As junior at Catalina Foothills High School Magnus Johansson held his breath, a spirometer was reading his respiratory response.
“I can actually figure out how being an athlete and just like exercising every day makes my numbers different from somebody else’s numbers,” Johansson said.
He’s one of the students in the sports medicine two class and a running back on the school’s football team.
At his games he’s used to seeing sports medicine professionals out on the field attending to injured players.
“They test all these things that we’re learning about in class, so it just sort of helps me test myself,” he said.
Last year he took sports medicine one and said the class focused on the structure of the skeleton and the body’s basic systems. This year the class is focusing on recognizing and preventing injuries.
“How your body operates and how it’s working to keep you alive everyday,” he said about the class this year.
Johansson is considering medical school and said the class isn’t just helping him on the field, but is also helping him towards his future.
“It would definitely be useful to have that background and at least know to do the right steps to keep everyone safe,” Johansson said.
Rylee Chung is a senior in the class and is also taking sports medicine three.
“You don’t really get exposure to this into college so I think like because we get to see it more early on, maybe it sticks better,” she said.
The program requires an internship in the sports medicine three class, so Chung is working at the Tucson Orthopedic Center.
“So I’m hoping to maybe get more experience there and kind of see if I actually want to do that in the future,” she said.
As for her future, she’s holding her breath, hoping to be in orthopedics.
“We have more solid knowledge on it maybe compared to others,” she said about how the program is helping her work towards her goal.
