Post-Season Play

It’s not every season that a team is successful enough to participate in post-season play, but that is exactly the position the LSU softball team found themselves in last season. After a year of hard work, dedication, and victories over difficult opponents, the team made its third program appearance the Women’s College World Series. Caitlyn McKinley and Yuri Ashley, the athletic training students with the team for the 2011-2012 season, were fortunate enough to be able to make the trip to Oklahoma City with the team. When asked about the trip, Ashley said “it was an unbelievable experience to have to opportunity to go with the team to the World Series. It was a blessing for Coach Torina to want both students to go to the tournament because usually only one student is able to attend. Being at a post series championship with Anna, Caitlyn, and the entire team is something I will never forget and was a great way to end my first year in the athletic training program.” According to Head Athletic Trainer, Jack Marucci, part of the team’s success can be attributed to “The Luck of the Yuri.” Both Caitlyn and Yuri gained invaluable experience with the team throughout the season and during post-season play and wish the team best of luck in the season to come.

Welcome Back Students!

 Summer has come to a close and all of our athletic trainers have made their way back to Baton Rouge. Prior to the start of classes, the athletic training staff and students gathered for a yearly in-service. Our in-service took place over a span of five days and everyone was very excited to reunite.  We refreshed our knowledge of OSHA guidelines, CPR/first aid training, NCAA guidelines, and much more.  We were also very thankful to have paramedics from Acadian Ambulance teach us some new CPR techniques with new tools to maintain open airways.  All of our students were able to practice these new techniques on life-like models and gain confidence in using these new tools.  We all met at our new sport locations and went over our emergency action plans and emergency equipment use.   In-service reflected a readiness for working with our new sports and start to this new school year.  We are all very eager and cannot wait to see how our athletic trainers and major will continue to improve. 

Bonding Night

In keeping with tradition, the Alpha Tau Sigma officers hosted the 2^nd annual student athletic trainer bonding night following in-service. This year’s festivities were held at Tiger Park and included a pudding eating contest, kickball tournament, and pizza dinner. All of the students were randomly divided into teams and told to come up with a team name and color. Pitches Be Crazy in blue, Death Valley Ballaz in gold and black, Crush N’ Gush in purple, and Ball Busters in red all brought their A game to the field where opponents for the first round of tournament play were determined by a pudding eating contest. Sarah Keating, of Crush N’ Gush, killed the competition and positioned her team in the number one seat of the kickball tournament to take on Devon Bowie and the Ball Busters in the first round. Reigning champion, Jenna Nicol, took a close second place and positioned her team, Death Valley Ballaz, to face off against Tiffani Frizzle and Pitches Be Crazy.

After several rounds of intense tournament play, Pitches Be Crazy emerged victorious. All of the students then enjoyed a pizza dinner and spent time getting to know each other better by talking and reveling interested facts about themselves.  Judging by this event, this is sure to be a fun-filled and successful year!

Alumni Returns

We are very excited to welcome our newest staff member, Pam Workman, back to our athletic training family! Pam earned her undergraduate degree in athletic training at LSU before obtaining her masters at Southern Miss while working as a graduate assistant for the football team. After graduating from Southern Miss, Pam was hired there as the staff athletic trainer for the football team.  After several season at football, she became the staff athletic trainer for the baseball team and held that position for four years.  Now, she has found her way back to LSU and is our new staff athletic trainer for the softball team.  She will also be teaching a couple of classes to our first year students in the program and working with drug prevention.  A fun fact about Pam is that she was working with the baseball team at LSU when they won the College World Series and was also with baseball at Southern Miss when they went to the World Series for the first time ever!  After speaking with Pam she told us that she is “very excited to be a part of the LSU family again and see how things have changed and how we have grown, it’s just a great place to be!”  Welcome back to the family Pam and we can’t wait to see what is in store for this year ahead!