Members of Liberty's Club Sports Department Sports Medicine staff (from left) Josh Smith, Timothy Dofflemyer, Angie Witt, Sam Nigra, Tiffany Campbell, and Kira Turner will put their training to good use for the Virginia Commonwealth Games' Main Games Weekend. (Photo by Kendall Tidwell; Not pictured: Jake Gachowski)
Club Sports athletic trainers to cover Virginia Commonwealth Games events on and off campus
7/19/2024 12:13:00 PM | General
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All seven members of Liberty's Club Sports Department's Sports Medicine staff plus 13 more from the university and surrounding areas will be in action this weekend as thousands of amateur athletes from around the state compete.
For the ninth summer in a row, since Liberty University became the primary sponsor and host of the Virginia Commonwealth Games in 2015, members of the Club Sports Department's Sports Medicine staff will provide the bulk of the athletic training support for the thousands of athletes over Main Games Weekend, this Friday through Sunday at various athletic facilities on campus.
The staff of seven athletic trainers from Club Sports, two from Liberty's NCAA Division I Athletics Department, one from Liberty Intramurals, and 11 others (including five alumni) from around the region will be on site for each of those competitions and more.
"It is our first busy weekend before students get back in about a month," said Club Sports Senior Associate Athletic Trainer Tiffany Campbell, who notes that her staff have stayed busy over the summer working hockey, ski & snowboard, and wrestling summer camps, with two more camps (equestrian and lacrosse) over the next week. "It helps try to break us out of summer mode and get us ready for Liberty student-athletes to come back."
Campbell has worked with Club Sports Associate Athletic Director for Sports Medicine Angie Witt to recruit and coordinate all of the staff working over the weekend.
 "Angie and myself are responsible for recruitment and scheduling of athletic trainers for the event," Campbell said, noting that Saturday will be the busiest day with competitions ongoing from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. "I have spent the past two weeks tweaking schedules to make sure all locations are covered."
She said the organizational support from the Virginia Amateur Sports staff has helped make her job easier.
"They are really good about having schedules done, meetings together, and making sure every piece of the puzzle is put together to make these games happen as smoothly as possible," Campbell said, noting that they have expressed to her and Witt that their services are invaluable. "We have been able to be a part of these for a while, and they keep asking us to come back."
This weekend, Campbell and her staff will be sporting bright orange T-shirts with "Athletic Trainer" written in large letters on them.
"With us having such a large presence (at the Games), it will be a good opportunity to showcase our profession and what we as athletic trainers can do," Campbell said. "Quite a few things end up happening over the weekend, which is why we are a staff of 20 athletic trainers, spread out so not one athletic trainer is overloaded. Our main job is to make sure that everyone is safe while they're participating, and if something happens, we're there to take care of it."
Campbell and Witt attended the Mid-Atlantic Athletic Training Conference in Virginia Beach in mid-May, where they had plenty of interactions with emergency medical technicians.
"It was nice being able to talk with somebody on the other side of the 911 call if we have to make that," Campbell said.
In those emergency medical situations, Campbell and her team can help direct the athletes and their family members to the appropriate medical providers.
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Basketball is the highest participation sport at the Commonwealth Games and has one of the higher incidences of injury. (Photo by Keith Syria)
While most of the athletes competing over Main Games Weekend are between the ages of 10 and 18 and representing various basketball, baseball, and softball travel teams from around the state, there are a healthy balance of youth and adults registered in the track and field events.
Campbell said though there are a fair number of contact injuries in those sports, many of the emergencies she and her staff have had to tend to at the Commonwealth Games have been heat-related.
"With the outdoor sports, especially baseball and softball, on a hot weekend, umpires in black and navy uniforms with so much padding on will have a lot of heat illnesses," she said. "This weekend, it should be cooler, but we are still preparing for heat, weather, and lightning, and we are planning to keep an eye on all of it."
The main headquarters for the athletic trainers on hand for Main Games Weekend will be in the old Reber-Thomas Dining Hall, which has served for the past year as a temporary base for Club Sports athletic training operations while the new 5,000-foot sports medicine facility in the North Campus Parking Garage is completed. That space, which will complement existing Club Sports clinics in the LaHaye Ice Center and Liberty Club Sports Complex, is tentatively scheduled to be opened over Christmas Break.
The Games, which will kick off with a parade of athletes at 5:30 p.m. Friday to the Opening Ceremonies in the Liberty Indoor Football Practice Facility, will feature track and field events at the Matthes-Hopkins Track Complex, basketball games at the LaHaye Recreation & Fitness Center and Liberty Arena as well as area high schools, and baseball and softball games at Liberty's and Liberty Christian Academy's fields, and many other competitions in various area venues.
