2019 Emerald City Volleyball Tournament
Over the 2019 Memorial Day weekend, Bastyr Sports Medicine Club (BSMC) volunteered at the 33rd annual Emerald City Classic (ECC) Volleyball Tournament for the 9th consecutive year. The tournament hosted 192 teams with over 1,000 athletes from across the United States and Canada. The tournament was held at the University of Washington, and had open and club divisions with athletes ranging from 14-18 years of age. The Bastyr Sports Medicine Club worked with the Traditional Chinese Medicine Sports Medicine Club (TCMSMC) to treat over 450 athletes throughout the weekend. This year, the BSMC served as the tournament first aid and emergency medical team.
The BSMC students that attended the event included: Raymond Chao, Yelena Novik, Megan Roark, Aimee Kisaichi, Veronica Neumann, Chelsea Mikula, Payton Robertson, Nikol Wells, Andrew Dablaing, Katie DiNello, Paula Mader, Keith Dickson, and Victoria Lofdahl. TCMSMC students that attended the event included: Kay Uribe, Jiazhen Li, Yun Xiao, Sharon Blaney, Zoe Lai, Phuong Thach, and Jeffrey Wong. All students received extra training in SafeSport athlete protection before the tournament, while some students received additional training in emergency sports medicine in preparation. The students were supervised by Dr. Tom Yang, ND, LAc, LMP, Dr. Ashok Bhandari, ND, MS(Ayr), Dr. Masahiro Takakura, ND, LAc, DC, Dr. Jessica Norton, ND, LAc, and Dr. Darci Davis, ND.
This was the first year American Naturopathic Board of Sports Physicians (ANBSP) invited students from other Naturopathic Medicine Schools to this event. Bastyr University California, Boucher Institute of Naturopathic Medicine, and National University of Naturopathic Medicine all came together to practice their skills and learn from the Integrative Medicine Group’s doctors listed above. These students included: Happy Uppal (BUC), Mary Buse (Boucher), Morgan Woods (BUC), Tanelle Westgard (Boucher), Elaine McHugh (BUC), Larissa van As (Boucher) and James Lee (NUNM).
The students appreciated volunteering at the ECC Volleyball Tournament, it offered them an opportunity to apply what they have learned along with practicing their clinical skills in an acute setting. The ECC volleyball tournament was a great way to practice acute history taking, focused assessment, and effective treatment. The students utilized Kinesio taping, cupping, soft tissue manipulation, joint mobilization, muscle energy stretching, athletic taping, pelvic blocking, and acupuncture to help athletes. This year, the students performed a notable amount of concussion assessments, and a handful of imaging referrals. The BSMC and TCMSMC worked together to provide integrative care to the athletes and made referrals when appropriate.
Another notable aspect of the ECC Volleyball Tournament this year was that Integrative Medicine Group also conducted research on Manual Directional Tissue Testing along with separate research for concussion assessments.
The Bastyr Sports Medicine Club would like to extend a huge thank you to Integrative Medicine Group’s supervising doctors for taking the time to share their expertise. We would also like to extend our appreciation to Kinesio Taping Association for their generous donation of Kinesio Tape. Thanks to Jim Clavadetscher and the rest of ECC’s volunteers for arranging such an exceptional event, and for donating a total of 4000 hours to make ECC run efficiently. The BSMC had a remarkable experience at this year’s ECC Volleyball Tournament. We were happy to take on more responsibility working as emergency medical staff, and we had great pleasure in working with students from various naturopathic medical schools. We hope to keep growing as a club, and we look forward to volunteering at ECC next year!
Bastyr Sports Medicine Club 