Letter From the Publisher

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Protecting your assets...

In the business world, there are a few axioms that are universally applied by all successful companies. For example, some of these management philosophies are: focus on those things with the greatest opportunity for success; make certain you do whatever is necessary to keep your best employees; and protect your company's most valuable assets. However, in the football world, I fear teams sometimes ignore sound, proven and winning business strategies that could help coaches manage their teams more efficiently and win more games.

The most fundamentally sound of all business practices is put into place when managers and owners make absolutely certain they do everything possible to protect their most valuable assets. If a printing company applies this philosophy, they make certain their printing presses and the people who run them are well maintained, educated and satisfied. A restaurant needs to make sure the food it serves is the best it can be and continually up to the standards customers expect.

So, what does this have to do with football? Quite simply, everything.

Based upon the premise players are the most valuable asset for a program, this issue of our magazine, the second annual special issue dedicated to the field of sports medicine, focuses on a number of topics that will not only help protect assets, but will also help insure athletes are on the field and in optimal playing shape. We examine issues like: How to prepare an injury report; What are the best methods to use to motivate athletes during rehabilitation; How should the first person on the scene of an injury react; Safety concerns in the weight room; What are the real facts about artificial turf and its safety; and, What are the latest and best techniques for taping.

Each of the articles referred to above will provide some great food for thought, as well as a prospective blueprint for what should be done in each of these areas. Yet, the one article that stands out, as potentially the most helpful is our story on Tampa Bay Head Athletic Trainer Todd Toriscelli. Todd has been associated with some of the top programs in the game at Kansas State, University of Miami, Stanford, and the Buccaneers. During his career, he has worked for and with some of the game's best coaches: Bill Snyder, Dennis Erickson, Tyrone Willingham, and now Tony Dungy. What Todd has learned at each of these stops and his interaction with differing styles of head coaches is most enlightening. The bottom-line for Todd is: coaches should make their athletic trainers an integral part of their staff.

I could not agree more with Todd. A head coach should interact daily with his athletic trainer (or, at schools without a certified athletic trainer, with whomever is in charge of sports medicine and injury rehab). This is just sound Business Management 101. The head coach must have full and informed details about his players to plan for games, practices, prepare depth charts, etc. He must know how injured players are responding to treatment and when they can be expected to return. There are a myriad of issues that a first-rate program manager must know in order to run his program, and this can best be accomplished by integrating the athletic trainer/head of sports medicine into a staff position within the infrastructure of a football team.

As part of the staff meeting, the athletic trainer should give reports that each position coach is aware of and understands. This will allow these coaches, as part of the entire management team, to more adequately prepare for their respective jobs during practice and/or games. Basically, the athletic trainer should provide information about the maintenance and well being of the program's most valuable assets.

It is my hope this magazine and the other two "special" issues (technology and strength & conditioning) we publish each year will serve to give each of you a brief glimpse of very complicated areas, get you thinking about the subjects, and thereafter, you will do more research and find ways to use the information to make your players and program better.

Sincerely,

Barry Terranova

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