For one first-year color guard coach, the season has already presented a challenge that extends far beyond teaching choreography.
The problem centers on the team’s captain, a talented student with a history of knee issues.
Earlier this season, the player re-injured the same knee and has since told the coach that she can’t perform specific movements, such as jazz runs or jumps.
At times, the pain has forced her to sit out of practice.
For the new coach, the concern is twofold: she doesn’t want to exacerbate the injury by pushing the captain, but she also doesn’t know when it’s safe for the student to return to full strength or whether certain moves will ever be possible again.
After voicing concerns to the administration, the coach was advised to call the student’s parents. The parent reported that their child hadn’t mentioned any pain at home and had recently gone on a long walk without problems.
According to the coach, they promised to follow up but never did. Later, when the captain asked to speak about the phone call, tensions seemed possible, but the conversation ended quickly.
For a while, the student stopped mentioning pain. Then, during a recent rehearsal, she said she couldn’t do a pique jump, sparking suggestions from teammates to remove the move from the show entirely.
That left the coach in a difficult spot. Should one student’s injury, especially the captain’s, change the routine for the whole team? Or should the choreography only be modified for her? Without medical clearance, how could the coach know whether the problem was serious or situational?
Veteran coaches responded to the situation, and many argued that medical clearance is non-negotiable.
Hector Fermaint, a Color Guard choreographer at Orange County Public Schools, said,
I just stopped reading halfway through. Point blank student needs a medical release form in order to even spin. She should not partake in anything until she returns with a doctor’s note stating there’s no issue with her knee. It’s a liability.
Hector Fermaint
Others also raised the concern following the situation. Delany Noelle Grizzle, a resident of Mobile, Alabama, said,
I would say standard practice should be to contact the parent, which you’ve done, and ask them to take their child to the doctor. Don’t let the child participate at all until medically cleared by a doctor.
Delaney Noelle Grizzle
One coach explained how she created alternative moves for her co-captain with knee problems, allowing the team to maintain visual balance without rewriting entire sequences.
Kortney Alumbaugh’s suggestion was to split the group, with half performing the original move and the other half doing a modified version so that the captain wouldn’t stand out alone. She added,
I have a girl that has knee pain and is my co captain. I make sure she has her brace on every practice. I even keep one on hand incase she doesn’t have hers. I make sure she can do the move but during practice I have her do everything except the ones that will mess her up. She is able to do the true move when we preform. Some shows she has told me she can’t and I alway have a back up move for her do to that is very similar but will not strain her knee and it looks good either way. Other times I have had half the girls do the move and the other half do a similar one so its even and she isn’t the only one out. The district i work for also requires Dr notes for injuries. Stating they are clear or what they are limited to.
Kortney Alumbaugh
