AT in Delaware

Heather Heidel leads the Delaware Athletic Trainers' Association. She has spent half of her career serving on the state association in Delaware.

Delaware ATA president Heather Heidel

What is your AT Story?

When did you get introduced to Athletic Training? During my high school sports career, I was often injured, and the AT became a mentor to me.

A surgery in my junior year led to my not playing basketball as a senior.

Did an internship as a senior

Where did you go to college? UD & Cal U of PA

Where was your first job? Tidewater Physical Therapy in Milton, DE

How long have you been practicing? 16 yrs

When did you get involved with the Delaware Athletic Trainers Association?

In my 7th year as a secretary for 4 years

The past two years, the president-elect

What is a unique aspect of Athletic Training in your state?

I know almost all of the ATs in our state

We are 1.5 hours from top to bottom

What is a big challenge for Athletic Trainers in Delaware? Turnover rate

Turnover rate

Funding for positions

The long-term hires are through the district rather than a clinical outreach.

In 2024, you had the Block grant to fund ATs in every school.  Can you talk about that?

2 million dollars annually 

It is divided among the public schools based on enrollment and is only allowed to be used for hiring an athletic trainer.

We have used a lot of the AT Your Own Risk data to educate lawmakers.

If you had to pick another state to live and work in which one would it be and why? Hawaii

They mandate ATs, and I love the beach.

You're recruiting ATs to work in Delaware…what is your sales pitch?

We have a lot of young ATs and a lot of mentors.  We are small and tight-knit

Contact Us:

These people LOVE Athletic Trainers and help support the podcast:

Frio Hydration – Superior Hydration products.

Donate and get some swag (like Patreon but for the school)

HOIST – No matter your reason for dehydration DRINK HOIST

MedBridge Education – Use “TheSMB” to save some money, be entered in a drawing for a second year free, and support the podcast.

Marc Pro – Use “THESMB” to recover better.

Athletic Dry Needling – Save up to $100 when registering through our link.

Xothrm Smart Pad

Mind Mirror Round 2

PlayPlay
Mind Mirror; Glenn Bowers

Quick overview of Mind Mirror for those who missed the first podcast.

Artificial intelligence is used to give a risk assessment of someone who potentially has a concussion.

Correlation is one element used to determine if the patient has a concussion

Coming straight in from bright light, which could restrict the pupils, but the correlation should be the same.

Light intensity, fatigue, and cold can affect pupils.

Taking Nyquil or something that makes you groggy or sluggish will negatively impact the test results.

Hit the maximum restriction in one second or less; it should not be three or more seconds.

The Athletic Trainer needs to know what is currently going on with the athlete. 

Age can also have a very slow response, which is why the app looks at other factors.

PLR – healthy score indicates a high probability that the athlete does not have a concussion.

A score lower than .8 indicates a high probability that the athlete does have a concussion.

Caffeine’s effect?

Caffeine can constrict the pupils; in Emma's case, her pupils were very constricted due to a possible combination of the caffeine and light restriction. 

You can use a light meter to help tell if the pupils are restricted.

Mind Mirror's Indoor versus Outdoor differential?

Try to do it in a shaded area or inside, and try to do it in an area that does not affect pupils

Does it matter if you do the baseline test or the after-incident test?

Exact same test, just allows them to segment the data. 

Will the administrator be able to see the results in the app?

Yes

When using the Mind Mirror app it asks test result is normal or not normal before we see the results. Should we be able to see that before?

SOAP, what did you observe? Did you observe things in a normal or abnormal state? Are things normal? They will be removed in the next version.

Clarify the colors a little more.  One of our results showed .09 and was orange.

Color scheme: green, light orange, to red

An extremely low score should have shown up in red

Will look into why it did not come up as red, yellow ,or orange is trending toward higher risk

How is the new prototype with more biomarkers coming along? 

Starting development, exposing to customers, they do their observation and send notes back, send observations ,the advance score of the risk probability, the advanced model is now currently being combined into the app

Does the environment of the test matter? 

It seemed we got different results from indoors vs. outdoors in the shade. 

Lighting does matter

Is there any more research you would like to do in the future? What do you want to prove? 

