Tyrann Mathieu, Chiefs host 150 Girl Scouts for ‘Prepare to Play’ at team’s KC complex
Star Chiefs safety Tyrann Mathieu and some of his friends from KC’s Super Bowl-champion NFL team played host to 150 area Girl Scouts and their parents for a “Prepare to Play” gathering Saturday.
The Scouts, ranging in age from fourth to eighth grade, spent the day at the Arrowhead Stadium facility, where they learned about important health and safety topics, general wellness and the role played by professional athletic trainers.
Hosted at Chiefs’ University of Kansas Health System Training Complex, the event was created by the National Athletic Trainers’ Association (NATA) and its public awareness campaign, At Your Own Risk.
The Girl Scouts participated in interactive educational stations covering concussion and heat safety awareness, sudden cardiac arrest, overuse injuries and mental wellness. Athletic trainers from NATA, the Chiefs and the KU Health system conducted the training.
In a news release, Mathieu called the Prepare to Play program unique.
“We always tell kids to stay active, play sports, but we don’t necessarily give them the resources to have them do it the right way,” Mathieu said. “During the event Girl Scouts were able to learn about concussion, heat illness and warming up the right way.
“It was great to see that it wasn’t just athletes attending but the broader population, which can often be overlooked. Everyone should be active and be given the resources to know how to do it in a healthy way.”
NATA president Tory Lindley said in the release that the event was designed to “reach out to the local youth in the community to help provide additional education on important health topics, but to also provide insight into the critical role that athletic trainers play.”
“Athletic trainers are health care,” Lindley said. “Despite ongoing tragedies in sports as well as research from a host of sources — including the American Academy of Pediatrics — which state schools with athletic trainers have lower injury rates, a study released in 2019 showed that 34 percent of public and private high schools have no access to athletic trainers in the United States.”
Lindley also said “almost half of high schools are without any access to an athletic trainer, and in Kansas, 37 percent of high schools have no access to an athletic trainer.”
Saturday’s event kicked off a series of Prepare to Play events throughout the country to educate youth about key health and wellness topics in hopes of improving safety in sports.
This story was originally published March 1, 2020 at 11:36 AM.