Foundation for Fairplay Donates $25,000 in Knee Braces to High Schools

Linemen on local high school football teams now have state-of-the-art equipment to help prevent knee injuries on the playing field.

The Foundation for Faiplay Fund (F3), spent $25,000 towards buying the NZONE Breg functional knee brace for local athletes. The knee braces will be used in conjunction with Lake Charles Memorial’s Sports Medicine program, which services all Calcasieu Parish schools.

“Offensive linemen take a beating during football games, especially on there knees. These braces protect if someone hits there knee or falls on them while blocking,” says Jamey Rasberry, Director of Lake Charles Memorial Sports Medicine. “This is a preventive measure used by collegiate and professional offensive lineman because of there value to the team. We thought why not bring this preventive measure to our high schools because they as just as important as any professional.”

The knee braces are the same ones you will see used by college and professional linemen every weekend, but is rare to see in high school.

“The reason it’s not common is because it’s so expensive. I don’t know of any high school that I’ve seen issues this to all of their offensive linemen,” Rasberry says. “Most of the time when you see a kid with this type of brace on it’s after they’ve had a knee injury. The surgeon has fixed something and is trying to prevent something else from happening.”

Each high school in Calcasieu Parish, which has football as a sport, received eight pair to be used by offensive linemen. These schools include: Barbe, Sam Houston, La Grange, Iowa, Dequincy, Vinton, Sulphur, Washington Marion, St Louis, Hamilton Christian and Lake Charles College Prep.

F3 was established by The Foundation at Lake Charles Memorial in order to provide a more level playing field in the areas of preventable injury needs. The fund assists schools in acquiring equipment such as quality football helmets, training room equipment needed for the rehabilitation of sports-related injuries and creating safe physical fitness surroundings.

Funds are distributed through an application process, which is reviewed by a volunteer board of directors. To learn more about F3 or to make a donation call 337.494.3226 or visit www.lcmh.com/f3.