Message from the MATA President:

I hope all of you are enjoying the beginning of summer.  Based on your employment setting, the summer may not change your day to day schedule at all.  For others, it is a time where you may have increased “down” time or  it is already the beginning of your fall season.  Regardless, as we all know, our responsibilities, duties and expectations seem to never decrease.

Last month, we had our annual meeting and symposium in Mankato.  Thank you to Minnesota State University, Mankato and the Continuing Education Committee for hosting and coordinating this event.   The theme was “More than a Feeling: Science and Evidence of Sports Medicine.”. New officers were introduced:  Chris Huot - President-Elect, Ronni Beatty-Kollasch - Secretary and Paul Westerberg - Treasurer.   An appreciative thank you goes out to outgoing officers, Chris Gebeck - President and Megan Streveler – Secretary, for their commitment and leadership over the past 4 years.   Healthcare continues to evolve, both administratively and clinically.  It is vital for our profession to continue to be leaders to provide the best possible care to our patients.         We face many challenges, however, it became very evident to me at our meeting we have many members who are committed to identify and address issues which impact healthcare and our profession.

The past 2 years I have seen our organization be active in a variety of ways.  The Executive Committee has evaluated and proposed changes to our Constitution and has made changes to our By-Laws.  We are creating and implementing a policy and procedure manual for the Executive Committee and all of our other committees.  We pursued and became the newest member to MAPS (Minnesota Alliance for Patient Safety).  Our Public Relations Committee has been working diligently to increase our visibility with the public and various organizations, including the Minnesota State High School League.  The Secondary School Committee has been working on putting together a data base of all high school athletic trainers in the state.   They are also involved with the Minnesota Department of Health Services - Youth Sports and Concussion Roundtable.  Our other committees continue to work diligently in their respective areas to promote and enhance our profession.

Our athletic training student involvement continues to grow.   We have many students who have become actively engaged in our profession.  They have represented us in Washington, DC at the GLATA annual meeting, our annual MATA meeting, involved in the planning of our annual MATA student symposium and within their own academic institutions.  It is encouraging to me to see the interest and desire of our young professionals to be willing to help promote and enhance our profession.

Emergencies in Athletics

Saturday July 31st, 2010
Ridgewater Community and Technical College Hutchinson, MN

This event has been canceled. Please check the MATA web site for future updates about the Emergencies in Athletics workshop.

The 18th Annual MATA Golf Tournament and Dinner was held at Bunker Hills Golf Course in Coon Rapids, Minnesota on June 29th, 2010. This year’s event had a total of 110 golfers teeing it up in support of the MATA. This year each golfer received a MATA logoed divot tool, MATA logo can koozie and MATA logo lip balm just for playing in the event. However, once the golf started groups were playing to win golf certificates from the Bunker Hills Pro Shop. Six teams were recognized for their play in this year’s event along with individual winners of on the course events such as the longest drive, most accurate drive, longest putt and closest to the pin.

The list of the winning teams and individuals are below:

The 2010 MATA Annual Meeting & Clinical Symposium was held on May 14-15 in Mankato at Minnesota State University, Mankato.  There were 101 registered attendees for the symposium themed: "More than a Feeling: Science and Evidence of Sports Medicine".   Officer election results were announced: Chris Huot -President-Elect and Ronni Beatty-Kollasch - Secretary.  Paul Westerberg has been appointed to a one year term as Treasurer with Mr. Huot vacating the position for his new role.

In the awards ceremony, T.C. Carlyle was given the Athletic Training Recognition Award, and the Presidential Award was given to Paul Allen of KFAN Sport Radio.  The 2010 Scholar ship winners were announced as: Keley Dekart (Winona State University) - SWEDE-O Scholarship, Amber Brandenburger (Minnesota State University - Moorhead) - MATA Scholarship, Kyle Momsen (Gustavus Adolphus College) - MATA Graduate Scholarship

Many thanks to Minnesota State University, Mankato for hosting the 2010 MATA Annual Meeting & Clinical Symposium!
Lastly, special thanks to all of our sponsors who made this event possible: Twin Cities Orthopedics, Sports & Orthopaedic Specialists, P.A., TRIA Orthopaedic Center, DJO, The College of St. Scholastica, Minnesota Orthopedic Sports Medicine Institute, Mayo Clinic Sports Medicine, Dynatronics, Sports Health, Minnesota State Univeristy, Mankato ATEP, Minntech Corporation, and Hibiclens & Hibistat.     

Dear Athletic Trainer,

The National Athletic Trainers’ Association has commissioned the Athletic Training Program at A.T. Still University to conduct a study to assess student-athlete access to athletic training services in secondary schools.  The “National Sports Safety in Secondary Schools Benchmark™ (N4SB)” study is an important first step in identifying how the health and safety of student-athletes can be improved.

We invite you to participate in this short survey, which is being distributed to athletic trainers across all 50 states and the District of Columbia.
Please follow this link to the survey: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/5M3DCFW Simply click on this address to go directly to the survey. If this does not work, "copy and paste" this address into the address bar of your Internet Browser.

Your participation in this research is strictly voluntary. Furthermore, your response (or decision not to respond) will not negatively affect you. Please note that your responses will be used for research purposes only and will be strictly confidential. The A.T. Still University Institutional Review Board has approved this study.

Your completion and submission of the questionnaire indicate your consent to participate in the project.

Thank you in advance for your participation. If you have any questions regarding this project, please contact Tamara Valovich McLeod, PhD, ATC ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , 480-219-6035) or Russell Lowe ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , 972-532-8827).

Sincerely,
Tamara Valovich McLeod