Wrestlers step into the ring–worm

To us, it's the room at the end of the gym hall. But to Tinea corporis gladiatorum, the fungus that causes ringworm, it's a breeding ground.

Even when the sweat, ache and smell of a day's wrestling practice are cleared, Tinea can still remain. According to captain Mario Bracamontes, a senior, "almost everyone on the varsity line-up" has had ringworm at least once during high school.

It's not only a problem for wrestlers—even regular Physical Education (P.E.) students are at risk. After all, fungus is not restricted to wrestling tournaments and locker rooms. According to the research of two AP Biology students who decided to get the dirt on Blair's bacteria, ringworm also grows on desks, boards and walls.

"There were more colonies of bacteria on the mats in the weight room than on the inner ring of the garbage can," says junior Amy Scheer, who conducted the experiment with junior Sneha Daya.

When Scheer and Daya showed their findings to P.E. Resource Teacher Cynthia Changuris, they were disappointed by her reaction. "She made no indication that any of their policies about cleaning were going to change," Scheer says.

Changuris says that changing the department's cleaning policies would be unrealistic. "It's kind of difficult to find time to clean every surface that people have contact with," she explains. "They want to come in and pick on my mats, but do teachers clean every door handle? Is this really a unique situation?"

Scheer had a particular interest in the project for her biology class because she got ringworm as a freshman after having gym in the wrestling room.

The infection caught Scheer by surprise. "I just assumed that the mats were disease-free," she says. And since no one had cautioned students of the chance of acquiring ringworm from gym, Scheer first thought the mark on her knee was just a bruise. After it persisted for a few weeks, she realized that the "bruise" was actually ringworm.

Like a bruise, ringworm appears as a mark on the skin. Unlike a bruise, though, the mark is characterized by a red, scaly area that is crusty around the edges and clear in the center, resembling a ring.

Although there is a ring that goes with ringworm, there's no worm—just a highly contagious fungus.

The fungus, most common among wrestlers, can be transferred through uniforms, headgear, the mat or, most commonly, through skin contact.

To prevent the spread of ringworm, county regulations require that all contaminated wrestlers present a doctor's note to the referee saying their condition is being treated before being allowed to compete.

However, the rules don't apply to what goes unnoticed. "If the ref doesn't see it, it's not a problem," says senior Zach Davis.

Davis, the self-proclaimed "best authority on ringworm in the school," has been infected six times in four years of wrestling.

Senior Gibbuda Witham competed for two weeks last year with ringworm and simply hid the evidence. "It was on my knee, so all I had to do was wear sweatpants," Whitham says.

Even if they can pull one over on the refs, the wrestlers are not fooling their coach, Jake Scott. He knows that some of his players hide their ringworm from him, but he trusts them to take care of the situation on their own. "There's a level of maturity on the team," Scott says. "They know they have to treat it."

Scott instructs wrestlers with ringworm to visit the dermatologist for prescription creams. There are also over-the-counter alternatives, such as Lotrimin and Tinactin, but their potency is hindered by sweat. Since the cream drips off during sweaty meets or practices, it must be applied repeatedly to be effective.

Creams usually take a week to make the fungus inactive and another two weeks to cure it completely. But, many wrestlers can't wait that long, and some risk damage to their skin by killing the fungus quickly with bleach.

In order to prevent ringworm, a clean workout environment must be maintained. "We're really into cleaning the mats and wiping our feet with ammonia before we wrestle," says Witham. "We don't let people wear the same clothes two days in a row, and we make them take showers."

The team's drive to purify is an improvement over past years, according to Scott. He says that three years ago, when team members cleaned the mats only about twice a week, there was an unusually high number of ringworm cases.

This year, though, wrestlers wipe the mats with bleach every day, and the infection rate is lower than usual.

Yet there is still room for improvement. Medical journals suggest that cleaning all headgear with bleach daily is an important preventive step, but the team rarely follows the advice.

"No one washes their headgear," Scott says. Witham occasionally wipes his headgear off with a shirt, he says, but he never uses bleach. Bracamontes even shared his unwashed headgear with a teammate a few times—a possible explanation for the ringworm on his left sideburn.