Off the Roll

Being a tomboy and your family being in the medical field led to this Lancaster, KY native a career of memories and eventually preserving memories for others. Marion Vruggink (prounnced VROO-jink) took a athletic training class on a whim at the University of Kentucky. When it came time to get a master's degree she looked north to Indiana University and their athletic training master's program for a future career. It was the late 70's and females in athletic training were just starting to enter the profession and provide care to all athletes. Her experiences lead her to Evanston, IL to work as an assistant athletic trainer at Northwestern University. She work with a variety of women's teams at Northwestern and met her husband Jim there. This relationship moved on to West Lafayette, IN in 1982 when Jim took the job as sports information director at Purdue University. Marion had heard that there might be a job at a local high school, West Lafayette HS. She interviewed and got the job, not only as one of the only HS AT's in the area but the first female to do so. This lead to a 36 year career as the athletic training for West Lafayette HS. Affectionally known as "Mrs. V" She took care of 1000's of kids, at least one of them be coming an athletic trainer himself, Rob Hunt, the director of sports medicine at Norte Dame. Marion also gave back to the profession she loved. She organized a sports medicine symposium in the Lafayette area for area coaches and athletic trainers. She served as the HS representative for the Indiana Athletic Trainers Assoication. That position led to being the communications director for the IATA during a time when the organization was pushing for State Licensure and a grass roots effort was being organized to support the bill. News on the bill needed to get out there and it was Marion who organized it. When she saw a need to preserve athletic training history for the state of Indiana she organized that too. Then the Great Lakes Athletic Trainers Assoication asked her to help organize a history archive for them for their 40th anniversary. That lead to a spot on the the National Athletic Trainers Assoication History and Archives committee. Her passion and drive to preserve athletic training history has provided resources for generations to review.

She has been awarded the IATA Professional Excellence Award in 1996. Was inducted into the IATA Hall of Fame in 2000. She was honored in 2021 with the Arnette Tiller Service to Football Award by the National Football Foundation.

She and her husband Jim reside in West Lafayette, IN.

Jack Mansfield graduated from Muncie Southside High School in 1969 with the intention of becoming a high school math teacher. An on campus job at Ball State of cleaning and setting up the university gym athletic training room and call for help for a trampoline accident, sent him down a different career path in athletic training. While at Ball State as a student athletic trainer he was with a legendary class, including him, of 4 future Indiana Athletic Assoication Hall of Famers and 5 future Cardinal Sports Medicine Society Ring of Honor members. Quite the group for the future leadership of athletic training in Indiana. He next was teaching math and the athletic trainer at Maconaquah High School, Bunker Hill, IN. When a conversation at the Great Lakes Athletic Trainers Assoication meeting between Ron Sendre and the Head AT at Florida State lead to a phone call that sent Jack and his family to Tallahassee. After receiving his MS degree from Florida State he spent one year back at his Alma Mater, Ball State as the Assistant Athletic Trainer. The desire to be a Head Athletic Trainer lead him to take the job at Ohio Northern University. He was there 7 years. And during a visit back to Indiana he found out about the AT opening at Wabash College in Crawfordsville, IN. He spent the next 22 years there at the only AT at Wabash. While at Wabash he was the president of the Indiana Athletic Trainers Assoication and led the charge for licensure for athletic trainers in the state of Indiana. Then in 2006 Jack left Wabash for Lincoln Memorial University in Harrogate, TN to lead the athletic training education program. His leadership fingerprints are all over athletic training institutions from the NATA, GLATA, IATA, White River Park Games, and Olympic Trials.

He has been inducted into the Cardinal Sports Medicine Society Ring of Honor, Indiana Athletic Trainers Assoication Hall of Fame and was named a Distinguished Hoosier by Governor Frank O'Bannon.

He and his wife, Gayle, reside in Muncie, IN

"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.