Junior Andrick Flores-Doubleday is gaining experience that few high school students are exposed to. He spends his afternoons and Friday nights interning as an athletic trainer. He is one of the first high school students to do this.

“In my junior year of high school, I was in the Biblical History of the Middle East class with Coach Justice, and I was explaining to him how I was interested in the athletic field and what they did. I asked him if he could ask Chase Wilkerson and Phil Weivoda if I could work with them,” Flores said. 

Flores works around the football field house, assisting Wilkerson and Weivoda, taping ankles/wrists and making sure the players are ok. Working with these trainers, Flores-Doubleday is learning about different skills used as an athletic trainer 

 “Shadowing the trainers is teaching me the basics of what I want to do during my career. Although I don’t know every small detail, I know the basics, and I will be ahead. If I were to go to a school and be an athletic trainer, I would already [have an idea] what to do,” Flores said. “I want to learn more about doing injury evaluation. I think it’s more crucial for me to know that. For instance, say Chase isn’t here, and an athlete is injured, I want to be able to know how to treat them or know what is wrong with them,” Flores said.

As the Athletic Trainers for Tupelo, Wilkerson and Weivoda do everything they can to provide for all athletes at Tupelo High School.

“For injury prevention, we look at their sports. We know that most athletes are either kicking or twisting, so we look at the ways they can get injured while playing their sport. We look at the areas we can get their bodies more flexible,” Weivoda said. 

“For rehab, [we] like to push Tupelo’s athletes to their limits so that we can get them back to their sport as soon as possible. For instance, if your ankle hurts, we’re not just gonna work your ankle, we’re gonna work your whole body,” Wilkerson said.