For coaches, parents or players seeking to reduce or prevent football injuries, there are some obvious actions such as making sure that protective equipment is in good shape and making sure that it's properly fitted on whatever body part it's designed to protect.

Among the experts consulted for this story there was one comment, however, which came up more often than anything else and which isn't typical: year-round conditioning.

Jessica Geisler, 31, is a certified athletic trainer for Wheaton Franciscan All Saints but used to work in Texas where she was a full-time high school employee. Equipment there was the equivalent of what one would find in college athletics, she said, and the emphasis was on year-round conditioning.

Rather than attend a physical education class, athletes would spend that time during the school day in exercises or other team pursuits, and they would still have an after-school practice. After the season, there would be boot camps with more drills, weight lifting to condition bodies, and so forth.

Up here, players tend to sit in the off-season, she said. "And the first day comes, and they're dying."

You can see the difference in students who've done this kind of off-season conditioning, experts said. They're quicker, not winded, and generally look stronger.

Off-season slacking also promotes injury. Lifting weights conditions muscles, and that not only increases strength but also helps protect a joint, said Carmelo Tenuta, president and CEO of Sports Physical Therapy & Rehab Specialists in Racine and Kenosha.

He'd like local coaches to work on more than weights, however. They should also train their athletes in "proprioception," which is the body's sense of its position in space. That kind of balance training enables athletes to recover more quickly if they're hit or tripped, he said, and it helps ensure that they will fall in a better position if they do fall.

He'd like to see more emphasis on flexibility, too, and noted that in the past there were some professional athletes known for taking dance classes to improve that skill. Lifting weights makes joints more stable, but there's a price. "The more stable something is, the less it moves." That's the stereotype of the muscle-bound football player, someone with strength but who moves unsteadily. The counterexample, he said, is a gymnast whose body has less raw strength but is very lean and flexible.

Michael Carter, an athletic trainer and site supervisor for All Saints, said teaching body mechanics is also important, That means, for example, making sure athletes land properly on a leg so their ligaments or joints are not injured.

Other tips from local experts:

* Make sure that fingers or other joints are taped properly.

* Do warm-up and cool-down stretches to prevent tissue damage.

* Make sure players drink enough water.

* If you think you have an injury, don't wait to talk to the trainer. Proper early care can help prevent that injury from turning into something which is more serious, which lasts longer, or which ends your season or career.

In this corner of Wisconsin, school athletes have the services of certified trainers at least part of the time. How much coverage Unified and Union Grove and private schools receive is governed by how much they pay, Carter said. Until a couple of years ago, All Saints donated the services of its trainers, but now schools are asked to pay for equipment, such as tape, and a fee. "Obviously it doesn't cover salary; it doesn't over benefits, anything like that." Some schools will hire a trainer to be on hand, others hire more than one, he said, but not all schools in the area have the same level of service.

Although she hasn't been in practice that long, Geisler said, she has seen coaches improving in their awareness of injuries and of how those injuries may be prevented.