Jan 29, 2015Athletic Trainers Making News
Spending most of their time working behind the scenes, athletic trainers rarely receive the kind of recognition their work deserves. When they do make headlines, we like to spread the word with a selection of links to articles featuring athletic trainers in action.
At the University of Alabama, Nick Seiler has become the first full-time athletic trainer in the softball program’s 12-year history. Before coming to Tuscaloosa, where he received his master’s degree in May of 2008, Seiler worked as the Head Athletic Trainer at Alexander Central High School in Taylorsville, N.C.
2008 marks the 30th summer that athletic trainer Marion “Spyder” Webb has served the Everett (Wash.) AquaSox, the Seattle Mariners’ single A farm team. During the school year, Webb works as Head Athletic Trainer at Francis Marion University in Florence, S.C. “To me,” Teresa Sarsted, AquaSox Director of Accounting and Player Housing told the Seattle Times, “he is AquaSox baseball.”
Carrie Rahn, a senior at Valdosta State University, is one of 75 scholars from the U.S. and abroad to earn a scholarship from the National Athletic Trainers’ Association Research and Education Foundation. This year’s honorees included 45 undergraduates, 19 master’s students, and 11 doctoral candidates.
Tom Reed, who has spent the last nine seasons as an Assistant Athletic Trainer for the Atlanta Falcons, has been named Head Athletic Trainer for the Arizona Cardinals, succeeding John Omohundro. Omohundro, who is stepping aside after 41 years, will become Senior Advisor of Sports Medicine.
Currently in his sixth year as athletic trainer at Woodstown (N.J.) High School, Dan Evans is headed to Beijing as a volunteer athletic trainer for the United States Olympic boxing team. Evans has also served a stint at the Olympic training center in Lake Placid, N.Y., and provided coverage at the Titan Games and the Pan-Am Games.
With help from Eastern Illinois University Head Athletic Trainer Mark Bonnstetter, two seniors in the EIU athletic training education program have received summer internships in the NFL. Over the years, Bonnstetter has established relationships with numerous athletic trainers in professional sports, and critiques his students’ applications as part of their career development.
“In December or January, I tell the students to bring in a resume for review,” he told the Daily Eastern News. “When we feel like its ready, we go ahead and send the resume to every team. Sometimes teams will call or we will call them to see if we can get the students placed.”
After 27 years at NCAA Division II Northwest Missouri State, Head Athletic Trainer David Colt is moving to the Division I United States Air Force Academy, where he’ll work with the Falcons’ baseball program. In 2006, Colt was named NATA Division II Athletic Trainer of the Year, and earlier this year, he was inducted into the NATA Hall of Fame.
Bleacher Report named Jim McCrossin, Athletic Trainer/Strength and Conditioning Coach of the Philadelphia Flyers, as one of the ten most influential people in Flyer history. McCrossin, who is in his 14th season with the Flyers, also serves as Athletic Trainer/Strength and Conditioning Coach for their AHL affiliate, the Philadelphia Phantoms.
While traveling to Honduras with Athletes in Action, Eastern Kentucky University Athletic Trainer Joe Beckett gave presentations to athletes about sports medicine and injury prevention. On a visit to Honduras’ Olympic Training Center, Beckett and Middle Tennessee State Athletic Trainer Helen Binkley met with athletic trainers to discuss rehabilitation techniques.
“My vision,” Beckett told the Richmond Register, “is to develop partnership opportunities with these universities down in Honduras through student-exchange programs, faculty-exchange and cooperative research.”
In 36 years as Head Athletic Trainer at Boise State University, Gary Craner worked with nine football coaches, spanning the program’s transition from NCAA Division II to Division I-AA to Division I-A. A member of the NATA Hall of Fame, Craner retired in June with a lifetime pass to watch Bronco games from the sidelines and plans to volunteer at high school games.
