For those of you who have not officially met me, my name is Keely Goodloe, and I am one of the Athletic Trainers (AT) on site at South Forsyth High School. We are working to get another full-time AT, but for the time being we have additional AT's who will help cover home events. We are employed by the Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta Sports Medicine program.  We are not personal trainers, we are Certified Athletic Trainers, and we are sports medicine providers.

I am reaching out to parents and especially new parents who I have not connected with yet to explain our role and how we help the athletes of South Forsyth High School.  There is confusion sometimes about whether to talk to the athletic trainers or not, especially as some of your athletes are wrapping up club season. Obviously, the other AT's and I are busy with all the teams for the school, but we do want to hear from you.

Often people think we teach at South, or we are employees of the county or that we even work for our team physician, but our services are provided to the teams through CHOA.  We have relationships with doctors at Northside Hospital as well as our team of doctors at Children’s Healthcare in the Collections.

Our primary role is to help keep your kids safe and participating fully in sports. This includes evaluation of injuries sustained during games, practice or other conditioning activities, or education for the athlete and parent regarding flexibility programs, concussion education and of course hydration and heat issues. I even need to know when they have gotten hurt doing things outside of their primary sport since it will likely affect their ability to participate.

While we want them to remain injury free, injuries are going to happen. Coaches tell the kids each week they need to let us know they are hurt or hurting. We try to make sure everyone has declared their injury before they leave after practice. Sometimes things slip past us and a kid gets home, realizes the injury is more severe.  Even if your sport practices off campus, we are still there to assist you.  We can make arrangements to check your child out before they go to practice.

When it comes to concussions, I am going to recommend we get your athlete in to see Dr. Pombo. He is an Orthopedic Surgeon at Northside Hospital, trained in concussions. I work closely with him for Return to Play progressions with concussions as well as other injuries outside of that. You may choose to take your athlete elsewhere if you would like, but I have found that working with Dr. Pombo has been the most efficient in getting your athlete back to playing their sport in a timely manner, while also keeping them safe.

Whether it’s an injury we have tried to get better independently or we try to stay in communication with you along the way, once it is determined they need to see a doctor, here are a couple of things that will help us. If chosen to peruse other medical advice, these are some things that are necessary.

1.       We need to know (as well as a coach) you are taking them to a doctor, especially if we have not yet seen them at school for the injury they have. Or, if you need help getting a “timely” appointment scheduled, let us know.

2.       You should receive WRITTEN instructions from a physician if you are seen for an evaluation.  In fact, it is often helpful for you to list Keely Goodloe as a party that you can release information to when you see a doctor. That way if we have a question and need to follow up, they will be able to speak to me. This note is separate from the note turned into school. We keep a file in the office to document MD visits. That also means we need follow up notes when the child is released for a full return to sports. 

3.       If a doctor has limited your child’s participation due to an injury, we expect the child to follow those instructions and not try to sneak back into practice or drills because they feel okay. That’s why the written note is so necessary.

Please feel free to contact me anytime by phone or email. As we still are in the warmer months, I highly encourage your athletes to hydrate and fuel their bodies appropriately. This is especially true for the 9th grade athletes; this is a very significant period for growth and development, and our goal is health and safety.