2017 Drug Free Sport Continuing Education Award (Certified Athletic Trainers)

By Gene Willis, Director of Marketing

As a part of our overall service of the student-athlete communities, we work daily with certified athletic trainers from around the country. We hear about the challenges that they face with their around-the-clock schedules, putting their athletes first and working to grow in their chosen professions. They’re trusted with the most intimate details of a student-athlete’s life, along with their overall health and recovery. It’s far more than the taping and health care management. These men and women are on the front lines of sharing information about drug abuse, dietary supplement information and overall well-being.

It’s for these reasons that Drug Free Sport created a Continuing Education Award,  specific to certified athletic trainers working in high schools and collegiate communities. In the past five years, Drug Free Sport has awarded more than $23,000 to talented health care professionals. Here’s a few of our recent winners:

To apply for the Drug Free Sport Continuing Education Award,visit the Greater Kansas City Community Foundation’s application site. 

All applications must be completed by Friday, March 31, 2017. Awards, at a minimum of $1,000 each, will be announced by the week of May 1, made payable to the employing educational institution or non-for-profit entity and the certified athletic trainer.

If you have questions, please contact Gene Willis, Director of Marketing, at Drug Free Sport (gwillis@drugfreesport.com). 

Sport Exchange Summit: Background & Purpose

Drug Free Sport is a sport drug-testing company, so why are you hosting an educational conference?

Drug Free Sport is in a unique position to bring all sport professions together to further our mission to ensure fair and safe sport, and help to champion athlete well-being and collaboration among all athletic staff within a sport organization.

Education remains a large component of Drug Free Sport’s mission and business model and we are often on campus or in sport organization facilities observing and interacting with a variety sport professions. The programs that really shine in our eyes when it comes to complete athlete care and performance are those that fulfill a complete spectrum of sport disciplines, AND successfully work together. This appears in many ways including the collaboration between the athletic trainer and sports dietitian regarding an athlete with disordered eating; the strength and conditioning specialist noticing changes in the athlete’s energy and performance in the weight room and communicating concern to the athletic trainer for assessment of proper joint function and range of motion; the team physician sharing post-op reports with the sports dietitian and trainer to complete a full recovery plan for the athlete; and more.

What makes the Sport Exchange Summit different from other sport conferences?

Unfortunately, we find that many sport organizations currently do not operate with the full incorporation, sharing, and communication needed to engage all professions integral to athlete care and performance. Internally, operations are riddled with interdepartmental competition rather than collaboration and effective communication.

We felt that hosting a conference on some of the most important topics surrounding athlete well-being was a start, but only if we could encourage multidisciplinary participation. Compared to other specialty conferences where similar vocations learn with like-minded peers, we strive to bring variety to this unique learning opportunity. How many times have athletic trainers, sports dietitians, team physicians, strength and conditioning specialists, coaches, sports psychologists, administrators, compliance personnel, and other disciplines gathered together under one roof to discuss some of the most pressing issues related to athlete performance and well-being?

The conference will promote valuable discussion and networking opportunities for participants to learn from a variety of programs (high school, collegiate, professional) and professions. Content is driven to provide cutting edge developments and hot topics in sport, as well as the opportunity to showcase “what works” for successful athletic programs.  

So you want to encourage collaboration? How did this idea come about?

Collaborative engagements seem rare in the sports industry. Just like the athletes they serve, athletic personnel work more often in competitive environments. Limited sharing of expertise or communications regarding athlete well-being can limit athlete potential and the success of the greater organization or team. The Sport Exchange Summit hopes to change this mindset by offering a multidisciplinary concept for continuing education and professional development. Ideally, this approach will bring people from different backgrounds and sport professions together—allowing for shared learning and enhanced discussion on important topics in the industry.

Who do you want to collaborate?                             

The Sport Exchange Summit will bring together athletic directors, certified athletic trainers, team coaches, strength and conditioning coaches, sports dietitians, sport psychologists, team physicians, and other personnel to learn, discuss, and engage with one another on relevant topics.

What do you hope the attendees will get out of the Summit this July?

Ultimately, the hope is they learn something new that they can take back to their program and discuss effective opportunities to improve current models for athlete care. AND, the idealist in all of us hopes that they begin to shift their thinking and welcome the added expertise of other disciplines within their organization when looking to positively influence athlete performance and recovery gains.

But, for the avid conference attendee, we also have set forth the following learning objectives.

Attendees will be able to:

• Summarize current, pressing topics affecting athlete health and performance at all levels of competition. 
• Identify challenges and opportunities in creating a more collaborative (versus competitive) professional environment within sports organizations to enhance player development, health, and performance. 
• Consider the significance and psycho-social relevance of race and diversity, transgender, prescription and recreational drug abuse, drug-testing, and “life after sports” concerns for athletes within today’s sports organizations.  
• Describe the importance and impact of building a collaborative sports medicine and performance family that includes sports nutrition, sports psychology, and effective player engagement. 

The Sport Exchange Summit is a dense one-and-a-half day conference with hot and relevant topics that will help to grow athlete health and wellness. We hope you’ll consider joining us and take a positive step to increase collaboration at your respective program. Visit sportexchangesummit.com for more information and to register. Only 5 weeks left!

Continuing education credits are available for sport dietitians, certified athletic trainers, strength and conditioning specialists, and licensed psychologists.

Drug Free Sport's Continuing Education Awards Celebrate Athletic Trainers in National Athletic Training Month!

March brings about many things in the athletics world – spring, “Madness” in college basketball, the start of baseball – but it is also important for the unsung heroes behind these feats. This month is National Athletic Training Month, a time where many athletes across America have taken to showing appreciation for the men and women that keep them on the fields and courts of the sports world.

Drug Free Sport is proud to acknowledge these valuable contributors. Along with their day-to-day duties that often make for long hours, they are also on the front lines of drug abuse prevention and drug education for student-athletes. Frankly, their contributions go relatively unnoticed to many when the winning shot or touchdown is scored or when an athlete is being interviewed for recovering from an injury beyond expectations. They spend most days devoted to the greater good of others. We would like to devote a special honor upon them, to better their careers and experience.

Since 2013, Drug Free Sport has awarded more than $20,000 to high school and college athletic trainers who are working in drug use deterrence. This year, in honor of National Athletic Training Month, we have extended our submission deadline for the 2016 Drug Free Sport Fund Continuing Education Awards to May 1. Awards can be used toward continuing education opportunities, including the “Sport Exchange Summit, Powered by Drug Free Sport” in July. If you would like to be considered or know of an AT that is deserving of one of these awards, please review our qualifications and the application process on the Greater Kansas City Community Foundation website. Multiple awards (at a minimum of $1,000 per non-renewable award) will be granted, depending on the number and quality of applicants.

Thanks to all athletic trainers for the important work that is being done to educate athletes on the perils of drug abuse.

For additional questions about the award or application process, please feel free to contact Gene Willis, Director of Marketing, at gwillis@drugfreesport.com.