I thought it was really cool working with athletes on rehab and getting them back on their feet and better than before,” Alexander said.
In college, she was designated to shadow athletic trainers, and though she felt she was more interested in just physical therapy, she quickly fell in love with athletic training.
“I started at UMary and I had the mindset of being a physical therapist,” she said. “But then, when shadowing those athletic trainers, I discovered where I needed to be. I got really involved in it.” Steve Ziegler, an athletic trainer for SMC who used to be Hazen’s own paid athletic trainer, has been the liaison for the hospital with the two schools, since approaching them with the idea of “teaming up” with the schools in providing care for local student-athletes.
“We, as a hospital, are not making any money off of this, so it’s really a community service,” said Ziegler, who will help cover practices and games between the two schools. “We’re just hoping to get more referrals, especially with major injuries.” Johnsrud said because of declining enrollment, schools like Hazen and Beulah were unable to keep an athletic trainer on staff. “When I came here years ago, we were graduating 70 to 80 kids a year. Now it’s like 40 to 42,” Johnsrud said. “So with those diminishing numbers, we are feasibly trying to come up with something like this. Without the hospital graciously taking on some of the costs, we couldn’t afford having a full-time athletic trainer on site.”
Because both schools have tight budgets, SMC offered a “discounted price” for athletic trainer coverage, which, Ziegler said, doesn’t cover all the costs, but he hopes the program is received well enough for both schools to continue it beyond this school year.
Johnsrud said there have been talks about keeping an athletic trainer on board through the summer months, too. “We talked about getting this turned into a summer weights acceleration program, where athletic trainers can offer their services in town where most kids would have to go to Minot or Bismarck for,” Johnsrud said. “That way, it takes out the time and hopefully the expensive financial commitment kids and parents have to put into it.”
This is the first time SMC has offered contracted athletic training services to high schools. For now, the hospital is focusing just on schools in Mercer County, Ziegler said.
Alexander knows that student-athletes’ injuries can be overlooked when there isn’t an athletic trainer to assess the issue and follow up with it. “Being able to do that maintenance on athletes, look at the small injuries and be able to follow up with them, keeping them healthy throughout the season, that’s what we aim to do,” she said.
Alexander is looking forward to being a vital part of the community and schools, providing specific care that gives back to her community. “It’s good to give back to the community and after going to school all those years, it’s finally paying off,” she said. “As a former athlete, I know how important it is to fill that gap and how important it is for coaches – and parents – to keep those kids healthy.” Alexander will split her time between schools, with office space provided for her at both schools. Her range of services will include any needed taping, assess injuries, aches and pains and providing information for athletes to better care for themselves and their injuries. “My door will also been open to them,” she said. “I’ll be here for the little stuff, as well as the major stuff.”
Alexander said acclimating herself to the schools and student-athletes and coaches wouldn’t be a long learning curve, considering she knows the Beulah community, has helped coached a local softball team and even has a little sister in the Beulah school system. “I’ll just be putting my name and face out there and let them know I’m a friendly person here to help,” she said.
Simpfenderfer is hoping the trial run is a success to where the schools make it a permanent feature in athletics in the area. “I hope we (Beulah) are able to continue to find money in the budget and or other sources to keep Kayleen or another trainer in place in the future,” he said. “I see it as a benefit for our kids and coaching staff. It’s just a relief to not have to worry if these kids are having their injuries properly treated and not have to worry about the liability of doing something improper.”