There are very few studies on female athletes and brain studies, not a lot of info, looking into studies on female rugby, looking at a lot of studies of different ages, not a lot of info on studies 

How do you intend to begin selling the product when it is ready? Will it be a monthly service? A one-time fee? Discounts for bulk pricing(multiple accounts)? 

A variety of pricing models, the goal is to get it into the hands of as many people as possible

Youth leagues and high schools are a bulk price, $5.00 for 1 year or $2.50 for 3 years

Could you ever see Mind Mirror being bought out and implemented in one of the other concussion testing systems?

Have had conversations with Sway to provide them with an objective measurement. 

Healthy Roster, incorporating MindMirror results into the system.

The goal is to add sensors to help tell if protective gear should be added, and telehealth 

The next model will have biomarkers for risk, age, and other health issues

Contact:

Mind Mirror – info@mindmirror.health

Glenn Bowers – glennb@mindmirror.health

Ben Stephenson – https://www.instagram.com/_benstephenson/

Emma Gunnin – 

Jeremy – @SportsMedicineBroadcast on IG

These people LOVE Athletic Trainers and help support the podcast:

Frio Hydration – Superior Hydration products.

Donate and get some swag (like Patreon but for the school)

HOIST – No matter your reason for dehydration DRINK HOIST

MedBridge Education – Use “TheSMB” to save some money, be entered in a drawing for a second year free, and support the podcast.

Marc Pro – Use “THESMB” to recover better.

Athletic Dry Needling – Save up to $100 when registering through our link.

Cognitive FX – Dr. Alina Fong

Cognitive FX can help your long term concussion sufferers get back to normal daily function. Imagine 8 hours per day for 2 weeks focused on restoring your cognitive function.

Explain what Cognitive FX is.

Functional MRI FMRI – use the same scanner, the process is different, and the information is different

Located in Utah

Athletic trainers are integral and 1/15 of the treatment team, a large, multidisciplinary, interconnected team

Intense approach to therapy, rather than 1 or 2 appointments, it is an 8-hour appointment for 2 weeks, patients come from all over the world 

What role does the Athletic Trainer play in CognitiveFX?  

At least 3 ATs on staff.

Athletic Trainers have not been easy to find.

We have gone to the NATA and other conferences.

We need them.

CognitiveFX will train the ATs to understand functional MRI and how the brain is connected to the body.

Cranial nerves and integration.

Use a lot of AT tools with the body mechanism 

See patients between 18-40 and they do lots of sports, ex. Skiing, sports, slipping, and falling on ice.

They do a lot of specialized training, which is connecting the brain to the body

What are you looking for in an Athletic Trainer?

Looking for someone that is willing to learn, some right out of school and some 20+ years, someone that is always curious and eager to learn, don’t know everything about the brain, cognitive fx is an exciting science, booking for curious and trainable, not focused on experience.

Every concussion is not the same

What are the statute of limitations…can we “fix” a 4-year-old cognitive deficit from a sports concussion?

every one knows 5 people that have had concussions and have lingering symptoms, they are not the same but they look normal so they get ignored, no statute of limitations, have pts from 3 months to 3 decades after injury and still see improvement, younger and closer the better, still have seen huge improvements even decades later

I appreciate that the pricing is listed on the website. How often do insurances cover some of the treatments afterwards?

Insurance reimbursement is different based on insurance companies, on average, 60-80% coverage depending on your insurance plan. The therphies are ones that people can get everywhere, so no problem with insurance.

The scans are when insurance gets iffy, the companies don't understand why we need 4 scans: 

2 Brain FMRI and 2 Neck FMRI 

Typically, insurance companies don't cover all of the MRI exams, the therapies do get covered

The costs are because so much attention is given to the patient for 8 hours a day.

24,700 price for two weeks

13,000 for one week

Athletic Trainers stay a long time

Insurance isn't timing the therapists, so they can do what they want at the clinic.

They can alter plans without having to do insurance approval. 

The first clinic was in paternship with Tom Brady and his best friend who is a Trainer, opened TB12 in Foxburrough., treat a lot of professional athletes, everyone gets concussions and they worked with the best of the best athletes, some people seem superhuman because they heal so differently, wants everyone to feel that their brain can change if given the special attention

EPIC treatment: is it like a camp where patients stay overnight?

