There’s a push underway for a new state law that would require high schools to hire a nationally certified athletic trainer if the school fields teams for what are called “high-contact” sports. But do we need another law to try to prevent the rare, but certainly tragic, deaths of student athletes? Here’s what a trainer in Orange County has to say in response to the recommendation a UNC professor has made to the NC High School Athletic Association:

While many faculty members see good intentions with hiring trainers who are not full-time teachers, they argue that a teacher who doubles as an athletic trainer is more practical.

“They don’t have anything to do during the day,” said Jim King, a teacher and athletic trainer at Orange High. “They’d be twiddling their thumbs.”

King teaches sports medicine and physical education at Orange High. He says interaction with the students and the instruction of the material is a good sharpener for his trainer skills.

Rather than passing a new mandate, how about simply hiring qualified teacher/coaches?