Mar 4, 2016Kuster Takes on New Role
James Madison University Director of Athletics Jeff Bourne on Friday announced the promotion of longtime sports medicine staff member Tom Kuster to the position of associate athletics director for integrated health and sports performance. In his new role, Kuster will be responsible for fostering a cooperative and collaborative approach to all aspects of sports medicine and integrated health and sports performance to ensure the best health care and performance services are available to all student-athletes.
“Tom has been a driving force behind our growth in wellness initiatives and the overall care of our student-athletes,” Bourne said. “Our new Integrated Health and Sports Performance model presents an innovative approach to student-athlete well-being in college athletics, and Tom’s leadership will be invaluable as we grow that program. Tom and his team will play a critical role in our drive to provide the model student-athlete experience at James Madison.”
Kuster will coordinate the process of cross-disciplinary collaboration with various Integrated Health and Sports Performance personnel and physicians in making post-injury assessments, monitoring and progression of injured student-athletes, return to conditioning programming, return to competition and discharge strategies and sustainability programming for student-athletes.
“I’m humbled and honored to be presented with the opportunity to lead and develop our Integrated Health and Sports Performance initiative here at JMU,” Kuster said. “As an alum of JMU, I’m passionate about the Madison experience and how it has helped shape my career. I truly believe that JMU has all the critical student-athlete support services in place and, more importantly, a team of tremendously talented and dedicated professionals. Our multidisciplinary approach to student-athlete care and performance development will be committed to being excellent in collaboration, communication and integration with a focus on positively influencing student-athlete well-being and athletic performance development. This is a really exciting time at JMU, and I’m very appreciative of the opportunity to continue to serve my alma mater. Go Dukes!”
Within JMU Athletics, Kuster will provide leadership to the areas of Sports Medicine, Strength and Conditioning, Sports Nutrition and Sports Psychology while overseeing a staff of nearly 25 sports medicine and sport performance professionals. Kuster will facilitate the performance team meetings, Dukes C.A.R.E (Care and Recovery Enhancement) team meetings and performance committee meetings. He will also continue to coordinate all the medical services and physician services contracted to support JMU student-athletes. Kuster will serve as a member of the Athletics senior leadership team, and he will also continue to partner with the University Health Center regarding the institutional drug testing program and student-athlete wellness education programming.
Kuster, a 1995 JMU graduate, most recently served as the assistant athletic director for sports medicine, a role he started in 2006. He is a previous past President of the Virginia Athletic Trainers Association (VATA) and has been awarded the VATA College/University Athletic Trainer of the year in 2015 and the National Athletic Training Service Award in 2014 and the District 3 Athletic Training Service Award in 2012. Kuster and his wife Bethany reside in Harrisonburg with their two sons, Benjamin and Samuel.