Clinic is in utah, people from all over the world, 3 pts from netherlands, 2 from canada, rest from US all over, 2 from utah, 15 pts this week, they are there for 2 solid weeks back to back, this scan is different, using a regular MRI but lying down and doing neuro psy tasks, not looking at structures instead having them do tasks, FMRI picks up changing happening in the brain, that is when they see some parts of the brain are not working well and some are componstating for other parts

Each scan looks different, looking at how the brain metabolizes oxygen, intense program built around the patient

MD neuro neuro radiologist phd neuro scientist, neuromuscular therapist, pts, ats, neuorintergation therphist, ots, vision, cognitive, etc.

Each patient for 8 hours a day gets one on one session with each speciality, it is crazy to do all this but they support the energy levels and give them the resources to help them

Partnership with Marriott hotel that is close to clinic, even during COVID patients are still coming, nice Marriott that shuttles to clinic, and some people find their own housing, try to make it easy for the patients

2.3. EPIC Treatment

In addition to standardized test administration, normative-based assessment, and individual, image-guided measurements, our EPIC treatment exploits the latest knowledge of NVC and its role in PCS by integrating three fundamental rehabilitation facets for each patient: Prepare, Activate, Rest. Specific therapeutic activities included in each of these three phases of EPIC treatment are the product of research, clinical experience, screening, and empirical testing [29 – 34]. EPIC therapy implements a cyclical pattern of treatment where patients are rotated through therapies and activities that promote cognitive and physical rehabilitation from concussions. The preparatory stage of therapy includes varying degrees of aerobic exercise and neuromuscular therapy, based on patient capacity, to enhance cerebral blood flow in anticipation of cognitive therapy while also encouraging neurosensory rehabilitation [32, 33]. This phase of therapy lasts 50 minutes in duration and is followed by the activation portion of EPIC. We implement traditional cognitive and occupational therapy techniques for a subsequent 50 minutes of tailored treatment to target specific deficits for each patient. Complex, multistep problem solving, logic puzzles, functional and short-term memory challenges, digital therapeutic games, visual exercises, motor skill retraining, and psychosocial therapy are all implemented in this stage of treatment [30]. Additionally, DynavisionTM is incorporated into therapy as a means of Developing the Standard of Care for Post-Concussion The Open Neuroimaging Journal, 2017, Volume 11 63 treating visuospatial deficits and to enhance multitasking and cognitive processing. A destimulation period of varying duration follows to allow for recovery before another round of therapy will begin [34]. Brainwave entrainment destimulation is used promote neural wave harmonization and reduce cognitive activity [29]. This cycle is repeated for 6-8 hours a day over a typical 4-day treatment period that can be adjusted based upon symptom severity and resolution.  These therapeutic approaches address a wide range of cognitive, sensory and physical functions. The key to success, however, is not necessarily the therapies themselves, but the manner in which the therapies are applied (i.e., timing and order). For example, a carefully guided rotation between physical/cardio challenge and cognitive or sensory processing challenge is a central feature in restoring the timed pairing between rCBF and regional neural firing. Our multidisciplinary team was successful in restoring pre-traumatic NVC through the cyclical application of these rehabilitative principles supplied in tandem with the benefit of appropriately timed neurocognitive exercise [35, 36]. A multi-method approach was also employed to avoid overexertion of brain regions with severe NVU. Accordingly, cyclical brain training aimed to strengthen surrounding neural correlate systems, which, in turn, support the more severely uncoupled regions. Sustained therapy over a multi-day period was shown to promote accelerated and longitudinal restoration of pre-traumatic NVC.

