DeKalb Times

The Genoa Kingston Community School District 424 Board of Education hosted an evening meeting June 14 that addressed a new deal with its physical trainer to support the district’s athletic program.

“Our trainer, Amanda (Pollnow), has been working just with us and she had an individual contract, but she was approached by Olympia, which is a company in DeKalb, that does a lot of health things, including athletic training,” Assistant Superintendent Bradley Shortridge said during the meeting. “They liked her and want her to work under their umbrella. They would provide her with insurance and a whole lot of extra things and charge us the same amount we paid last year for Amanda's services.”

Olympia has four locations throughout Illinois.

According to its website, Olympia chiropractic and physical therapy was started in 1997 by Dr. Pat Calcagno in Illinois and has been serving the community for 25 years. After his brother expanded Olympia to their hometown of Elmhurst in 2004, they expanded to seven locations within Illinois including locations in Bartlett, St. Charles, Sycamore, and Elmhurst.

The University of Idaho cited  a study that saw one-third of all high schools in the United States didn’t have access to a licensed or certified athletic trainer.

Because of the insurance offered through Olympia, if a student were to be injured and need to see a physician, the initial contact and visit with a physician would be free of charge. Previously, parents would have to pay for that visit to ensure the student’s well-being. Any additional visits after the initial would still fall to the parents, but the first visit would be covered by Olympia.

“Simply by being present and rendering the care they are trained to provide; (athletic trainers) can play an integral role in elevating the care that any student would be able to access,” Matthew Smitley, a clinical assistant professor for the university, said. “By being on-site, (athletic trainers) can provide care with minimal disruption to the student-athletes’ participation in school or extracurricular activities. For these reasons, the correlation between athletic trainers and health/well-being (is) very clear.”

Olympia has been using the Genoa school district as a sort of trial and advertising in the area. Pollnow, the school’s trainer, is in favor of the partnership as is the school board. Olympia has been sending licensed physicians to the school’s football games free of charge and trying to get its name out to other schools in the area to expand its reach and partnerships.