By Eric Olson
AP Sports Writer

"Take care of yourselves," Schadwinkel said before he addressed the day's practice agenda.

Two Islander wrestlers are coming off bouts with the notorious MRSA, the drug-resistant staph infection that has shown up in increasing numbers across the nation.

Grand Island's infected wrestlers were allowed back to competition two weeks after their mid-January diagnoses. Their illnesses prompted the school to take extreme and ongoing measures to ensure the health of its wrestlers.

MRSA, or methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus, has become an issue at every level of contact sports. Wrestling has drawn much of the attention this winter as outbreaks have forced the cancellation of competitions from California to New Jersey.

The growing awareness of MRSA comes a year after programs in the upper Midwest reeled from a herpes scare that shut down high school wrestling in Minnesota for eight days.

MRSA does not respond to penicillin-related antibiotics, but there are other antibiotics that are effective. Left unchecked, though, MRSA is difficult to treat and potentially fatal.

The strain of staph was discovered in the 1960s, with its emergence in athletics coming in earnest in the 2000s. Ominously called the "flesh-eating disease" by some, MRSA is sometimes dismissed, mistakenly, as a benign pimple or boil on the skin.

"Early on with MRSA, there were people saying that was going to be the death of the sport of wrestling," said Jim Tenopir, executive director of the Nebraska School Activities Association. "It still may be, but I don't see that. It's another one of those things where you have to take every precaution."

At Grand Island, that meant having every wrestler's nose and fingernails swabbed with preventive medication three times a day for 10 days, ordering a case of skin-protecting foam that wrestlers apply before every practice and match, and hiring an extra custodian for the balance of the season so the locker room can be deep cleaned every night.

Administrators declined to identify the wrestlers who contracted MRSA because of concern that some people might attach a stigma to them, activities director Joe Kutlas said.

"That's clearly one of the things we fear, that our wrestling program has been somehow made into a leper colony, unfit to be with other people," Kutlas said, who added that a third member of the student population not involved with athletics also was treated for MRSA this winter.

Baseball's Sammy Sosa, basketball's Paul Pierce and football's Junior Seau are among the high-profile athletes who have battled MRSA in recent years.

"It doesn't discriminate," Kutlas said.

At Grand Island, one wrestler was diagnosed after a lesion was found on his chest; the other after a lesion was found on his jawbone. One became quite ill and required twice-a-day intravenous antibiotics, Schadwinkel said, and the other had mild symptoms.

Staph is common an estimated 30 percent of the population carries some form of the bacteria and it often colonizes in the nasal cavity. Staph becomes dangerous when it enters the blood.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report that MRSA is responsible for more than 94,000 serious infections in the United States a year. Most of the infections occur in a medical setting with people who have weakened immune systems.

But wrestlers, football players and other athletes in contact sports are ideal carriers because staph is passed through bodily fluids and skin-to-skin contact.

Once MRSA appeared at Grand Island, the school responded quickly, principal Kent Mann said.

All 54 wrestlers and coaches had their noses swabbed morning, noon and night with Bactroban. The medicine has proved effective in eradicating staph. School wellness center staff and the athletic trainer did the swabbing, with names checked off with each treatment. Wrestlers were warned that they wouldn't be allowed to practice or compete if they didn't fully comply.

Before practices and competitions, wrestlers are required to apply KS Skin Creme, a foam that's rubbed into the skin to provide a protective coating against contaminants. At the end of the day, they are required to shower with Hibiclens, an anti-microbial liquid. They also must have their practice attire washed at home every night. Daily skin checks also are performed.

The locker rooms were fumigated with anti-bacterial "bombs" five nights in a row, and every nook and cranny continues to be disinfected every school night. The tops and bottoms of mats along with the walls of the wrestling room were thoroughly cleaned, and the tops of mats continue to be disinfected before and after every practice.

Mann estimated that preventive measures have cost the school into the thousands of dollars.

"Not treated and allowed to run a full course, you can die," Mann said. "We felt we had to make a very deliberate plan and strong response. It costs some money, but what's your health worth?"

Jason Brisbin, a senior 160-pounder, said he and his teammates appreciate everything the school has done, and they don't mind the inconvenience.

"If something does get out of hand, it could put our sport at risk, so it's worth it," Brisbin said. "It's a great sport. I don't want to see anything happen to it."

B.J. Anderson of Minneapolis, chief sports medicine adviser for the National Federation of State High School Associations, said cleaning mats and disinfecting locker rooms are not the entire answer. The key to prevention, he said, is personal hygiene and ending the practices of sharing towels and equipment.

"There is not one single study to show that cleansers decrease the risk of infection," said Anderson, a former college wrestler. "People assume that the mat is the source. MRSA is passed through direct contact. You can sterilize the mat as much as you want, but as soon as you put an athlete on it, you have contaminated it."

Schadwinkel, Grand Island's fifth-year coach, said MRSA is just another in a long line of obstacles the wrestling community must overcome.

Schadwinkel, 33, said he remembers when some folks thought the fear of AIDS and hepatitis would doom wrestling.

The sport always has had to deal with problems such as ringworm, impetigo, herpes gladitorum and other skin conditions.

Now there's MRSA.

"To deal with something that potentially causes a person to lose an appendage or die is pretty frightening when you're a coach dealing with young people and you're charged with keeping them healthy and safe," Schadwinkel said. "Ringworm, while it's kind of gross and not something you want to have happen, it's not going to cause someone to potentially die. Just the severity of MRSA makes things a little more intense in dealing with it."

Grand Island qualified a Class A-leading 14 wrestlers for the state tournament, which runs Thursday through Saturday.