With pride and dedication, Gary Reinholtz served as an athletic trainer for more than 30 years. In 1972, he graduated from Mankato State University, which was one of the first athletic training curriculums approved by the NATA Professional Education Committee. Along with three athletic training colleagues at the University of Washington, he co-authored the first programmed text used in athletic training curriculums. In 1976, Reinholtz became the head athletic trainer at Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter, Minnesota until his retirement as Professor Emeritus in 2005. He provided injury prevention and care to athletes on 27 sport teams. In 1976, he developed an approved athletic training curriculum at Gustavus, educated countless students and prepared them to work alongside physicians, allied health professionals, coaches and administrators. Reinholtz has influenced the profession locally, regionally and nationally by serving in numerous appointed and elected positions with the Minnesota Athletic Trainers' Association, Great Lakes Athletic Trainers' Association and the National Athletic Trainers' Association. The MATA Legislative Committee, chaired by Reinholtz, was the driving force behind the Minnesota Athletic Trainers' Act being signed into law in 1993.
NATA Hall of Fame
Marty Matney's storied career began in the 1970s when he became interested in sports medicine in high school. Since then, he has built a decades-long career that has spanned multiple job settings and blazed new trails for athletic training employment. Matney started in the clinical setting, and his work has contributed to the expansion of the athletic training profession into the military, performing arts, physician practice and occupational health settings. Matney established two rehabilitation clinics and spearheaded the expansion of the Boeing Industrial Athlete program. The program, which provides athletic training care for Boeing employees and helps prevent work-related injuries, grew from four ATs to more than 70 under Matney's leadership. An advocate for the profession, Matney is credited with the passing of the Washington State Athletic Trainers Act. Since 1984, he has served the athletic training profession at the local, state and national levels and was heavily involved with NATA's governmental affairs efforts. He is the current chair of the NATA Committee on Practice Advancement.
John Davis, known for his commitment to athletic training practice and education, has provided quality health care for student athletes at Montclair State University since 1984. He is credited with establishing the MSU athletic training education program in 2000 that has produced countless athletic trainers. Davis has devoted years of service to the profession. He was elected Secretary/Treasurer of the Eastern Athletic Trainers' Association in 1988. In 1992, he became the District Two secretary and helped to form the NATA District Secretaries'/Treasurers' Committee. He was elected President of the EATA in 2011. Celebrated for his leadership and service, he was inducted into the Athletic Trainers Society of New Jersey's Hall of Fame in 2006 and the MSU Athletic Hall of Fame in 2012. MSU also honored Davis in 2010 by dedicating its athletic training facility as the John Davis and Dr. M. Benjamin Burton Athletic Training and Sports Medicine Center. In 2018 he was inducted into the EATA ‘49 Club and also received the EATA Student Delegation Jeff Stone Service Award.
Nancy Burke began her career more than four decades ago as one of the first athletic trainers in the Fairfax County Public Schools System in Virginia. Burke and her colleagues were responsible for building and growing the district's athletic training program that now includes two ATs in every high school. She used her expertise to expand the profession to the public safety sector, beginning with the Fairfax County Police Department. She was the first athletic trainer hired by a law enforcement agency, and her program has become a model for similar programs across the country. Always a trailblazer, Burke became an athletic trainer when there were few women in the profession and was the first woman to join the Mid-Atlantic Athletic Trainers' Association. After the merger of U.S. Women's Lacrosse Association and Men's Lacrosse, she served as co-chair and chair of its Sports Science and Safety Committee for a decade. The committee is regarded as a medical model for other governing bodies in sports.
Kent Biggerstaff spent 36 years as a professional baseball athletic trainer for the New York Mets, Milwaukee Brewers and the Pittsburgh Pirates and was selected for three National League All Star teams, as well as the MLB All-Star Tour in Japan in 1996. Biggerstaff also spent three years as the concussion coordinator for Minor League Baseball umpires and is credited with introducing concussion management to the MLB. A proven leader, Biggerstaff was president of the Professional Baseball Athletic Trainers' Society for three terms and served 13 years on its executive board. His leadership was integral in building upon the relationship between PBATS and NATA. He was elected to the PBATS Hall of Fame in 2016. Biggerstaff was selected for the NFL ATC Spotter program and worked on the PGA and PGA Champions Tours as a conditioning coordinator for 13 years, giving him the distinction of working in three professional sports.