Interesting story most recent, 70% are concussions, about 20% are covid long haulers, ptst hat have had a viral infection, 5% are stroke or seziure disorder, quite broad in diagnostic catergories, 

Riley Horner: big article on the news that was young with a TBI and 51st dates, kept forgetting, brought her into the clinic for 2 solid weeks, not 100% fixed, but significant improvements, came back again a few years later from teenager to older, saw huge improvements, reached out just in last month now in early 20s, she just graduated from nursing school, moms thanks for getting daughter back, now a nurse and wants to help others improve, watch inside edition improve, this is why she does what she does

Complementary consultations for anyone

Contact Us

Dr. Alina Fong – alina@cognitvefx@usa.com

Jeremy Jackson@MrJeremyJackson

Ben Stephenson –

Women In AT Advice

Megan Smith joins Emma Gunnin and Kayla Razo to share some advice from a young professional woman in AT to upcoming professional women in Athletic Training.

Megan Smith Women in AT
Megan Smith showed my family around the University of Delaware while we were on vacation.

Megan, thanks for showing my family around the facilities of the University of Delaware.  

It was an absolute pleasure getting to meet virtual friends in real life.

What is new with Women in AT?

Recent addition of new board members to create new opportunities for work and growing the board. 

Rolling out mentorship for members.

Wanting engagement and also to answer questions, looking for more opportunities.

Possible meet up at NATA and a book club, 

Created a book club during COVID to help engage, What Made Maddie Run was recommended to read.

We are going to try to find something light for the close of the spring season.

Emma is about to graduate and enter the workforce.  What do you wish you knew?

Have conversations early about improvement.

Ask them to regularly meet with you about how you can improve.

Have a growth mindset.

I wish I had someone who came to me offering to help and mentor me. 

Don’t be afraid to ask for help or admit you do not have the answer.

Schedule regular meetings with your supervisor.

Kayla is in her first year as an MAT student wanting to work in college athletics.  What should she know?

Work with smaller groups

Develop strong relationships

Proactively communicate

Take note of the communication style of your coaches to improve the process.

How do I deal with an “old school” coach who does not trust a female?

Try to have all of the answers ready.  

Be open with communication.

Make sure you document any sort of misunderstanding. 

Think about the long-term goal.

Communicate with your supervisor often so you are on the same team and they can help you work through the struggles.

How do I transition into being a professional?

That grind mentality doesn’t go away…unless you are burnt out and looking to leave.

Take care of yourself, fill your cup.

I enjoy working out through CrossFit Monday-Friday

I do a 5-minute journal daily.

There is nothing wrong with the grind if it brings you joy and passion.

One thing we do at the University of Delaware is a cross-coverage calendar so we can plan around life events. 

Do you know what you, as your best self looks like? 

Write it down so you know what “center” is for you.

Contact:

Megan – @MeganSmithATC

Emma – @emma_addisong

Kayla – @kayla.jean5

Jeremy – @SportsMedicineBroadcast

These people LOVE Athletic Trainers and help support the podcast:

Frio Hydration – Superior Hydration products.

Donate and get some swag (like Patreon but for the school)

HOIST – No matter your reason for dehydration DRINK HOIST

MedBridge Education – Use “TheSMB” to save some money, be entered in a drawing for a second year free, and support the podcast.

Marc Pro – Use “THESMB” to recover better.

Athletic Dry Needling – Save up to $100 when registering through our link.

AT in Colorado

AT in Colorado is growing, and you can get a little bit of everything there. The Olympic Training Center brings in top-caliber athletes. Jeb Davis shares what he loves about Colorado

What is your AT Story?

Often-injured high school athlete and went to the physician’s office for back pain where I worked one-on-one with an AT in a rehab setting

Nancy Condit in Missoula, Montana.

  • We had a GA show up to help with high school basketball, and I learned more about the traditional role of the AT.
  • Went to New Mexico State University  
  • Worked in outpatient clinics in the southwest
  • Went to grad school at the University of Pennsylvania

Worked with women’s and men’s basketball at the University of New Mexico

I then became the clinical coordinator at Fort Lewis College, where I worked as the clinical coordinator and program director, as well as outreach for the secondary school.

Durango is the best of both worlds: mountains and the desert

Outdoor paradise.

Jeb also worked as the Athletic Trainer for the Women’s Roller Derby team.

What is a unique aspect of Athletic Training in your state?

Orthopedic Outreach and Residencies are shaping employment for Athletic Trainers in Colorado.

What is a big challenge for Athletic Trainers in Colorado?

