Five Duval County public schools will have access to certified full-time trainers starting this school year, according to jacksonville.com.
Here are 10 things to know:
1. The Jaguars, National Football League, Jacksonville University and Jacksonville Sports Medicine Program are working with the Duval city and school district to begin adding full-time trainers to the schools to stop long-term sports injuries.
2. The city started an initiative aimed at sports injury prevention in a program titled "Project 17."
3. Project 17 will put 17 highly trained full-time athletic professionals in all 17 Duval public high schools by 2020.
4. Before this initiative, the Duval high schools only had part-time trainers available.
5. Five certified trainers will be placed in Andrew Jackson, Ribault, Raines, Englewood and Baldwin high school.
6. Jacksonville University, the Jaguar and the NFL are funding the $1.5 million five-year training program.
7. The NFL has recently been implementing more health and safety solutions amid safety concerns. The school athletic training initiative is one of many initiatives the NFL is working on to prevent injuries in athletes.
8. The Jaguar Foundation will give a $50,000 donation to the program for its first year, which the NFL will match with the possibility of donating more.
9. The city will pay $53,000 to the program.
10. Jacksonville University will give each certified trainer a tuition-free fellowship to complete the university's kinesiology master’s degree program. The fellowship is valued at a total cost of about $500,000 for all 17 trainers.
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