Michael O'Shea's career began as a student AT at The University of Texas. While serving in the United States Air Force, O'Shea worked as an athletic trainer at the Air Force Academy and was awarded the Noncommissioned Officer of the Year in 1971. Following his service in the Air Force, O'Shea worked in both the professional and collegiate settings and, since 1993, he has served the University of Houston as head athletic trainer. In 1981, O'Shea wrote a book called The History and Development of the NATA, the first book to cover the history of the association. Selflessly, he donated all proceeds from book sales to NATA. Celebrated by his peers, O'Shea has received numerous awards at the state, district and national levels. In 1999, he earned the Professional Football Athletic Trainers Society Distinguished Alumni Athletic Trainer award. He received the NATA Most Distinguished Athletic Trainer award in 2005, the University of Houston Alumni Chairs Award in 2017 and will be inducted into the Southwest Athletic Trainers' Association Hall of Fame in 2017.
Jeff McKibbin is a respected leader who is known for his dedication to his patients and his commitment to advancing the profession of athletic training. McKibbin, whose career began at the University of Central Oklahoma, spent 24 years as head athletic trainer, with 13 of those years in a dual role as associate athletic director. Over the course of his career, he served as head AT for 14 national championship wrestling teams and one national football championship team. McKibbin's numerous volunteer and leadership positions include chair of the Government Affairs Committee, member of the NATAPAC board of directors and several positions at the state, district and national levels. He is credited with legislative efforts in Oklahoma and developing the first accredited graduate athletic training program in Oklahoma. McKibbin was inducted into the Oklahoma Athletic Trainers' Association Hall of Fame in 2006, the Mid-America Athletic Trainers' Hall of Fame in 2011 and the University of Central Oklahoma Hall of Fame in 2014.
MaryBeth Horodyski is a renowned researcher, respected educator and esteemed leader of the profession of athletic training. She currently serves as the director of research for the Department of Orthopaedics and Rehabilitation at the University of Florida. In addition to her work at the university, Horodyski also serves as the athletic trainer at a small private high school in Gainesville. An expert in spine-injured patient care, Horodyski has more than 100 publications in peer-reviewed journals and was selected as one of only five non-physicians to join the Cervical Spine Research Society. Her numerous leadership roles include NATA vice president, NATA District Nine director, SEATA president, SEATA secretary/treasurer and chair of the Executive Committee for Education. Horodyski has received countless awards including the NATA AT Service Award, the SEATA Hall of Fame, the ATAF Hall of Fame and NATA Fellows status.
Kathy Dieringer is celebrated for her service and leadership to the profession of athletic training at the state, district and national levels. She served two terms on the NATA Board of Directors from 2012 through 2016 and secretary and treasurer from 2014 through 2016. In 2008, Dieringer was selected to serve as chair of the newly formed Clinical and Emerging Practices Athletic Trainers' Committee. She has also served as president of NATA District Six and was elected to its Hall of Fame in 2007. She received the NATA Athletic Trainer Service Award in 2002, the Most Distinguished Athletic Trainer Award in 2006 and the Gail Weldon Award in 2017. An example for entrepreneurial athletic trainers, as well as those in the clinical setting, Dieringer is the co-owner of D&D Sports Med, an outpatient rehabilitation company with three clinics in North Texas.
Since the beginning of her accomplished career, Tanya Dargusch has been a game-changer within the profession. An advocate for athletic trainers in the secondary school setting, Dargusch's work on the NATA Council on Employment helped to spearhead a national market penetration plan specifically for the secondary school setting and contributed to better representation of secondary school ATs on a national level. As chair of the District Secretaries'/Treasurers' Committee, she led efforts to create best practices guidelines for all district secretaries and treasurers. Dargusch was instrumental in acquiring the funding for an association liaison to the American Academy of Family Physicians, which resulted in the introduction of the AT in a physician practice setting on a national platform. In addition to being one of the first women in the industrial setting, Dargusch was the first female elected as a District Two Executive Board secretary.