SWEET HOME - Mid-valley wrestlers will step onto the mats and under the lights for their season-opening meets this week. They will be concentrating on getting the important first takedown and running their holds deep.

But in the back of their mind, some may also be wondering if this is the day they pick up a staph infection that could force them out of practice and competition.

“Wrestling is the only sport where a kid can be held out due to a skin disorder,” Sweet Home coach Steve Thorpe said. “We have to perform skin checks at weigh-ins and a doctor sets the date when the kid can return. You can have ring worm or herpes in other sports and still compete. Not wrestling.”

Thorpe, who has guided Husky teams to three state titles since 1998, has taken the nationwide outbreak of methicillin resistant staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) seriously. According to freelance writer Gary Burris, in 2001 there were 100,000 MRSA-related infections reported. By 2005, there were more than 5 million cases.

MRSA lives on healthy skin and can survive up to 90 days on fabrics and hard surfaces.

“No matter what we do, we’re not going to be immune to this,” Thorpe said. “We are just going to do everything we can to keep it under control. This isn’t just about a kid wrestling, it’s about his health and safety. No one has died from ringworm or athlete’s foot, but they can die from this.”

Thorpe recently sent a letter to all teachers and coaches who use the high school’s wrestling room. He outlined the mandatory procedures being taken by the wrestling teams and has asked others to cooperate.

The wrestling squad’s mandatory daily procedures include:

• Cleaning all mats with Cliff Keen mat cleaner and bleach solution before and after practice.

• Wipe down all walls with the same cleaning solution.

• Dip all headgear in a bucket of mater cleaning solution.

• Launder all clothes nn at school, not home nn after every mat workout.

• Require all athletes to shower after every workout using an antibacterial/antifungal liquid soap. This includes members of the community’s mat club for young wrestlers.

Thorpe has asked other instructors to follow the same procedures and also to leave their shoes on.

“This is a change from past practices,” Thorpe noted. “I would rather deal with mud ... that is tracked in than with what is being tracked on the mat when shoes come off.”

Thorpe said that when the students take their shoes off, there is greater potential for transmission of any infectious issues through their socks or bare feet.

Second-year Lebanon Warrior coach Mike Cox is also being vigilant about holding staph outbreaks at bay in his program.

“Last year, a couple kids had it,” Cox said, noting it was not MRSA. “A couple have had it this year as well. The thing is, it’s not a wrestling disease. It’s in the community as a whole.”

Cox requires his athletes to shower before and after practice. Mats are disinfected daily and disinfectant wipes are used by the wrestlers between matches.

“I’m washing the kids’ laundry,” Cox said. “Each one has a numbered laundry bag. They put their dirty clothes in the bag and we wash them. They get handed clean clothes the next day.”

The Warriors are also using antibacterial soap for their showers and are covering any mat burn or scrape. No street shoes are allowed in the practice room.

“The kids don’t want to get it and are doing everything they can to avoid it,” Cox said. “The problem may come when we wrestle someone who hasn’t taken it as seriously as we have.”

West Albany grapplers are informed about the dangers of staph. Last summer they helped make an 11-minute video called MRSA: The Ticking Time Bomb that is being distributed nationwide by Tec Laboratories, an Albany-based company that has developed a staph-fighting product called StephAseptic.

The National Federation of State High School Associations include suggests athletes do the following to reduce potential staph infections:

• Wash your hands frequently, with hot water for a long length of time.

• Cover all open cuts prior to practice.

• Do not share items such as clothing, towels, soap, razors, or wattle bottles.

• Wear barriers such as non-latex gloves when treating open wounds.