I'M still thawing out, and still a little jet-lagged from my three-week trip northeast, so I had to ask Sen. Rod Tam to repeat himself on the phone last night. Finally, every high school
gets a trainer"Did I hear you say we're going to have a certified athletic trainer in every public high school?" I asked.
"That's right," he said.
I asked for a faxed copy of the education budget section that includes the trainers, and, lo and behold, there it was in black and white.
Incredible. They've done it. They've really done it.
After years of empty promises and ultimate whining excuses about "no money," Hawaii's legislators are finally going to give public school athletes the protection that private school athletes enjoy.
The education budget proposal that was reported out of conference committee on Friday contains $678,000 to put 25 more trainers in the schools and bring the statewide total to 40.
That covers everybody this fall.
The state is a winner here because the threat of liability will dramatically decrease with trainers on board.
"For once, we're taking a preventive measure rather than a reactionary one," said Tam.
"The kids deserve this," said Hawaii High School Athletic Association executive director Dwight Toyama.
You can't underestimate what this measure means to your kids.
Trainers who are certified by the National Athletic Trainers' Association (NATA) have the capability to make decisions and administer aid that can save their lives and limbs on the practice field or playing field.
These are college-trained, confident professionals who absolve beleaguered coaches from a serious conflict of responsibilities.
That conflict arises when a coach must weigh the tremendous pressure to win against the long-term health of his athlete.
A coach's dilemma grows when the athlete is saying, "Really, coach, I can play. Put me back in."
But when a qualified trainer enters the picture and says, "Coach, this player is finished for the day," the coach can breathe a sigh of relief.
This division of responsibilities is long overdue.
Got to give Tam credit. He hastily put the trainers' bill into the education budget in early March after it had died as a separate measure in committee. Then he stuck with it to make sure it stayed in the budget.
Toyama, who was in the vanguard of the effort in 1993 to install the first 15 trainers, and mustered support from athletic directors, parents and others anxious to see the trainers in place, is a happy man today.
For a while, it looked like the Legislature would defer this from one session to the next for the foreseeable decades.
Thank goodness the buck stopped in the 1997 session.
Gov. Cayetano is golfing today in a HHSAA fund-raising tournament. How fitting.
Pay attention to this one, Gov, and sign it.
X-TREME DELIGHT: Another measure this column has supported is also expected to clear the Legislature today.
A bill to ban X-treme and Ultimate fighting and similar exhibitions as of July 1 would severely penalize promoters and participants.
New York was the last previous state to ban this form of combat in which pummeling and kicking a man while he's down is considered sport.
The Blaisdell management still allows these barbaric contests to be held on its premises, and, as far as I know, has never even set an age requirement for admission.
Kind of bizarre that a facility that hosts family affairs like the circus and state prep basketball can also host bloodlust spectacles.