NATA Now

By Jeremy Hawkins, PhD, ATC, ATP Director, Colorado Mesa University

In my last blog post I encouraged you as athletic training students to pay attention to the little things that help you become an athletic trainer.  Ideas included to be present, seek out opportunities, and to incorporate foundational behaviors of professional practice.  Since writing that post I heard the following story and believe it has application to your transformation as well.

We are past the midway point of National Athletic Training Month but there is still plenty of time to promote the profession and maybe even pick up a prize along the way. The past two weeks we have highlighted some of the great photos and videos that ATs have been posting with the #NATM2015 hashtag, which qualify for the NATA Social Media Contest.

We're starting a new series where we spotlight an athletic trainer or AT student each month. Our first AT spotlight is Chelsea Davis, a senior AT student (who just passed her certification exam!) at Montclair State University.
 

The Journal of Athletic Training has recently published an important study about AT services in secondary schools that we believe is a valuable advocacy tool.
 

A snowstorm in Dallas couldn't stop us from having our biggest Athletic Training Educators' Conference of all time last week! The event's 598 registrants was an all-time record.
 

Marsha Grant-Ford has partnered with the Demetrious Johnson Charitable Foundation to create a challenge project for undergraduate students to celebrate National Athletic Training Month. The DJCF Reading Challenge Contest is for Athletic Training Student Clubs associated with CAATE approved athletic training education programs. The challenge will take place from March 15 to April 4.
 

We have already seen some great photos posted over the past two weeks using the #NATM2015 hashtag. These all qualify for inclusion in our Social Media Contest, but they are not the only way to do so. Videos promoting National Athletic Training Month have been showing up as well and they will be counted too. So if you are feeling the creative motivation, or just are more comfortable working with the moving image, feel free to post your own video. Here are some of the videos ATs have already posted:   
 

In a continued effort to keep young athletes safe, NATA and the Youth Sports Safety Alliance hosted the sixth annual Youth Sports Safety Summit in Dallas, Texas on March 2. This year’s forum built on the success of prior summits and addressed the day-long theme of Navigating the Athletic Health Care System, focusing on athletic play in community/league sports as well as school-based athletics.