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Fairfax County Public Schools athletic trainers recorded 88,756 encounters with 9,808 students during the 2023-24 school year, highlighting the scale of medical care provided across the division’s athletic programs.
The trainers documented 22,648 injuries, including sprains, strains, fractures, cuts, scrapes, bumps and bruises. They also delivered 197,229 therapeutic treatments, such as strengthening and conditioning exercises, range-of-motion work, therapeutic modalities and wound care.
FCPS employs 49 nationally certified and state-licensed athletic trainers. They care for high school student-athletes before, during and after practices and competitions while also covering middle school sports competitions in the fall and spring. The division is working toward assigning two full-time athletic trainers to every high school.
Several members of the program have received regional and national recognition. Heather Murphy, the full-time athletic trainer at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, was named the National Athletic Trainers’ Association’s 2024 National Secondary School Athletic Trainer of the Year.
Oakton High School athletic trainer Paul Rupp and Athletic Training Program Administrator John Reynolds were inducted into the Virginia Athletic Trainers’ Association Hall of Fame in 2022. Reynolds joined the Mid-Atlantic Athletic Trainers’ Association Hall of Fame in 2024, while Rupp was named the association’s Most Distinguished Athletic Trainer that year.