Like all the other high schools in Georgia, Colquitt County is complying with the GHSA new guidelines to help guard against heat-related injuries.

But the Packers have added another weapon in the battle to keep players safe when temperatures and humidity rise.

Colquitt County is the beneficiary of a new mobile training room that that has an insulated roof and air conditioning, allowing the training staff to quickly cool down players who might be showing signs of heat stress.

“We’ll have gotten our money’s worth if we can keep one kid from having a heat stroke,” said Colquitt County High athletic trainer Ryan Kebler.

The 7×14-foot trailer is a gift from Colquitt Regional Medical Center to the high school and Kebler says it will be used year-round.

Kebler said his plans are to have the unit at Packer Park following football season so it can be made available to the tennis, soccer, softball and baseball teams.

In fact, the mobile training room got its first workout during the Packers’ Southwestern Select 7-on-7 Championships held last month at Packer Park.

The team took it to Hoover, Ala., for the National Select 7-on-7 Championships last month and Kebler pulled from the field house to Tom White Field to Mack Tharpe Stadium last Saturday morning to the football team’s first scrimmage of the season.

Kebler said the Packers will take the unit to all of the team’s road games this season.

Colquitt County is the only team in Region 1-AAAAAA that has such a unit, Kebler said.

“I think it helps take us to the next level,” Kebler said.

Kebler first saw a mobile training room two years ago when Foley (Ala.) High brought one to the Packers 7-on-7 competition.

The Foley trainer is a friend of Kebler’s and the two talked about ways Colquitt County might be able to get one.

Kebler approached Colquitt Regional Medical Center CEO Jim Matney with the idea and soon the hospital’s foundation voted to fund the unit.

The cost of the unit, including the wrap that identifies it as belonging to Colquitt Regional Medical center, was about $9,000.

“It shows they are supportive of what we do,” Kebler said.

The trailer holds all the gear and supplies Kebler needs to tend to injuries on the playing field.

Kebler said he has “five or six” student assistants and hopes to continue to get high school students who are interested in pursing a career in athletic training or in the health field to work with the high school teams.

“I did four years of athletic training in high school,” he said.

Kebler, who is in his third season as the high school’s athletic trainer, also said he is looking into a program that sends college students working on a degree in athletic training to high schools for hands-on experience.