Inside HOKIE SPORTS | Vol. 12 No. 5 | May 2020

14 Inside Hokie Sports Goforth and his staff—the team physicians, trainers, graduate assistants, and student trainers—simply see and interact with student- athletes daily more than any support area during normal times. They go to workouts, practices, games, and they travel with their respective sports. They help student-athletes rehab/recover from various injuries. As a result of the pandemic, the sports medicine area in the Jamerson Athletics Center is vacant except for student-athletes who make an appointment with one of the team physicians. “For guys that preach come to the training room so much, for us to tell student-athletes not to, that was a tough pill to swallow for the staff,” Goforth admitted. “It really bothered us in a lot of different ways.” Yet he and his staff have adjusted, transitioning from in- person visits to practicing as much telemedicine as possible. Using technology—again, Zoom, FaceTime, Skype, etc.—they conduct initial evaluations, go over rehab plans with injured student-athletes, and take care of any prescription refills for those on medication. They also make sure they know the location of each student-athlete. Their daily interactions with student-athletes make them the perfect group for keeping tabs on those who remain in Blacksburg and those who go home. They report this information to executives within the athletics department. Goforth said that approximately 30 student-athletes underwent surgery following the conclusions of their seasons and remain in post- surgical protocols. That means undergoing physical therapy. Unfortunately, Tech’s trainers can’t really conduct physical therapy sessions through online platforms. So that means putting student- athletes in contact with physical therapists in or near their hometowns. Fortunately, Goforth’s 25-plus years of experience have left him with contacts all over the country, including many of whom graduated from Virginia Tech—a school with an ever-growing tradition of placing people in that field. “We actually do this all the time with outside physical therapists,” Goforth said. “Let’s say someone has a surgery, for example, and they go home over Christmas break. We utilize therapists all over the country for that [rehab sessions]. They [the physical therapists] kind of think it’s pretty cool because they get those kids back in their clinics. It’s a bright spot for them as well, just getting to work with a Division I athlete. “Virginia Tech has put out a lot of physical therapists, so we’ve got them all over the country, and it’s good to hear from them as well. Out of the 30-some [who underwent surgery], I think there’s only three in town, so the majority of these are all across the country.” Looking ahead, Goforth has two major concerns. The first, and biggest, centers on physicals. The staff usually conducts physicals of student-athletes for next fall during the months of April and May. Also, incoming freshmen receive physicals when they come to town for a practice or for a spring event. For example, by the time the football team reports for the second summer session, all players will have undergone physicals. Now, that’s in question. “That is going to be an issue for all of our sports,” Goforth said. “We’re trying to see how much of that we can do online. The other concern is, for the past two years, we’ve been doing exit physicals on our student-athletes. Now that becomes increasingly difficult because we don’t know if we’ll see them again, those that are seniors and transferring out. There are a lot of loops that need to be closed, and we need to figure out how we’re going to do it.” The other worry for Goforth is a potential spike in injuries once student-athletes resume workouts. Student-athletes obviously won’t have the benefit of a full offseason to prepare for competition. In fall sports, for example, student-athletes could be asked to report Aug. 1—and start playing games a few weeks later. Goforth, Dr. Mark Rogers (chief medical officer) and Ben Hilgart (associate director of athletics for strength and conditioning) already have started doing some research to prepare. “We were in on a meeting recently with companies about re-training and returning athletes back to activity,” Goforth said. “There is data out there to look at, like when there have been work stoppages in professional sports. You see spikes in injury rates when they come back, so we’ll be taking a close look at that. “Hopefully, the athletes are training to the extent they can right now, but whatever they’re doing at home cannot even compare to what they’d be doing back here. Luckily, we’ve got a great strength and conditioning staff across all of our sports, and they’ll take all that HASN’T STOPPED WORK Continued from page 13