Before every prep sports season, students throughout Colorado flock to clinics to obtain sports physicals, which are a prerequisite to participation in middle school and high school athletics.<\/p>\n
While sports physicals can be costly in many communities, they have become far more affordable in Montezuma County thanks to doctors at Southwest Internal Medicine, who have offered physicals to local students at a cost of $25.<\/p>\n
The latest offering of the reduced-cost physicals, which was open to Dolores Middle School and Dolores High School students, occurred 5-7 p.m. on Aug. 8.<\/p>\n
Proceeds generated by the two-hour event were donated back to Dolores High School.<\/p>\n
Reduced-cost physicals were offered to Montezuma-Cortez High School students earlier this summer.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe reason that we do these sports physicals is to make sure that kids are healthy for their sport,\u201d said Southwest Internal Medicine Doctor, Erin Henderson. \u201cThe other big thing is that if kids have an existing injury, we try to get them into appropriate rehab so they are ready to go for the sports season.\u201d<\/p>\n
One of the more than 50 students who obtained a sports physical at Southwest Internal Medicine on Aug. 8 was high school junior Abby Jones, who plans to play volleyball for the Bears this season.<\/p>\n
Clearly appreciative of the opportunity to obtain a physical at a good price, Jones said that Dolores High School\u2019s approach to ensuring its athletes\u2019 health has instilled confidence in her and her teammates.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s really nice that (Southwest Internal Medicine) is offering this and that all the proceeds go back to the school and the athletic program,\u201d Jones said. \u201cDolores is also hiring a trainer who is going to be at the school two times a week. I think that\u2019s really proactive and great for our school.\u201d<\/p>\n
With studies regarding the effects of untreated head injuries constantly in the news, doctors at Southwest Internal Medicine agreed that educating parents and athletes regarding head injuries is key. \u201cWe see a few head injuries and the biggest thing is getting kids in and getting them seen,\u201d Henderson said. \u201cKids and parent need to be coached on how to rest and how to recover.\u201d<\/p>\n
Asked what led her and her fellow doctors at Southwest Internal Medicine to donate their time to local students, Henderson said that the clinic wanted to give back to the community.<\/p>\n
\u201cMost of the doctors in this practice also have kids who have gone through high school,\u201d Henderson said. \u201cWe just like to give back, and it\u2019s an important thing to keep our kids healthy and engaged in sports.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Southwest Internal Medicine offers cut-rate exams<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[61,36,346],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-69900","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-health","tag-montezuma-cortez-high-school","tag-sports"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69900","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=69900"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69900\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69900"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69900"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69900"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=69900"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}