Athletic Training Students Win State, Compete in Regional Bowl

BY BEN HINSHAW
Miami University journalism student

After not even fielding a team for the past 11 years, students in athletic training--usually considered a profession taking place on the sidelines--are making a competitive comeback of their own.

On January 20, Miami’s team of three seniors won the state championship in an athletic training quiz bowl, beating 14 opponents and moving into the regional round.

The competition took place during the Ohio Athletic Trainers Association (OATA) Student Symposium at Ohio State University.

Teams answered questions about athletic training for a chance to advance to the Great Lakes Athletic Trainers' Association (GLATA) Quiz Bowl. Miami’s team earned first place for the first time since 2007, earning them a spot at the GLATA competition in mid-March.

The team was made up of four students: seniors Alex Mueller, Audrey Van Auken and Abby Weiland; and Tori Swipas, who served as an alternate.

They did not win the GLATA, nevertheless having fun and gaining experience.

They were pleased with the success they had achieved, said their coach, Eric Brooks, director of the athletic training program in the department of kinesiology & health. Brooks and his wife Mary Brooks, also an athletic trainer and Miami instructor, served as the team’s coaches and advisors.

Swipas said the competition had sounded like a fresh opportunity to challenge herself and represent Miami well, while also presenting a networking opportunity competing against schools across Ohio as well as the Great Lakes States.

“We are ready to get a competitive team together and hopefully make it even further,” Swipas said. “We have a good chance of at least competing in GLATA next year and hopefully making it to the national competition. That will definitely be our goal.” She said that the new team would know what to expect, having been exposed to both OATA and GLATA questions.

All three students from this year are set to graduate. Brooks said he was confident that Swipas, along with other interested students, would step up and take over, allowing Miami to attempt a return to the GLATA in 2019.

Brooks made it clear that the students did all the heavy lifting this season. "The students approached me this past fall wanting to put a team together,” he said. “I simply guided and advised them on that process.”

Learning their current course material had been sufficient practice for the type of questions they would see, he said. They met only a handful of times to prepare.

In the past, the timing of the OATA quiz bowl may have discouraged Miami’s participation. It is held on Martin Luther King Jr. Day every year, when students at other universities have already returned for the spring semester but only those taking J-term classes are back in Oxford. The awkward timing did not seem to matter to these students; they chose to participate knowing they would be giving up time in and out of school to compete in the OATA and then in the GLATA.

A group of classmates traveled to the regionals to show support and help motivate the team. "After a decade of being absent, it took three students to set an example that future quiz bowl teams can follow,” Swipas said.

Quiz bowl gameplay revolves around athletic-training-based questions, including such topics as upper injury evaluation, lower injury evaluation, general medicine, operations and administration, pharmacology, therapeutic exercise and therapeutic modalities. Teams compete in games of three rounds with 25 questions each. In the style of bar trivia, questions are displayed on an overhead screen, and each side has 10 seconds to answer (8 in the second round), and teams may change their answers for fewer points before the timer expires.

The final round consists of a question both teams answer in writing. Once hearing the category, the teams to set wagers, similarly to players in the final round of “Jeopardy!”.

Top photo: Logos for the Ohio and Great Lakes athletic training associations.