8:16 a.m., May 7, 2010----Thomas Kaminski, professor in the Department of Kinesiology and Applied Physiology at the University of Delaware, has been selected to receive the 2010 Sayers “Bud” Miller Distinguished Educator Award from the National Association of Athletic Trainers (NATA).

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Kaminski's dream of becoming an athletic trainer began when he was just a sixth grader and working as student manager to the Fredonia High School football team in New York.

“I can remember anxiously awaiting the arrival of the Cramer First Aider in the head coach's office,” he says. “The sharing of sports health care knowledge was important to me even then.”

Director of athletic training education at UD, Kaminski joins his mentor, Paul Spear, and two of his classmates, Scott Lephart and Chris Ingersoll, all from Marietta College, in winning the award.

“This is one of the most esteemed awards presented annually by the National Athletic Trainer's Association,” says Susan Hall, deputy dean in UD's College of Health Sciences, “so it is quite a notable accomplishment for one of our faculty to be receiving it.”

Kaminski, who joined the UD faculty in 2003, received his master's degree from the University of Arizona and his doctorate from the University of Virginia. His research interests include ankle instability, mild traumatic brain injuries in women's soccer, and functional performance assessment of the lower extremities.

Kaminski is the inaugural editor of a professional journal launched in 2009, Athletic Training and Sports Health Care: The Journal for the Practicing Clinician. He is also a member of the editorial board of the Journal of Athletic Training, the executive Committee of the National Council for Athletic Training, and the research committee of the Eastern Athletic Trainers' Association.

He is the only certified athletic trainer in the U.S. with fellowship status in NATA, the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM), and the Research Consortium of the American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance (AAHPERD).

NATA's Distinguished Educator Award was established in honor of Bud Miller, the driving force behind the development of professional athletic training education and a prolific writer, researcher, and lecturer in the field of athletic training.

Article by Diane Kukich