Veteran's Day

Yes, the Lions spent last night completing a season sweep of Florida Southern, but today we want to thank all of the men and women who have served our country and helped us live our lives in the freedom that so many of us take for granted. Saint Leo has a large investment in the military community, and there are no words to truly express how grateful we are for all you do!

Special recognition to Chris McDonald, our Certified Athletic Trainer. You take care of our girls now, you served our country. You are absolutely our hero, and we are proud to have you as a part of our Leo volleyball family!

11-09 News

Chris' Corner: Tricks of the trade from your friendly neighboorhod Certified Athletic Trainer

This weeks' edition of Chris' Corner will cover a subject some of you may be wondering about. What is it that is going on when you see or hear about athletes lying on treatment tables with wires coming off their bodies? What is being applied to them are various therapeutic modalities. Specifically in this case either electrical stimulation or ultrasound. How do these help? In various ways. One of the most common applications of electrical stimulation (e-stim) involves pain control. By introducing an electrical current you stimulate sensory nerve endings which deliver their message to the brain faster than nerves that send pain messages. In this way, at least temporarily, you control the pain associated with an injury. Other e-stim waveforms can be used to help control/eliminate swelling or to introduce medication into the body. Ultrasound works differently. It can be used as a deep heating modality, reaching tissues as deep as 5cm and increasing tissue temperature 4 degrees Celsius or more in a relatively short amount of time. This is useful in increasing local blood flow and increasing tissue extensibility, think getting ultrasound before activity. Ultrasound also has non-thermal properties though. These include stimulation of white blood cells, called phagocytes, to remove dead and damaged cells at the site of injury, stimulation of repair cells, called fibroblasts, to begin laying down new tissue and increasing cell membrane permeability thereby allowing cells to function more efficiently. The non-thermal properties of ultrasound are very useful when applied to an acute or sub-acute injury. As an Athletic Trainer you must guard against falling into "cookbook" applications of these modalities. Just as no two injuries are exactly the same, you must take the time to think about what you are trying to accomplish with modalities and manipulate your treatment parameters to achieve the greatest effect.

Wow, that was fun! Now on to the court. Unfortunately, the team saw their amazing win streak stopped by Tampa this week but were able to regroup and get back to business against Eckerd. A few scares this week in my world, both involving fingers. Luckily, however, as has been our good fortune this season no one had to miss playing time. The seniors said goodbye to their home court for the last four years this week. They couldn't ask for a better season to culminate their college careers. Michelle, Brittany and Chelsea, it's been a privilege taking care of you the last two years. Thanks for making me feel like a part of your team (and for your kind words and special gift at the senior match!). Now let's finish it off with a conference and national championship!

Hang on for the stretch run, it's going to be a blast! See you next time on Chris' Corner.

Senior Sweep

Saint Leo posted their 26th win of the season today in a 3 set sweep of Eckerd College, and more impressively, the seniors posted their 100th win! We are very proud of this class, and excited to finish the season strong with them!

Michelle Nogueras

Chelsea Armer

Brittany Fuhr

SENIOR GAME!

CONGRATS SENIORS! WE LOVE YOU!

Kait is REALLY Smart

Congratulations to Junior Kaitlin McKenna on her selection to the CoSIDA Academic All-District First Team. McKenna is an Accounting major with a 3.84 GPA. Click here for the full release on the Saint Leo Athletics website.

Tough Loss

The amazing streak of the 2009 Lions Volleyball Team came to an end tonight against the University of Tampa. In front of an outstanding crowd of over 800, the Lions played two great sets, but the run by Tampa in the end of the second set to win was a hit Leo could not come back from.

Now it's back to practice to prepare for our match against Eckerd on Saturday, our seniors' last home game! 4pm, let's send them out right!