Off the Roll

"Showing up is half the battle.", that could be Jon Wicks tag line in his athletic training career. He has parlayed showing up and going to work into working in the SEC, NFL, and currently the Big Ten with the FBS National Champion Indiana Hooisers football team. Starting out at LaVille High School and learning from Ball State AT alum Gary Hall, Jon found his future career in athletic training. A visit to the Ball State campus in the spring of his senior year in high school solidified that path. Jon jumped right in and got to work at BSU his freshman year helping with football and eventually getting into the athletic training education program. From BSU he went out on a limb and arrived at the University of Missouri with no GA position and no place to live, but faith that his knowledge and and work ethic would shine through and the willingness to do things out of his comfort zone made an impression on Director of Sports Medicine and Ball State AT alum Rex Sharp. He eventually came on board as a GA with football and used this experience and his undergraduate intern experience with the Indianapolis Colts to become the full season intern with the Carolina Panthers in 2014. Looking to try to find a position with Division 1 college football, a tip about a position at Indiana University lead Jon to apply for research assistant /athletic trainer with football. It was not a glamours position nor was it a great time with IU football but Jon made the most of it translated it into a full time assistant athletic trainer position with football at IU. A position he has held for the last seven years.

Jon resides in Bloomington, Indiana with his dog Mowgli.

181.3K followers on TicTok , Over 3600 days running consecutively, One run across the state of Indiana, and finally serving at the athletic trainer at the same small high school that he graduated from Kyle Parkinson is busy guy. He thought he wanted to go into physical therapy but the sports bug was too hard to get away from and landed in the athletic training world. After attending Ball State University and graduating from the athletic training program in 2017 he worked it out to return to his high school, Monroe Central in Parker City, IN. In his time there he has served several rolls, Athletic Trainer, Athletic Director, Teacher, and currently the director of public relations and fundraising as well as his athletic training duties. He has mowed a few cross country courses in is day as well. Whatever needs done Kyle is usually there. So when two students offered to help him learn the world of TicTok for fun and promote the profession of athletic training and raise money for athletic training program, a star was born. With his signature tag line "Go Bears!" he has reach beyond little Parker City and into the world with his athletic training promotion. This has allowed him to follow other passion projects like running across Indiana to raise money for FCA. He continues promoting the profession on other social media platforms besides TikTok. He sought out as an advisor to other AT's that want to do the same thing at their school. He currently resides in Parker City with his wife, Makenzie and daughter Reese.

You can tell alot about a person by looking at their contact list in their phone. Most likely David Craig has one of the most eclectic and diverse contact lists of anyone in the world. This list speaks volumes on the years of service to athlete's, coaches, weekend warriors, officials, VIP's, and athletic trainers. The 1970 Purdue Alum and 2016 NATA Hall of Fame inductee is one of the most well known athletic trainers in the country. David spent 35 years as the athletic trainer for the Indiana Pacers were he was part of two ABA Championship teams. In this time he also was the first president of the Indiana Athletic Trainer Assoication, opened his own outpatient physical therapy clinic, President of the Indiana Athletic Trainers Licensure Board, Vice President of the Great Lakes Athletic Trainers Assoication. He was the athletic trainer for the Eastern Conference for the NBA All Star game in 1985 and 1996. He was inducted into the Indiana Athletic Trainers' Association Hall of Fame in 1995, 2001 he was he recipient of the Joe O'Toole NBA athletic trainer of the year award. He has been awarded the Distinguished Alumnus Award from Purdue University and the "Sagamore of the Wabash" from the Governor of Indiana. The NBATA Assistant Athletic Trainer of the Year Award is named for David. He currently owns Craig Consulting does educational speaking engagements regarding kinetic chain issues and manual therapy solutions. He and his wife Cheryl reside on a 100 acre farm in rural Marion County, Indiana.

Who knew that learning how to buddy tape fingers would lead to a decades long career in Athletic Training? That is exactly where Jeff Carrico started in grade school thanks to his coach Pat Lewis. Jeff started to find his athletic training groove at LaSalle HS, (Cincinnati, OH) as their student athletic trainer and then on to Eastern Kentucky University to learn from NATA HOF athletic trainer, Dr. Bobby Barton. Work ethic and previous AT experience allow for Jeff to right to work at EKU. Working various sports but spending most of his time with Dr. Barton and Football. After getting his undergraduate degree he landed a GA position at Northern Illinois University in 1994. Carrico ended up getting hired as an assistant athletic trainer at NIU and staying until 1997. Jeff then headed to Huntington, WV to become the assistant athletic trainer at Marshall University and in 1999 he became the Head Athletic Trainer. 2007 Jeff had the opportunity to come home and become the assistant athletic director for sports medicine at the University of Cincinnati working with men's and women's basketball. Carrico then moved on to DePaul University in 2012 working with men's basketball. A 2 year stint at Central Michigan University as an associate athletic trainer with men's basketball and then finally back to EKU as the Assistant Athletic Director for Sports Medicine until 2023.

