INDIANAPOLIS – Several members of the Hillsdale College athletics department were officially honored with the Great Midwest Athletic Conference Athletic Training Staff of the Year Award for 2019-20 as part of the league’s annual support staff meetings conducted on Monday.
The athletic trainers, sports information directors and student-athlete advisory committee representatives from the Great Midwest met over the previous two days virtually to prepare for the upcoming academic year.
The 2019-20 Athletic Training Staff of the Year honor was voted upon by the conference athletic training departments with one vote being cast per institution.
This is the seventh announcement of the award in the league’s eight-year history.
The winning vote is Hillsdale’s first time to receive the award since joining the league as a full member institution in 2017-18. Cedarville is a three-time award winner (2014-15, 2016-17, 2018-19) since the creation of the league’s yearly honor. Trevecca Nazarene (2013-14), Davis & Elkins (2015-16) and Findlay (2017-18), have all been previous award winners in the league’s history.
For the Chargers, it’s a collaborative group effort with strength in numbers to service their student-athletes and accommodate visiting opponents from the league during competition.
Director of Sports Medicine and Performance Tyler Cortright finished his second year with the title after originally joining the Hillsdale medical staff in 2016 as an associate athletic trainer. He oversees the entire department.
Cortright’s team includes Lynne Neukom, head athletic trainer, with Andrew Bacon and Dan Hudson, both assistant athletic trainers for the Chargers’ 14 sport offerings.
We are thrilled to earn the Athletic Training Staff of the Year award for the first time since joining the G-MAC,” Cortright said. “It’s reassuring for us to receive the recognition since we have evolved into a somewhat unconventional system the past few years.”
Dr. Dan Baxter is the institution’s medical director and Mitch Schoenborn works up close and personal with student-athletes in the weight room as the strength and conditioning coach. The Chargers celebrated conference championships in women’s cross country, women’s swimming and diving, women’s indoor track and field and volleyball, during the 2019-20 academic year.
“Instead of being reactive and treating injuries after the fact, we have developed a very aggressive approach to sports performance and injury prevention,” added Cortright. “Our athletic trainers play a large role in working together with our head strength & conditioning coach by diving into critical movement analysis, integrating speed, agility, and power programs with our strength programs, and by helping our athletes develop healthy nutrition and sleep habits to aid recovery. All of this in addition to the normal everyday requirements of taping, injury evaluations, treatments, and documentation that athletic trainers have to fulfill as well. Our staff really works hard to do the best that we can to help our student-athletes succeed and our athletic trainers and strength & conditioning coach really deserve a pat on the back for the hard work and long hours that they put in.”
About the Great Midwest Athletic Training Staff of the Year Award
Founded in 2013-14, the annual award raises awareness of the athletic training profession in the conference. Criteria includes host athletic training staff hospitality towards the visiting athletic training staff, host preparedness with supplies, equipment and services for visiting athletic training staff and teams, care for injured student-athletes from visiting teams and overall staff preparedness for emergency situations.