In the near future, I plan to introduce a resolution recognizing March 2025 as “National Athletic Training Month” in Pennsylvania.

National Athletic Training Month is celebrated each March to spread awareness about the important work of athletic trainers and this year’s theme is "Champions in Health Care.” The first National Athletic Training Month took place in 2001 when it was established by the National Athletic Trainers’ Association (NATA). Founded in 1950, NATA now represents and supports more than 36,000 members of the athletic training profession employed including professional sports, colleges and universities, high schools, clinics and hospitals, corporate and industrial settings, performing arts, and every branch of the United States military.

Here in Pennsylvania, the Pennsylvania Athletic Trainers’ Society has been an advocate for the athletic training profession and working to enhance patient-centered health since their first meeting in 1976. There are over 3,000 athletic trainers in Pennsylvania providing for the health and safety of our athletes, performers, and residents.

Licensed athletic trainers have a long history of providing quality healthcare and applying evidence-based knowledge and skills to care for and protect people. Athletic trainers are highly skilled health care professionals who specialize in immediate, acute, and emergency care. They also provide examinations, assessments, and diagnoses. Athletic trainers work to prevent injury, provide risk management assessments, therapeutic intervention, and rehabilitation of injury and illness.

I am proud to have worked with so many of those wonderful healthcare professionals throughout my own career as an athletic trainer, and I ask all of you to join me in celebrating March as National Athletic Training Month.