Stepinac Athletic Instructor Uses Training to Save a Life
On Feb. 13, before Stepinac High School played All Hallows High School in varsity basketball, Maxwell Anderson, the 25 year-old Athletic Trainer for Stepinac Athletics, was going through his usually routine stretching players for the upcoming game.
However, on Saturday, Feb. 10, Maxwell’s Athletic Training, education and experience, was put to the ultimate test, when a young freshman player for Mount St. Michael Academy collapsed on the court and stopped breathing in a basketball game at Stepinac High School.
The Mountaineers freshman player went up for a rebound and when he came down he landed on his back and smacked his head on the court. “When I got to him he was still able to talk and explained what he was feeling. Then, I diagnosed that he stopped breathing,” explained Anderson. “He was on his side, so we had to roll him over to apply CPR. I gave him rescue breaths and five compressions to the chest and then he let out a huge gasp and was able to breathe again,” said the Stepinac Athletic Trainer.
Anderson has worked at his craft for two years as a Clinic Outreach Professional and as the Stepinac Athletic Trainer through Professional Physical Therapy located at 100 Main Street, in White Plains.
On Feb. 10, in the fourth quarter of a freshman basketball game at Stepinac High School, Stepinac Athletics, Professional Physical Therapy and even Anderson came to understand the quality and worth of his education and training. “It was a weird kind of calm, just going through the steps of your training when you are in that situation,” revealed Anderson.
Anderson graduated from Marist College (’16) with a degree in Athletic Training. The young Athletic Trainer’s education, experience and training kept him calm under extreme circumstances, which aided him to help save a young man’s life. “It is an amazing feeling. It is why you get into this profession, to help people, and to get that message that the player was alright and getting better, you cannot compare that to anything,” said Anderson.
