Murphy – It’s a tradition at the end of a Murphy High School football practice to give “the rope” to a player who has shown a lot of hard work and effort.
However, on Aug. 31, the rope didn’t go to a player.
Instead, it went to athletic trainer Bob Grimes, who was working his last day at the school. Grimes is leaving Murphy after 10 years to work as an athletic trainer at Yakima Valley College in his hometown of Yakima, Wash.
“It choked me up a little bit,” Grimes said. “I appreciated it, and I appreciate the kids and the coaches, and it’s been a great situation here. I’ve enjoyed it.
“Getting the rope on the last day was something special.”
For Grimes, leaving wasn’t about the uncertainty of the athletic trainer position in Cherokee County in recent months as much as it was about an opportunity he couldn’t say no to. Grimes said his two sisters as well as aunts and
cousins still live in Yakima. The last time he was there was two years ago for his father’s funeral, which was only for a day. Before that, the last extended time he spent there was in 2017.
“The timing wasn’t the greatest, let me put it that way,” Grimes said. “I mean it had nothing to do with here or the Harris thing or PT Solutions. I had planned on staying here anyhow, it just came up out of the blue and it was too good to pass up.”
Grimes departure leaves Cherokee County without a licensed athletic trainer. Under N.C. High School Athletic Association rules, a trainer or licensed first responder must be at home and away football games as well as practices where protective equipment like helmets and shoulder pads are worn.
County lead school nurse Heather Watson, who is serving as Murphy’s backup first responder, said they are working on getting someone else certified. At Andrews, parents Sarah Tatham and Tim Wood have been serving as first responders, though the Wildcats did have a licensed physician on the sideline for their game against New Faith Christian Academy, Ga., on Friday night.
Coulter Clement, who was Andrews’ trainer last year, started a job as an associate athletic trainer for the Western Carolina University football team on Aug. 1. First responders are only qualified to provide emergency care, not treat specific injuries.
After Harris Regional hospital in Sylva declined to renew its contract with Cherokee County Schools for the 2023-24 school year, the county approved funding for trainers at both Andrews and Murphy High School through the school sales tax fund in May. The board of education approved the hiring of both Clement and Grimes at their June 29 board meeting after both worked at the schools through a partnership with Harris and their employer, PT Solutions, during the previous school year.
Despite the arrangement, Clement left for his new job due to a lack of operating protocols. An athletic trainer needs guidelines for specific situations to be signed off on by a physician, which the county did not have until it reached an agreement with Erlanger Health System to provide athletic trainers to the county.
Superintendent Keevin Woody announced the agreement during the Aug. 17 meeting of the Board of Education, and an Erlanger spokesperson said the contract has been signed and they are in the process of hiring athletic trainers. Since the county has already agreed to fund the athletic trainer position at both schools, the trainers will be employed by the hospital but provide a service as independent contractors.
There’s no timeline for when the positions will be filled. However, Grimes is optimistic that it won’t be a long-term issue.
“I know for a fact that a couple of colleges like North Georgia, I know there’s a couple of athletic trainers that are graduating early in November,” he said. “I know Western has three that are graduating early after the fall semester, that’s December.
“So there’s going to be new people out there that are looking for a job, and I don’t think it’s going to be difficult.”