COLUMBUS, Ohio – Ohio Dominican University was officially honored with the Great Midwest Athletic Conference Athletic Training Staff of the Year Award for 2020-21 as part of the league’s annual support staff meetings conducted last week.
 
The athletic trainers, sports information directors and student-athlete advisory committee representatives from the Great Midwest met last week near the ODU campus to prepare for the upcoming academic year.
 
The 2020-21 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 eighth announcement of the award in the league’s nine-year history and represents the first winning vote for the Panthers since joining the conference.
 
Hillsdale was the winner of the voting in 2019-20. 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 Panthers, their team of four full-time athletic trainers is led by head athletic trainer Jamie French. Three of those trainers are contracted through a partnership with Nationwide Children’s Sports Medicine.
 
On hand as presenting sponsor for the award was Tony Trombetta from CBIZ Borden Perlman, a risk management partner of the Great Midwest.
 
“Being selected by an outstanding group of athletic trainers is such an honor and goes to show that the hard work our entire staff did during unprecedented times really made a difference to our student-athletes and visiting teams to our campus,” said French. “It took great teamwork from our staff and supporting each other day in and day out to provide the best service possible to our student-athletes.”
 
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.