CO is a great AT state

A long history of AT and a little bit of everything

Secondary

University

Professional sports

Olympic Center

We have a strong residency program

I feel like our ratio of ATs in ortho clinics is greater than most states

Colorado was only recently granted licensure for ATs

Maintaining and protecting the licensure is a big part of how we spend our resources.

If you had to pick another state to live and work in which one would it be and why?

Go back to Big Sky country, where I am from.

You're recruiting ATs to work in Colorado…what is your sales pitch?

Colorado is a destination state.  Great for the AT that loves the outdoors. 

We have a lot of opportunities to grow.

Contact Us:

Jeremy – SportsMedicineBroadcast.com

Jeb Davis- coatapresident@gmail.com

These people LOVE Athletic Trainers and help support the podcast:

Frio Hydration – Superior Hydration products.

Donate and get some swag (like Patreon but for the school)

HOIST – No matter your reason for dehydration DRINK HOIST

MedBridge Education – Use “TheSMB” to save some money, be entered in a drawing for a second year free, and support the podcast.

Marc Pro – Use “THESMB” to recover better.

Athletic Dry Needling – Save up to $100 when registering through our link.

AT in California – Ky Kugler

Ky Kugler California

What is your AT Story?

Lived in Las Cruces, New Mexico and was a high school student and was seen by the head AT throughout high school

George Westbrook became a mentor to me

I became a biology premed student and then hit a dead end.

Certified in 1980

Have had a great 45-year career

Worked at D1, D2 and D3 levels

Worked in high school and with the Dallas Cowboys

One of the unique things about California is the diversity. So many different settings

Started working in a faculty clinic at New Mexico State and finished at Cal State Fullerton

4500 AT in CA

I only represent 3000 of those because they are the certified ones

What is a unique aspect of Athletic Training in your state?

We initiated our first licensure in 1986, but it got vetoed by the governor's office

That has happened about 5 times since then.

We have our first title protection regulation on the books right now.

“You can not say you are an ATC without actually being one.”

Our next step is to have all ATs registered and have licensure.  

We currently have almost no enforcement other than working with the leadership and showing them the law. 

But there is no penalty at this point.

We field 4-5 “poser” emails per month to weed out the uncertified ATs in the secondary setting.

At about 55% of ATs in secondary school.

Diversity – 

The state is huge

Ureka at the tip of Cali vs the AT in LA are very different.

We are committed to DEI efforts

Public school and private school

Some schools have 3-5 ATs on staff, but down the road the public school has 1 per campus.

Many of our ATs work in industrial (Amazon…) and outreach to the high school.

You're recruiting ATs to work in California…what is your sales pitch?

There are a lot of opportunities.  The jobs being created are properly vetted and often include overtime.  The community of ATs here is amazing.

The weather is second to none.

Contact Us

Jeremy Jackson

Ky Kugler –

California ATA – ca-at.org

These people LOVE Athletic Trainers and help support the podcast:

Frio Hydration – Superior Hydration products.

Donate and get some swag (like Patreon but for the school)

HOIST – No matter your reason for dehydration DRINK HOIST

MedBridge Education – Use “TheSMB” to save some money, be entered in a drawing for a second year free, and support the podcast.

Marc Pro – Use “THESMB” to recover better.

Athletic Dry Needling – Save up to $100 when registering through our link.

AT in Arkansas – Keith Shireman

Keith Shireman leads the Arkansas Athletic Trainers Association and is working on retention

What is your AT Story?

I learned about AT from a colleague and started noticing motocross needed help.

Graduated in 1995 through the internship route

I became friends with Lorner Strong and she mentored me through the process

My work has all been in the secondary school setting except for the side hustle working with motocross

3rd year at Cabot

I was at Bentonville High School for 15 years

In Arkansas, your certification qualifies you for licensure.  There is a very small licensing fee.

You need a physician statement signing off that you have a license.

The AR practice act has not changed since its inception in 1995.  We have met resistance to change from other organizations on changing it.

The PT board helped and mentored until ATs got their board established.

This created a difficult situation with somewhat a conflict of interest where the PT board was preventing the AT board from advancing the practice of ATs.

We had an officer pass away from heat exhaustion at the fire academy and they did not have anyone helping regulate their heat illness  

Border states can be a bargaining chip for getting legislature passed.

