March is National Athletic Training Month, and we are wanting to recognize the Athletic Training staff at Houston High School. Tripp Turner has been the athletic trainer at Houston for 28 years, and he is a champion for the Germantown community. He has held positions with the Tennessee Athletic Trainer’s Society and served on the TSSAA Sports Medicine Advisory Committee, and he was recently appointed to the Union University Master of Athletic Training Curriculum Advisory Board.
Turner estimates that he has covered thousands of games and practices, and that includes almost all of the state championships. His passion for becoming an athletic trainer comes from loving sports, and he has worked with athletes at the professional and Olympic level, all the way down to youth leagues. He decided to focus on younger athletes, like the Mustangs, after recognizing that these are underserved athletes with high risk for injury, saying, “Recognition and treatment of athletic injuries is not only potentially life-saving, in the younger populations, it is critical in heading off the possibility of a lifetime affected by injury.” Turner has been a part of life saving medical responses, and he still keeps in touch with those families to this day.
Turner cares about his athletes and the programs he works with, and he encourages others involved in athletics to always be an “athlete advocate,” saying, “Building that trust and them knowing that your only interest is their ultimate safety is paramount.” Turner said having the training center named after him is “truly humbling.” “I am thankful for the support of OrthoOne and Dr. Jeff Dlabach, as well as GMSD and Houston- I am FOREVER grateful! I still do a double take when I see it.”
GMSD is thankful to Tripp Turner, OrthoOne, and the entire athletic staff who work so hard to ensure that GMSD athletes are safe and supported.