Currently Jeff is an outreach athletic trainer with UK Health Care in Lexington, KY. He recently received the Award of Merit from the Kentucky Athletic Trainers' Society and was inducted into the Marshall University Sports Medicine Hall of Fame in 2010.

He resides in Richmond, KY.

Elkhart, IN, Muncie, IN, San Diego, CA, Melbourne, Australia, Peru, China, Mexico... What do all of these places have in common? They are places that Stacy Struble has traveled with teams and athletes as their athletic trainer. This 1993 and 2006 Ball State alum has traveled the world working with various athletes as an athletic trainer. All while working as the Co-Head Athletic Trainer at Southwestern College in Chula Vista, CA. Her experiences are a long way from her home town of Elkhart, IN. She has been a athletic trainer for USA national Deaf Soccer team, USA Beach Volleyball, Pro Beach Volleyball and the Melbourne Vikings Rugby League Club as well as many other volunteer positions. Her level of care and expertise has earned her 2019 Service Award for USA Deaf Soccer and 2018 Medical Provider Award for USA Beach Volleyball.

She resides in San Diego, CA with her dog Baxter.

2024 was a hall of fame year for Vince Stilger. He was inducted into not just one state Athletic Training Association Hall of Fame but two state Athletic Training Associations Hall of Fame, West Virginia and Indiana. Well deserved honors for this Lanesville, IN native with a 43 year career in the profession. What he has packed into those 43 years is hall of fame worthy at any level. Starting at Lanesville HS as a student athletic trainer and attending a athletic training workshop at Floyd Central HS, hosted by Glen Snow with a hall of fame faculty, he was well on his way for an athletic training career that would be remarkable. After a short stent at IU southeast he attended Indiana State University for both his undergraduate and masters degree. His first stop was at Saint Joseph's College in Rensselaer, IN as the head athletic trainer for four years. Then back to Indiana State as the head athletic trainer. In 1988 he became the program director for the athletic training undergraduate education program as well. This peaked an interest to purse a doctorate degree which he obtained in 1993 from Indiana University, while still volunteering with Football as a clinical athletic trainer. He spent one year at Xavier at the program director and finally landed at West Virginia University as the undergraduate program director and volunteer athletic trainer with football. He spent the next 24 years at WVU in the program director role and a volunteer clinical athletic trainer with football and baseball. He also served in leadership roles for the West Virginia Athletic Trainers' Association being elected President in 2014 to 2016.

Since 1988 Vince has been the Head Athletic Trainer and Manager of Medical Services for Special Olympics Indiana in Terre Haute. This has been a special role for him and he has developed volunteer staff that looks forward to the event every year.

Vince has been the recipient of the NATA service award in 2017, The West Virginia Special Recognition Award in 2018, Special Olympics Dennis Schmidt Impact Award in 2015, and West Virginia Athletic Trainers' Association 2005 Athletic Training Educator of the Year.

Vince is currently the Athletic Trainer for Lanesville High School and he and his wife, Melanie, reside in Lanesville.

In 1987 a young Beth Giesman was trying to figure out what she was going to do with the rest of her life. A chance meeting with Mark Goodrich on a campus visit at Vincennes University and learning about a profession that was new to her, turned in to over 30 years working as an athletic trainer. Small University, small classes but big AT experiences are what Vincennes offered as well as young enthusiastic mentor in Goodrich. Beth excelled in this environment. From Vincennes she transferred to Indiana State and was the first woman to work men's basketball as a student athletic trainer. Graduating in 1992 she took a job near her home in Fort Wayne with Orthopedics NorthEast and their athletic training outreach program. She held various roles in the ONE system, Head Athletic Trainer at University of Saint Francis, Assistant Athletic Trainer and Assistant Strength and Condition Coach at IPFW, Team leader for Performance One, ONE performance enhancement division and then finally 21 years ago starting out as the Assistant Athletic Trainer at Huntington University and eventually becoming the Head Athletic Trainer.

Beth was most recently honored as the Crossroads League Athletic Trainer of the year for 2023-2024. She also was the 1991 Mel Blickenstaff Outstanding Senior Athletic Trainer at Indiana State and the 1994 Outstanding Alumni Award from Vincennes University. She resides in the Huntington area with her husband, Terry and their 3 sons.

Mark Goodrich is a staff physical therapist with Pro-Rehab in Vincennes, IN. He was an Athletic Trainer and faculty member at Vincennes for over 30 years. He lives outside of Vincennes with his wife Jennifer.