Last year we had 14 MAT students graduate and leave AR and one stay.

The population of ATs – 300+

Lots of places to go hiking, mountains, trails outdoors, beautiful seasons, mountain bike trails.

What is a big challenge for Athletic Trainers in Arkansas?

Practice act is one.

Teacher pay was changed to the learns act

So everyone was put on the same pay scale.

We are meeting with the AT students to encourage them to stay in Arkansas and what are their sticking points.

You're recruiting ATs to work in your state…what is your sales pitch?

Lots of places to go hiking, mountains, trails outdoors, beautiful seasons, and mountain bike trails.

Contact Us:

Keith Shireman

Jeremy Jackson

These people LOVE Athletic Trainers and help support the podcast:

Frio Hydration – Superior Hydration products.

Donate and get some swag (like Patreon but for the school)

HOIST – No matter your reason for dehydration DRINK HOIST

MedBridge Education – Use “TheSMB” to save some money, be entered in a drawing for a second year free, and support the podcast.

Marc Pro – Use “THESMB” to recover better.

Athletic Dry Needling – Save up to $100 when registering through our link.

Mind Mirror AI Concussion Screening

Nobody wants to miss a concussion. Mind Mirror uses your cell phone to measure Pupillary Light Reaction or PLR. Glenn Bowers joins Ben Stephenson and Jeremy Jackson to discuss the new concussion tool.

Glenn Bowers; Mind Mirror; AI

Artificial intelligence, mobile computing & pupillary light reflex (PLR)

In 2022 Mind Mirror started because I was coaching my kids and missed a concussion with my own son.

We saw an opportunity to take AI tech and pupillary light reflex to assess concussion risk within 30 seconds.

Is Mindmirror used as an on-field assessment tool or a return-to-play tracking/monitoring system?

Both, with the speed of the test and subjectivity taken out of the assessment, it can be a great tool for on-field assessments. It also provides an objective return-to-play measure providing clinicians with the ability to determine safe RTP without bias, subjectivity or dishonesty from patients.

One study found that the PLR test isn’t affected by exertion or emotions which can't be said about all of subjective tests commonly used for concussion testing. 

Mind Mirror doesn’t use baseline tests, so how are normative values collected?

While baseline testing isn’t required it is highly recommended. 

Baseline testing for this model is extremely efficient, it only takes 7 seconds for each athlete to be tested and automatically stored in the system.

Will be adding a roster system that can link the rosters with Healthy Roster, Rankone and other EMR software. 

Could this help prevent lawsuits and protect athletic trainers when returning players with a possible brain injury? Is it lawfully sound?

There is no single test to definitively determine if a brain injury has occured, we are more practically used as an objective test to determine if symptoms associated with a brain injury are present. 

While most concussion testing is subjective we provide an objective measure. 

What biomarkers are we testing? (like Sway tests balance, memory, and movement coordination) what makes the PLR test superior to these existing solutions?  

Velocity of constriction

Velocity of dilation

The system calculates all 14 biomarkers and provides a probability score ranking them into 3 categories green, yellow, and red. 

Green is less than 0.3 probability indicating the brain is likely healthy.

Yellow is between 0.3 – 0.6 probability which is in the middle and requires further testing.  

Red is above 0.6 and indicates there is a high chance that the patient has a concussion. 

How was the AI software created?

Iris, an old colleague from Italy had a cool idea and I knew that if we could figure out the technology this could be big. 

We are already working with the U.S. military, collegiate, and high school settings.

Contact Us:

Mind Mirror – info@mindmirror.health

Glenn Bowers – glennb@mindmirror.health

Ben Stephenson – _benstephenson

Jeremy – @SportsMedicineBroadcast on IG

These people LOVE Athletic Trainers and help support the podcast:

Frio Hydration – Superior Hydration products.

Donate and get some swag (like Patreon but for the school)

HOIST – No matter your reason for dehydration DRINK HOIST

MedBridge Education – Use “TheSMB” to save some money, be entered in a drawing for a second year free, and support the podcast.

Marc Pro – Use “THESMB” to recover better.

