Four students from the Boise State Athletic Training Program won the Northwest Athletic Trainers Association Koto-Steele Student Quiz Bowl at the association’s annual meeting in Spokane, Washington, March 28-31.
The Northwest Athletic Trainers Association is the 10th district of the National Athletic Trainers’ Association, which is comprised of athletic trainers and athletic training associations from Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Oregon and Washington. The northwest association works to help disseminate information that is critical to athletic trainers and their associations, and to educate the public about athletic training as a health profession working in different venues with active people of all ages.
Boise State was well represented this year with 14 athletic training students and faculty member Gen Ludwig, a clinical assistant professor for the Department of Kinesiology, in attendance. Students were able to participate in the day-long student forum of presentations and activities that culminated with the regional Koto-Steele Student Quiz Bowl.
The annual jeopardy-style quiz hosts teams from all accredited athletic programs in the district. Teams are asked to answer questions about professional themes like injury prevention/diagnosis/physical rehabilitation, therapeutic modalities, healthcare administration, acute and emergency care, evidence based practice and statistics, general medical conditions and pharmacology, mental health, functional anatomy, and exercise physiology.
Students who represented Boise State in the quiz bowl this year were Taylor Harding, Alix Giese, Noah DeLisle, all students of the undergraduate Athletic Training Program, and Morgan Fowler, a master’s student. After two initial rounds, team Boise State maintained a lead into the final round and aced the final jeopardy question, thus winning the quiz bowl. The team was awarded a $2,000 travel stipend to attend the national annual conference in Las Vegas, Nevada, June 24-27 and represent the northwest and Boise State in the national quiz bowl against nine other regional teams from around the country.
“The Department of Kinesiology faculty, alumni who have participated in the quiz bowl in past years, and myself are so proud of these athletic training students and their dedication to the profession,” said Dave Hammons, director of the Athletic Training Program. “Special thanks to Gen Ludwig and other kinesiology faculty for preparing and coaching these students in all different areas of content and knowledge as their hard work is apparent in this event.”
Boise State’s Athletic Training Program currently is transitioning from an undergraduate program to a master’s level program. The final cohort of undergraduate athletic training students is set to graduate May 2019; The master’s program accepted its first cohort of students in summer 2018. The master’s program will prepare graduates to enter a variety of employment settings and to render care to a wide spectrum of individuals engaged in physical activity.
“The thing I am most proud of as director of this program is that we won during our year of transitioning the undergraduate athletic training degree to the master’s level,” said Hammons. “The transition year is so unique and somewhat scary due to having a senior-level undergraduate cohort and a first-year master’s level cohort. Both take completely different classes and we have taken steps to help mesh the two different cohorts together.”