"In 22 years at BHS, I've never wrapped an ankle," said Schmelzer of his stint as first an assistant and then the head coach of the Purple Raiders.

And while Schmelzer has athletic trainers to thank for being able to avoid that white roll of athletic tape, the role of trainers goes far beyond preparing ankles for the day's practice.

"We've been fortunate. We've always had a certified trainer," Schmelzer said. "They are at all of our games and they're always there at practice. With the nature of the game, there's always somebody with us. It's a comfort for parents."

According to Normal Community coach Hud Venerable, the Ironmen have benefited from the presence of certified athletic trainer Jackie Murphy for the past five years.

"She's with us all year long. She's very good," said Venerable. "At a lot of bigger schools, that's pretty common now."

Murphy is employed by Bloomington's Sports Enhancement Center, which provides either full- or part-time trainers to several area schools as part of Sports Enhancement's outreach program.

"On the whole, schools realize it's a valuable asset to have a certified trainer at games and even at practices," said Todd Jacob, a certified trainer at the Sports Enhancement Center. "We felt this was a great way to show what we're about. We've gotten good feedback. The community and the parents realize it's an asset to have somebody who is trained in these types of things who can give them the care they need."

Besides Murphy at NCHS, Sports Enhancement also sends Jeremy Haas to Bloomington, Matt White to Normal West and Lindy Quinton to Central Catholic.

Haas is at BHS six days a week during the school year and has enjoyed the opportunity to become acquainted with the Raiders' athletes.

"Last year when I was out here for the first year, it was hard to get to know all the kids," he said. "As you see them, you learn a lot about them, you learn which kids prefer what. It helps a lot."

For schools such as LeRoy, Fieldcrest, Gridley, Ridgeview, Heyworth, El Paso and Lexington, those four trainers, along with Jacob, make weekly appearances to check injuries in any sport and cover a school's home football games.

"It works out fairly nice," Jacob said. "Most of those schools are in the Midstate (Conference). If one of our schools are playing on the road, there's a chance they are playing another one of our schools."

Another supplier of training expertise is the department of health, physical education and recreation at Illinois State.

Dr. Todd McLoda, ISU's director of athletic trainer education, screens and selects graduate students in the kinesiology and recreation master's degree program to assist Sports Enhancement personnel at Intercity high schools.

In turn, the high schools provide a stipend to the graduate students.

"It's probably invaluable with the potential for injury always there. This gives (the schools) a little more assurance their athletes are being cared for," McLoda said. "And the benefit is they get great hands on experience and it makes them much more marketable when they're all done."

Of the 90 graduate students in kinesiology and recreation at ISU, 12 work in various athletic training internships. That's not to mention the undergraduates in athletic training who assist with Redbird sports teams.

Schmelzer has enough positive experience with trainers to trust their opinions.

"We're dealing with professionals. We've had good people," he said. "I tell a kid what the trainer says, goes. If they say you can't go (play), you don't go. In that regard, they have more weight on a kid's ability to get on the field than I do."

Contact Randy Reinhardt at rreinhardt@pantagraph.com