Athletic Dry Needling – Save up to $100 when registering through our link.

Tips

AT in Alabama – Kyle Southall

What is your AT Story?

When did you get introduced to Athletic Training?

Where did you go to college?

Where was your first job?

How long have you been practicing?

Typical high school athlete story”

Kyle had an ankle injury that was pretty significant, but ended up just walking it off.

He later sustained a concussion but kept playing because we didn't have the tools to identify a concussion back then.

Kyle talked with a friend who was a football player and one of his friends was an AT student.  That sparked an interest and he began working with Chad Starkey in Ohio

He went to WVU for a master's degree.  Part-time he worked with a D3 school and loved getting to work all of the sports.

Kyle finally decided he needed to get out of the 3-hour radius he had always lived in.

Alabama was the furthest job offer he received from home, so he took that one.

What is a unique aspect of Athletic Training in your state?

Everything is 3-5 hours away, mountains, beaches, big cities…

Spiritually I am free to love others.

The people are great.

Nobody has a personal agenda, just people looking to do the work.

I live by work-life integration so that everything benefits.

What is a big challenge for Athletic Trainers in Alabama?

Involvement.  They need people to get involved.

Alabama had a council of 7 members when Kyle started and now has 17 and most of the positions are full.

In 2020 we updated our state practice act and had to redo it in 2021 after COVID

We created the advisory council which allows us to have 3 doctors and 3 ATs as the decision-makers.

Retention is a big challenge.

We have focused our effort on the rural incentive grant to help the 1-3A schools' Athletic Trainers to get up to $7500 working at those smaller schools

Alabama is starting a loan reimbursement program for people graduating with an MAT degree who can get $7500 for 5 years.

Contact Us

Jeremy Jackson

Dr. Kyle Southall

These people LOVE Athletic Trainers and help support the podcast:

Frio Hydration – Superior Hydration products.

Donate and get some swag (like Patreon but for the school)

HOIST – No matter your reason for dehydration DRINK HOIST

MedBridge Education – Use “TheSMB” to save some money, be entered in a drawing for a second year free, and support the podcast.

Marc Pro – Use “THESMB” to recover better.

Athletic Dry Needling – Save up to $100 when registering through our link.

emerging tech in sports medicine

AT in Arizona with Lindsey

Arizona has spring training…if you love the MLB, you should consider working with Lindsey Loughran in Arizona.

What is your AT Story?

Lindsey Loughrin got injured in high school and had ACL surgery.  She got to meet the Physical Therapist and Athletic Trainer through the injury.

Lindsey created a job shadowing program that became the current student athletic training aide program.

She attended a small college in Missouri to double major in theater and AT.

Lindsey Moved back to Chicago to study for the BOC.  then she got a lot of experience at Northwestern University in Chicago

Blessed to receive a GA position at Northern Arizona University she moved down to Arizona

She worked with a high school for 7-8 years in Illinois, but when job changes were occurring she looked to get back to Arizona.

The incoming Arizona AT Association president was mentored by a NATA HOF member who told me to get involved.

Linsey started with the Governmental Affairs Committee, then secretary and VP.  Now she is the incoming President

What is a unique aspect of Athletic Training in your state?

Working with native American or tribal populations.

What is a big challenge for Athletic Trainers in Arizona?

2 years ago we opened our license and have included dry needling for certified people.

The next challenge is preparing for new licensure  

You're recruiting ATs to work in Arizona…what is your sales pitch?

We have a lot of diversity and some great masters programs: secondary school clinical outreaches, university, industrial professional sports

We are in a stage of growth

Landscape

Lots of diversity in environments

We are a good bunch of ATs, we help each other grow and stay connected.

Contact Us:

Lindsey

Jeremy

These people LOVE Athletic Trainers and help support the podcast:

Frio Hydration – Superior Hydration products.

Donate and get some swag (like Patreon but for the school)

HOIST – No matter your reason for dehydration DRINK HOIST

MedBridge Education – Use “TheSMB” to save some money, be entered in a drawing for a second year free, and support the podcast.

Marc Pro – Use “THESMB” to recover better.

Athletic Dry Needling – Save up to $100 when registering through our link.

LEADS academy; frio hydration