On the mat: Skin infections can strike even careful wrestling teams
Before and after winning, a wrestler does just about all the
right things when it comes to hygiene.
He washes with antibacterial cleanser or soap before matches so
as not to transfer bacteria onto his opponent or the mat (which
also presumably was cleaned), and he does the same after he's done
wrestling.
He throws his dirty clothes and gear into his gym bag and heads
home, where he makes sure to wash and dry his clothes and maybe
even take another shower.
After waking up in the morning, he takes his clean singlet and
tosses it back into the same gym bag he used the day before without
even thinking twice about it.
"It's equivalent to making up burgers on the cutting board,
cooking them and then putting them back on the same cutting board
as before," said Mike Moyer, executive director of the National
Wrestling Coaches Association.
It doesn't take much for skin infections and diseases to gain
traction and quickly spread.
Just ask the Egg Harbor Township High School wrestling team,
which had its hopes of a sectional title come to an abrupt end
Monday in a 42-19 loss to Cherokee.
The Eagles beat the Chiefs 36-22 on Jan. 7.
That win, however, was before an outbreak of the skin infection
impetigo made an untimely visit to the school.
"It's like a domino effect on your program," said EHT coach Mike
Caiazza, who was missing three starters and a handful of reserves
Monday. "In my 25 years of coaching, I have never had anything like
this. We stress the cleanliness part, but you're still susceptible
to it, I guess."
The Eagles have a brand-new gymnasium and facilities, and
Caiazza makes sure to do all he can to protect the athletes.
The coach cleans and disinfects the mats twice a day and makes
sure that every part of the facility used by the wrestling team is
clean, from the weight room to the showers.
Caiazza even takes the extra step of taking singlets home to his
own house following matches and cleaning them to limit contact with
wrestlers and other equipment.
None of that stopped Caiazza and the Eagles from having to shut
down their wrestling room for three days in the middle of last
week.
Impetigo is a highly contagious bacterial skin infection, one of
the most common in wrestling.
The Eagles contacted the state and were told that in order to
postpone or cancel matches, they would need to have their school's
doctor check out every member of the team.
The doctor came in and said as long as no new outbreaks were
seen in three days, he likely would clear the team to wrestle
again, and he did just that.
EHT did have to postpone its last two regular-season matches and
withdraw from a quad with Hammonton, Moorestown and Toms River
South this past Saturday.
The Eagles weren't the only team to prove that skin infections
don't discriminate this season.
Jackson Memorial, one of the top two or three teams in the
state, was forced to withdraw from the Shore Conference Tournament
late last month following unconfirmed cases of MRSA, a contagious
staph bacteria. The Jaguars had to shut down their wrestling room
for five days.
The Eagles, especially a talented group of seniors, were tried
to take any positives they could out of a tough situation.
"Wrestling is a life-lesson sport," senior captain Jason Cohen
said. "I've learned many things from this sport, and the thing I
learned from this is to keep your head up no matter what happens.
Wrestle your butt off and fight for what's yours."
Cohen won his match by pin on Monday. That bout accounted for
three of the Eagles' four total bonus points in the match.
There is a free online webinar on the NWCA's website,
NWCAonline.com, with information regarding prevention and treatment
of numerous skin issues.
Moyer, the NWCA executive director, coincidentally was a college
wrestling teammate of Caiazza's at West Chester University. Moyer
said the NWCA has started to look at skin issues as injuries.
"(Skin issues) can keep a wrestler out of competition every bit
as much as an injury can," Moyer said. "Sometimes I just think that
by referring to it as an injury that wrestlers may pay closer
attention to it."
Now Cohen and the Eagles turn their attention to the individual
postseason and the upcoming District 32 tournament.
Don't expect to find the Eagles sitting around sulking about
their recent misfortunes.
They would rather think about what lies ahead.
"Things happen for a reason," Cohen said.
Contact John O'Kane:
609-272-7210
JOKane@pressofac.com
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