22 years after he started is career in minor league baseball, Tim Lentych was in Dodger Stadium, watching Brad Paisley play the National Anthem for the opening game of the 2024 World Series as the Head Athletic Trainer of the New York Yankees. It was a long way from South Bend, IN, his hometown. Tim's athletic training journey started out simple, by finding a brochure about the Ball State Athletic Training Education program and then being selected to be a student in that program. But from that point on it has been a trajectory that has led him straight to the major leagues. From starting out as a student with Field Hockey at Ball State to spending a season in the minor leagues in an internship with the Baltimore Orioles, to his time at the University of Tennessee working with the women's swim and dive team. Step by step he was learning the skills and lessons that he uses today with his current position. Tim's story is a great lesson is how working hard and valuing relationships and a little bit of fortune can lead you to your dream job.

John Wooden once said "Make friendship a fine art." If that is the case then Rex Sharp is Michelangelo. It has never been about where he has been or the athletic training facilities he has designed while at those schools, or the committees he has lead or been on, or the Hall of Fames that he is currently in. It has been about the people he has come in contact with over his 45 year career as an athletic trainer and how he can help them.

That career started as a student athletic trainer at New Albany High School, New Albany, IN under NATA HOF member Jerry Bell and Don Ogle. Then in 1975 Rex made the trip to Muncie, IN to attend Ball State University. While at Ball State he won the National Athletic Trainers' Association Robert H. Gunn Scholarship for the nation's outstanding student athletic trainer in 1978. After graduation from Ball State he took a teaching job/athletic trainer at his high school alma mater in New Albany. After two years he decided attend graduate school. His uncle Randy Owsley was the head athletic trainer at Michigan Tech, a NCAA division II school in Houghton, MI. Rex decided to take the offer from Randy and spend 2 years in the upper peninsula getting his master's degree and ton of experience on his own. Next he was on to at the time was Northeast Missouri State, now Truman State. He was the first athletic trainer there and grew the program into a new athletic training facility and two GA athletic trainers. Then a phone call from Jim Dickerson changed the trajectory of his career. Ball State needed a Head Athletic Trainer and they were calling on Rex to lead the program back to prominence. Rex spent 11 years at Ball State and arguably some of the most successful years of the athletic training program. From new facilities, faculty, and athletic training students that have gone on to lead the profession. In 1996 Rex left Ball State for the University of Missouri. He spent 25 years at MIZZOU and again impacted the development of new athletic training facilities, team physician coverage, increasing athletic training staff, and started an integrated health care team to provide mental health support to MIZZOU athletes. One of the first in the country. Finally the establishment of an Undergraduate Athletic Training Education Program. In his time at MIZZOU he was on many prestigious safe guard and advisory committees for student-athlete health. Rex and his staff were recognized as the Athletic Training Staff of the year in 2000 and 2011 for the Big 12 Conference. He retired from MIZZOU in 2020.

In 2021 he accepted the Director of Sports Medicine position at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, FL

Rex was inducted into the Cardinal Sports Medicine Society Ring of Honor in 2005, The Missouri Sports Hall of Fame in 2017. The Missouri Athletic Trainers' Hall of Fame in 2018. And the New Albany High School Hall of Fame in 2018.

He currently resides in Daytona Beach, FL with his wife Eileen. They are the parents of three adult children, daughter Audrey and twins Adam and Jared.

In the early to mid 80's the Piqua, OH high school football team needed a manager. Phil Voorhis realizing that he may be a bit small and slow to be playing big time HS football in Ohio thought it would be a good opportunity to be associated with the FB team. This lead to a suggestion from a football coach that he might be interested in attending at Cramer Student Athletic Trainer Workshop at near by Miami University to learn some taping skills and a few nuggets of athletic training knowledge, from unknown to him at the time, Hall of Fame athletic trainers.

His time at Miami left an impression. He decided to go there for his undergraduate studies. Working in their internship AT education program he set his sights on med school until organic chemistry derailed his plans. Deciding on charting his career path as an athletic trainer he got a call on a dugout phone while working summer league baseball that set the course of 34 year career as an ATC and all of them at Northern Illinois University.

GA to Assistant AT to Head AT and finally to his current position as Associate Athletic Director for Sports Medicine and Athletic Training, Phil has seen it all. He is the Dean of Athletic Trainers in the MidAmerican Conference, as the longest tenure employed AT in the conference. He has also served the profession of athletic training as the President of the Illinois Athletic Trainers Association, IATA Board of Directors, Great Lakes Athletic Trainers Association Annual Meeting Planning Committee.

In 2007 he was inducted into the Illinois Athletic Trainers Association Hall of Fame. In 2008 he received the National Athletic Trainers Association Service Award.

For the past 39 years he has organized and administered the Northern Illinois University High School Student Athletic Training Workshop.

He has also been a advocate in his local community for the placement of AED's in pubic venues and business.

Phil resides in DeKalb, Illinois with his his wife Jana and their three daughters.