The Future is Bright

As a new school year approaches quickly and educators nationwide are sitting through in-services on their respective campuses, it leaves a lot of time for the mind to wander and gives one time to reflect on certain things. As I look back at Corpus, many things come to mind – as it was with the Little Rock BBQ, the Lexington reception is something that SWATA members will be talking about for years to come. Another highlight of the meeting that sticks out to me were some of the speeches made by our award winners at the Honors and Awards Banquet – I can honestly say that I have never heard a speech end in a prayer, but it still brings chills to me thinking about it. There were a lot of personal and professional highlights for me from Corpus Christi, but there is one highlight that stands out in my mind.

On Saturday evening, after visiting a few alumni gatherings and having dinner, my wife, some friends and I found ourselves heading to a restaurant on the water. Well, the wait was quite long, so we ended up at an ice cream shop across the street. There, we had the opportunity to visit with some athletic training students and recent graduates from the University of Texas at Arlington. For forty five minutes or so, we were able to talk with this group, share some stories and hear some of their experiences and goals. We have the privilege to work with UTA each year as some of their students come to our campus each semester to work with our staff. This allows them to some secondary school and football experience, so I am a bit biased by saying that the students from this program are exceptional. But I had the opportunity to talk to quite a few of our collegiate ATEP students at SWATA, both from Arkansas and Texas, and each of those experiences encouraged me about the future of our profession.

In a day and age where some people are leery of talking about “Generation Y” (and I have been guilty of that in the past), I can safely say that I am the opposite now. I look at the energy and love these young professionals have for athletic training and I am convinced that the future of this profession and of SWATA is in good hands. I encourage you to look in on the Young Professionals blog and see some of the things they are talking about. Carissa Spraberry and Kim Faterkowski have done a tremendous job with this group over the past few years and it is encouraging to see some of the things they are doing. I encourage you to look around your community for recent graduates who might be in their first job as an athletic trainer and give them a call – offer any advice that you might have to offer or just listen. I guarantee you will make a difference in their school year and that five minutes will make an impact in their careers. Take a few extra minutes to teach one of your student athletic trainers a new skill or hint – you never know when that extra five minutes sparks the love for this profession and snowballs into a future leader within the NATA or SWATA.

This is a difficult post for me, because frankly, I still consider myself somewhat young. However, when I look at the few areas on my head where hair still grows and see a light shade of grey, I come crashing back down to reality. But I can say that I truly believe that the best years for this organization are yet to come, and that is a broad statement because of the amazing history of SWATA for the past 54 years. Take some time to make a difference or impact in one of our young professionals lives – they are the future and I know that the future is bright.