(CENTER FOR CAREER & TECHNOLOGY EDUCATION -- June 25, 2020) —A team of students from CCTE placed fourth in the Sports Medicine National Championship last month and four of them earned an All-American status.
The competition consisted of a 300-question online test followed by a five-question practical round. The 11-member team was led by All-American individual competitors: Sarah Ronda (11th place), Anette Muñoz (22nd place), Anahi Garcia and Felicity Randle (tied for 23rd place).
“The students make the program what it is, and they deserve all the credit for sustained success in the CCTE Sports Medicine program,” said teacher Ben Snyder. “It speaks to the hard work and quality of student we have at CCTE. I get students who have a deep interest in sports medicine and they have the drive and determination to achieve their professional goals. It also shows the all the hard work and studying the students put in throughout the year sticks.”
Snyder’s class prepares students for careers in sports medicine through lecture and hands on learning and practice. The students further apply their skills through internships with athletic trainers, physical therapists, sports medicine doctors and orthopedic surgeons.
“Our students have a bright future ahead of them and will become very successful in the medical field, whichever avenue they pursue,” Synder said. “Professionally, these students understand the medical field is a very competitive and rewarding career, and I try to instill good practice and study habits for them to have continued success after high school. I’m very proud of these students.”
Synder has had great success with the program and even took third place in last year’s competition. COVID-19 changed this year’s competition into a virtual assessment making it a bit more challenging for students. Even study sessions to prepare the team turned virtual.
“It was definitely a bit more challenging to compete during the pandemic just because we were unable to meet face to face prior to the competition in order to review, study and practice,” Muñoz said. “Thankfully leading up to the competition and throughout the entire school year, Mr. Snyder did a wonderful job preparing us, teaching us and working with us to make sure we were more than ready to put our knowledge to the test.”
The team is well-versed in emergency medicine procedures such as CPR and spine boarding, imagining, therapeutic treatments and basic taping for athletes.
“We learned so much in this class about the muscles, the skeleton, sports-related injuries, rehabilitation skills, modalities and how to identify the different types of medical imaging as well as how to read them,” Muñoz said. “As a future healthcare provider, I do believe that many of what I learned, if not all, will be beneficial for me in the future.”
Muñoz’s teammates also expect to be putting to work the knowledge and expertise they received from CCTE into their future careers.
“Sports medicine is such a huge field that there is no doubt in my mind that the skills I was able to practice in class are those that I will probably end up using for the rest of my career,” Ronda said. “I'm so grateful that a program like CCTE was available to me in my high school years because I feel very prepared to go out in the real world and make a name for myself.”
The 11-member team consists of:
Anahi Garcia - Chapin
Kimberley Owens - Chapin
Felicity Randle - Franklin
Marco Montoya - Franklin
Sarah Ronda - Franklin
Gilan Feria - El Paso
Aida Balcorta - El Paso
Anette Munoz - Coronado
Miguel Ruiz - Austin
Kacey Quinonez - Burges
Valerie Corral - Anthony*
*Note: CCTE accepts students from other county districts.
