BULLARD — Two Bullard High School students won titles in a fastest ankle wrapping regional competition.

“For them, it's like their Super Bowl or state championship,” said Jeff “Doc” Shrode, head athletic trainer for Bullard ISD. “They work really hard practicing their tape jobs.”

A total of 87 student athletic trainers, from districts of all sizes in East Texas participated in a student-trainer workshop at Stephen F. Austin University in Nacogdoches. As part of the workshop, students had a friendly competition on who could wrap an ankle the fastest.

“It's the most common tape job we do,” said Shrode. “You can tape almost any part of the body, but the most common thing you see is an ankle sprain.”

Shrode said students were evaluated on time, neatness, functionality, and then having all six of the  steps of the tape job done properly.

Bullard sophomore D.J. Buckley won first place for the second consecutive year.

“I was very nervous, especially because I was defending my title,” Buckley said.

Buckley said he wraps a few ankles for preventative reasons before each game and practices during classes. He said he wants to go to school to become an athletic trainer.

Bullard junior Samantha Miller took home second place.

“I was nervous, and when “Doc” told me that he wanted me to do it, I got upset with him,” Miller said. “I was pretty nervous the whole time I was taping.”

“I didn't think I was that good,” Miller said. “I like to be perfect with it and since we were under time, Doc said, 'you need to quit being so perfect, you need to go.'”

Miller said she would like to go to school for kinesiology and for music. She said during the season, they practice in class but she only wrapped one ankle before a game.

“I wrapped during practice, but on game days the athletes want to get a little picky, and want Doc to do it,” she said.

She said she wrapped junior Corbin Howard 's ankle before a football game.

“He didn't complain about it, so I did OK with it,” she said.

Shrode said the East Texas Athletic Trainer Association has hosted the workshop annually for the past 15 years. He said the workshop gives students the opportunity to meet and learn from types of trainers and ones from other districts.

The students also talked with Doug Ollie, who does sports medicine for rodeos. He works for Justin Sports Medicine.

“I would probably never be a trainer for the rodeo because they see a lot of gruesome stuff,” Miller said. “He showed us a picture of one of the bull riders, his fingers got ripped off. It was nasty.”

“It shows the view variety of where sports medicine (professionals) are,” Buckley said. “I would have never thought there was sports medicine at a rodeo. Doc knows a person who does it for ballet.”

Students also heard a presentation on catastrophic spinal injuries from Larry Denkins, an associate trainer at Pine Tree High school, in Longview.

“He talked about one of his students who got hurt in the weight room and broke his back,” Miller said. “He got teary-eyed, and I did too.”

Students also learned about concussions and the new state law, requiring schools to pull together a concussion management team.

“If I see someone I think has a concussion, I know what to look for,” Buckley said.

Buckley said he is proud of his students.

“When you go home with 87 kids and two of your kids finish first and second, that's awesome,” he said.

“These kids are learning,” he said. “They are very young and some of them are deciding they want to do this as a career, and some of them are doing it to be a part of the high school setting, but they are not necessarily an athlete.”