UGA President Michael Adams lauds academic, athletic, corporate collaboration

The University of Georgia's new athletic training program and the corporate partnership that helped fund it won high praise from UGA President Michael Adams during inauguration ceremonies for the program Tuesday, Jan. 26.

"This is a model for how we ought to be doing things at the University of Georgia" said Adams of the program. "We have a major responsibility, as you've heard me say in the last couple of weeks, to broaden the curriculum opportunities for young people at this institution.

"I'm not here today to announce a new College of Chiropractory," said Adams in reference to the faculty reaction caused by his college reorganizational plan - a proposal that would gradually divert 5,000 students from the heart of the university, the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences, into other programs and new colleges of ecology, communication, art and public policy. "But I do think this is the way things ought to bubble up."

Adams praised UGA's athletic training staff led by Ron Courson and UGA Athletic Director Vince Dooley and his athletic staff along with College of Education faculty in the School of Health and Human Performance on the collaboration that made the program a reality.

"At so many other institutions the people get worked up about turf battles and who's going to do what. How athletics is over here and academics is over there. This kind of bringing-together is exactly what I want to see more of at the University of Georgia," said Adams. "So we have terrific people and university support."

The second key factor is having a first-rate faculty to design and develop the new program, said Adams.

"The third factor you need to have to really reach the ultimate level of quality today in this business is outside support. You put university resources with top-flight people and outside support and you have that margin of difference in just being good and being really close to the very, very best," said Adams in praising corporate donations by the Coca-Cola Foundation and Nova Care, a Pennsylvania-based sports medicine care provider that operates in 44 states.

Earl Leonard, a UGA alumnus and executive with Coca-Cola Foundation, singled out Courson for particular praise. Courson has been working on getting the program started for several years and persuaded Leonard that the program would be a good use of Coca-Cola Foundation money.

"He really wants to do something good," said Leonard of Courson, who is director of UGA Sports Medicine. Courson also served as chief athletic trainer for track and field during the Atlanta Olympics in 1996.

Nova Care provided funds to equip the lab as a traditional clinical athletic health care facility. The Coca-Cola Foundation provided funds for UGA to employ an athletic training educator to design, develop and implement an accredited athletic training program.

The program director, Mike Ferrara, an associate professor in exercise science and certified athletic trainer, came to UGA in June from Ball State University where he left a tenured position as director of their athletic training program after 13 years.

Ferrara's experience also includes participation on several accreditation review teams which evaluated prospective athletic training programs at other major universities. Because of his expertise, Ferrara has been sought out as an advisor to a variety of professional groups including the International Paralympic Committee, National Athletic Trainer's Association, and the U.S. Olympic Committee. He served as Director of Medical Operations for the Atlanta Paralympic Organizing Committee in 1995-96. Ferrara is the current chair of NATA's World Federation of Athletic Training Committee.

Athletic training is a fast-growing field in Georgia, as well as the whole Southeast, and this area is fertile ground for development of a new program, said Ferrara.

"We've had tremendous interest from all over," he said. "I've had students call wanting to transfer to Georgia just to get into our program," he said.

That should come as no surprise. UGA's program will be only the second accredited program in the state - the first being at Valdosta State University. It will be only the third program in the Southeastern Conference - with the other two being at the University of Alabama and the University of South Carolina. Currently, there are only 85 post secondary educational institutions nationally that have accredited programs for the professional preparation of an athletic trainer.

Academic courses began this semester in the two-year undergraduate program. It consists of such core courses as anatomy, physiology, exercise physiology, biomechanics, human nutrition, personal health and sports psychology. Specific athletic training courses will include injury evaluation, therapeutic modalities, therapeutic rehabilitation, first aid and emergency care, organization and administration and prevention of athletic injuries.

Accreditation requires a comprehensive institutional self-study, then a review by an accrediting body, followed by a site visitation by accreditation team members. The entire process lasts between 12-18 months.

The program will have a strong clinical orientation in that all the classes will have a laboratory component in which students will be able to apply skills and techniques they've learned in the classroom, said Ferrara.

The program will also feature Courson, and other UGA athletic trainers Steve Bryant, Mike Dillon, Mike Clanton, Jeff Tanner, Lisa Irby and Rebecca Klinger as clinical instructors 

"Our goal is very simple - to be a leader in sports medicine," said Ferrara. "When people have a job or employment opportunity I want them to think UGA first. And they will because they'll know UGA grads are top students and strong clinicians."

At Tuesday's dedication, Ferrara introduced the first three students in the new program that he predicted would be future stars in the profession of athletic training.

"Connie Peterson, a first-year doctoral student in the department of exercise science, she also teaches in the undergraduate curriculum and is clinically responsible for our tennis teams here at UGA.

"Next is Rob Murphy, a second-year master's student and his clinical responsibility is baseball," said Ferrara. "And Sharon Strickland is a senior majoring in exercise science with an emphasis on athletic training. Her clinical responsibility is gymnastics."

See related articles: On Your Mark, and New UGA lab trains the trainers

Writer: Michael Childs, 706/542-5889, mchilds@coe.uga.edu