Dear Parent/ Guardian,

This is a blanket letter to the parents of all student-athletes who obtained a physical for an intercollegiate sport. The purpose of this letter is to inform you about Athletic Training Services and the sports medicine care available to your athlete at Stockton.

The purpose of the athletic training staff is to maintain a balance between a competitive edge in a sport and ensuring participant safety. Often the loss of objectivity regarding an injury by the student-athlete, coach, and spectators is a potentially harmful situation. It is our role to provide objective assessment of the injured athlete and manage a safe return to competition.

Our primary concern is the health of the student-athlete. We manage this objective through early and accurate recognition of athletic injuries and supervision of a complete rehabilitation plan. In order for us to achieve these goals your understanding of our responsibilities and our program is essential.

Athletic Training Services
We work in three main areas, the prevention, management, and rehabilitation of athletic injuries. I have attached a more complete list of the services we provide. To give you a better understanding of the profession of athletic training I have also attached information on our educational background and qualifications.

We provide medical coverage to traditional- season, scheduled and campus based practices. This is provided through our student staff who are certified and trained in CPR and First Aid. All scheduled home games are covered by at least one certified athletic trainer. During games the certified athletic trainer is responsible for all medical decisions.

We have a very structured and complete system of sports medicine care at Stockton. We are extensively involved. We do not expect you or your daughter/ son to make sports medicine decisions on your own. That is our primary function at the college, and we are happy to assist you. We are here to manage athletic injuries from start to finish. We have built a program and system based on over 19 years of experience.

Athletic Training Web Page
We invite you to explore the athletic training web page. A great deal of additional information about our program is available there. We now have a special section directed toward parents up and running.

Rehabilitation
We expect every student-athlete that requires rehabilitation for an athletic injury to complete that process with us. We handle over 300 athletic injuries every year. We have successfully returned athletes to their sports from just about every possible athletic injury and surgery over the years. No one in the area evaluates and rehabilitates more competitive athletes than we do. Go to our athlete's ratings of their rehabilitation experience at Stockton. If we or a physician deems it necessary, an athlete may be required to rehabilitate an injury (or old injury) with us during the season in order to be cleared to participate in their sport.

We have a state-of-the-art sports medicine facility and equipment to better accommodate our student-athlete's needs. We are open for rehabilitation M-F from 9:30am to 3pm and we have evening hours from 7pm to 9:30pm.

Return to Play
All return to play decisions for injured athletes comes through one of our certified athletic trainers. After an injury it is our responsibility to determine if and when it is safe for the athlete to return to competition. This decision is based on many factors but includes their progress in rehabilitation and their performance in functional or skill tests. There are no exceptions here. Any clearance note from a physician must be returned to us before the athlete is cleared to compete. Final clearance always comes through us.

The Coach's Role
It is important to note that the coaching staff at Stockton is NOT involved in the clearance of an athlete after an injury. While we are in constant contact with the coaching staff regarding injuries they do not make decisions regarding an athlete's injury care. For these reasons, if you have questions or concerns regarding your injured athlete they should be directed to me at the above number.

Physician Referrals
Our general rule is, in all non-emergency situations no one should see a physician without seeing us first. For the best results we want all referral decisions coordinated through us. This allows several important things to happen. It ensures all relevant parties are aware of the injury. It ensures we have a precise diagnosis, treatment plan, and participation status from the physician before the student-athlete returns to play. In short it allows us to provide optimum care before, during and after the physician visit.

We have relationships with several noted and talented orthopedists in the area. It is important to note that these relationships are NOT monetarily based. We are free to choose the orthopedists that best understand the needs of our program and athletes. These relationships have been based on over 19 years of working with physicians in our area. While we prefer to use our orthopedists, every athlete is free to use the orthopedist of their choice.

If you feel your son or daughter needs to see a physician for an injury, please feel free to give us a call and discuss the situation. In every case I will explain our rationale and we can always come to a mutual decision.

Insurance
The college purchases a separate insurance policy for intercollegiate athletes. Once an athlete passes our physical they are covered by this policy for athletic injuries. If you have other health insurance, then the college's policy will act in a secondary role. If you do not have other health insurance, then the college's policy will act in a primary role. For more detailed information on the intercollegiate insurance policy click here.

Insurance claims for this policy are filed through Athletic Training Services. If the athlete is seen by us before seeing a physician we will assist in coordinating the paperwork for coverage by our insurance carrier (i.e., the collection of bills, explanation of benefits, etc.). If the athlete does not inform us before seeing a physician, then we will file a claim for the injury, but the coordination of additional paperwork will be left up to you and the athlete. Please note, the claim form must be filled out by the student-athlete.

Talk to Us
We invite you to contact us if you have any questions about this letter or at anytime during the year. In order for us to do our job we need to be informed about injuries. We ask for your complete cooperation following the guidelines above. Should your son/ daughter inform you about an injury or problem, please make sure that they also inform us. There are times when they do not. Or in this situation, feel free to call us and we will approach your son/ daughter about their injury to ensure their care is optimal.

Sincerely,

Jon Heck

Athletic Training Staff
Jon Heck, MS, ATC- Associate Director of Athletics and Recreation
Jessica Spencer, MA, ATC- Athletic Trainer
Chris Klenk, MEd, ATC, CSCS- Assistant Athletic Trainer
Tracy Pienkos, MPT, ATC- Assistant Athletic Trainer
Brian Corbett, MS, ATC, CSCS- Assistant Athletic Trainer
Steve Janik, MS, ATC- Assistant Athletic Trainer
Chad Scott, MA, ATC- Assistant Athletic Trainer
Kevin Briles, ATC, CSCS- Assistant Athletic Trainer
Joe Masters, ATC, CSCS- Assistant Athletic Trainer

Consulting Orthopedists
Dr. Steve Zabinski, MD- Shore Orthopedic University Associates (Somers Point, NJ)
Dr. Glenn Zuck, DO- Pace Orthopedics (Somers Point, NJ)
Dr. Dave Anapolle, MD- Pace Orthopedics
Dr. Brad Tucker, MD- Rothman Institute (Egg Harbor Twp, NJ)

Other Orthopedic Relationships
Dr. Gene DeMorat, MD- Shore Orthopedic University Associates
Dr. Matt Pepe, MD- Rothman Institute
Dr. Mark Harary, MD- Pace Orthopedics

Primary Care Physicians
Dr. Mary Ellen Terrels, DO- Stockton Health Services
Dr. Sue Senese, DO- Stockton Health Services

Primary Care Physicans- in the Community
Dr. Steve Bushay, MD- (Northfield, NJ- 609-569-1900)
—We recommend Dr. Bushay if you are looking to change your daughter/son's primary doctor to a local physician.