More Than an Athletic Trainer

story by NAKEISHA DAWSON-THOMPSON            photos by JOHN WOLLWERTH

Kim DeReamer is the current Athletic Trainer (AT) at Battery Creek High School in Beaufort. She also works at Carolina Sportscare and Physical Therapy located in Port Royal. Carolina Sportscare and Physical Therapy was founded on the principles of teamwork and has been one of the leading physical therapy companies in the Lowcountry. Carolina Sportscare has a contract with Beaufort County School District that allows Kim to work full-time at the high school. They also have certified Athletic Trainers (ATC) at Beaufort High and Whale Branch Early College High Schools.

Kim was born and raised in Indiana and is in the middle of the five children. In 2006, while working in Asheville, NC, Kim decided to move to Beaufort to be closer to her family. Her parents are residents of Bluffton. While Kim has no children of her own, she has 12 nieces and nephews that she loves as her own.

Kim has always had a love for sports. As a child and into her teenage years, Kim played volleyball, basketball, and softball. Softball was her favorite of them all. She always wanted to be around sports. Initially, she wanted to be a physical therapist because she was unaware of what an athletic trainer was until she had the opportunity to shadow an AT in her junior year of high school. At that time, she fell in love with the idea of becoming an athletic trainer. She went home and told her parents this is what she wanted to do, and because it was so new at the time, her parents questioned her decision. Her parents wondered what kind of career one could have as an athletic trainer. But today, her parents are proud and glad that she made that decision back in junior high school.

Kim received her undergraduate degree at Indiana State University, where she majored in athletic training and exercise science. She continued her education and obtained a master’s degree in public health education at Middle Tennessee State University. At the time, her focus was to work at the college level. Kim worked as the director of the Athletic Training Education Program, as well as the AT for the volleyball and men/women’s track and field team for four years at the college level.

Kim loves the opportunity to work with the students, teachers, coaches, and staff at Battery Creek High School. She smiles with pride, “I work with the best staff in Beaufort County, and I adore working with these students.” One of her greatest joys of being an AT is helping a student go from an injury to being rehabilitated and back on the field/court. She also loves that she can mentor student-athletes and show them the duties of an athletic trainer.

As an AT, Kim states her number one job is injury prevention. Some of her other duties consist of assessing injuries; rehabilitation of injuries; referring student athletes to an orthopedic or family physician, when necessary; and communicating information between the athlete, coaches, parents, and physicians/therapists. Kim can work with student-athletes in the training room, guiding them through their rehab program to restore pre-injury function. She provides coverage for practices and games for all their high school sports.

Kim, along with all ATs district-wide, is bound by HIPAA. HIPAA is the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act that protects sensitive, private patient/health information from being shared without proper consent. ATs are healthcare workers who practice under the direction of a physician, which holds them accountable to HIPAA. Parents and students can be assured that their medical and physical health information is protected and private at the highest level, only shared with those who need access and only with the consent of the parent/student.

When asked which sport or season has been her busiest this school year, Kim replied that football is normally the busiest sport with the most injuries. Many of the injuries include sprained ankles, broken bones, and concussions. According to Kim, every other sport has had injuries this year, which has made the normal football season lose its title of the most injuries. She can travel with the student-athletes to different schools and away games if her schedule permits. Kim advises that this school year has been different. As we all know, COVID-19 has required the faculty and students to practice in a way that may not have been normal otherwise. While safety from injury is the number one concern, safety from COVID-19 has been placed at the top of that list as well.

Advice for future Athletic Trainers: Be mindful, be determined, educate all, put your family first, and it’s okay to say no.

Kim states, “I haven’t worked a day in my life because I dowhat I love.”