South Tahoe Sports Med students place third in weekend competition

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - South Tahoe High's Sports Medicine students earned impressive third-place honors at the 18th annual High School Sports Medicine Competition at UC Northridge this past weekend. They competed against 700 students from 50 high schools from western states including Kansas, Texas, Washington, and California.

This is the third year the school's Sports Medicine Coordinator Isaiah Tannaci has taken a group of his students to the competition. The first year the group went to observe and learn, the second year they came in tenth, and now a top-three finish.

Tannaci said it was amazing to watch his students go through written and practical exams of anatomy and Sports Med together.

"They were so proud of themselves," said Tannaci. "It was a good validation of all of their hard work and after school hours."

Teams must be invited to the competition and South Tahoe High took advantage of the situation and came away with a greater knowledge of the field. Many of those who have gone through the STHS Sports Medicine since the beginning six years ago have chosen fields of study or work in exercise science, medicine, physical therapy, nursing, and other medical fields. 175 students go through the Sports Med courses each semester.

He currently teaches three levels of sports medicine with the fourth year being an internship at Barton Hospital four hours a day for six weeks.

Another highlight of the weekend was a personalized tour of Red Bull's Athlete Performance Center in Santa Monica. Here athletes not only train on the highest of the high-tech equipment, but they also learn about their bodies and their brains.

Congratulations go to the winning team of Sports Med 2 (SM2) and Sports Med 3 (SM3) students from South Tahoe High:

Rita McCann-SM3
Riley Turner-SM3
Hannah Voorhees-SM3
Adrian Lomeli-SM3
Leslie Olmos-SM3
Caitlin Bernal-SM3
Derek Robbins-SM2
Miles Hamburg-SM2
Ross McLeod-SM2
Cedona Martorana-SM2
Jensen Smith-SM2
Elizabeth Yale-SM2