Dec 1, 2022Two College ATCs Working with USMNT at World Cup
Two collegiate athletic trainers are helping the U.S. Men’s National Team on its quest for a World Cup in Qatar this fall.
Both Ron Shinault and Harris Patel are University of Georgia graduates who worked in the Bulldogs’ sports medicine department.
Shinault went on to head up the athletic training program at the University of San Francisco before joining the San Jose Earthquakes. Patel spent a long time aiding the Georgia football team before going to school to be a physician’s assistant.
Now, both men are part of the national team’s five-person athletic training staff.
A recent story from GeorgiaDogs.com detailed Shinault’s and Patel’s rise to the world stage. Below is an excerpt from the GeorgiaDogs.com article.
Shinault and Patel are in Qatar, with Shinault serving as the USMNT’s head athletic trainer and Patel working on his staff. Patel already has plenty of international competition experience, having worked with USA Track and Field at the past four Olympic Games.
“It’s a real honor to represent the United States. It’s a dream job,” Shinault, a 2001 graduate, said in a recent alumni spotlight article on UGA Today.
When Shinault was a UGA freshman, he attended a student sports medicine society meeting. There, he met Courson and another student, Patel, who was a senior. A few years later, after graduating, the two student trainers became full-time members of Courson’s staff.
“They’re both unique because they not only went here through the curriculum as students, but then they came back and worked here,” Courson said. “Harris, we hired initially to work with track, and then with football for a number of years, and Ron worked with men’s basketball.”
To read the full story from GeorgiaDogs.com about these athletic trainers’ ride to the World Cup, click here.
