When the foot collides with the turf, sometimes the turf wins.

When that happens you might end up at the SOMC Sports Medicine Clinic at the Urgent Care facility on Kinney’s Lane in Portsmouth on Saturday morning.

“Uh oh,” Dr. Duane Marchyn said as he walks into the room where Collin Staker, a tight end for the Portsmouth Trojans is already on a table with a taped ankle.

Marchyn’s hands take a few laps around the ankle and foot area as he watches Collin’s response.

“Alright, let’s get a picture.” With that, Marchyn orders an X-ray, and another busy week is off and running in the area designated for the walking wounded from Friday night’s gridiron battles.

“We used to do Saturday morning sports clinics for many years,” Marchyn said. “Actually we started doing them in 1985, went through until about 2003, and then for a variety of factors and reasons they sort of dwindled away.”

Marchyn said there is a good reason for the re-opening of the Sports Medicine Clinic.

“We wanted to treat our athletes locally and keep them locally,” Marchyn said. “And if we don’t give them a good service here locally, we won’t keep them local. So we’re trying to serve all the schools, and it’s open to anybody.”

Marchyn said wrist injuries, ankle injuries, the occasional knee, and the occasional collarbone fracture, are what he sees most when dealing with Friday night athletes.

“These are the ones that are not so severe that they can’t go home Friday night,” Marchyn said. “But then they wake up Saturday morning and they’re puny.”

Collin had stepped into a rut of some kind, causing pain in his ankle, so mom Stacie Staker brought him in.

“That’s a common injury,” Marchyn said. “We see that every week. When the weather gets damp these types of injuries diminish.”

Marchyn was asked about the heat and the all-too-often dehydration.

“The biggest things you see in the games is people start cramping up with lack of hydration,” Marchyn said. “For example, last week was a really hot Friday night and Brian Tennant, the trainer here at was on the field almost the whole fourth quarter seeing kids with cramps. He will see heat exhaustion and things. But in a game it’s cramps.”

Marchyn said there is one important thing a player can do during games played in extreme heat.

“Hydrate, hydrate, hydrate.”

The person who makes the program go is Registered Nurse Tara Harkless, who says the Saturday schedule makes good sense.

“They don’t have to wait until next week to get seen at office hours,” Harkless said. “It lets them get appropriate splinting if they need, and pain management to make sure they don’t injure themselves more by walking on it or anything like that. Or if it’s a foot injury or disability issues.”

Marchyn awaits Collin’s X-Ray, and meanwhile, another young man awaits his attention.

Frank Lewis may be reached at (740) 353-3101 Ext. 232 or flewis@heartlandpublications.com