2016-17 PBC Yearbook 1617 yearbook | Page 80

P B C Y E A R B O O K 78 pirates.com and various other outlets. The office also celebrated 50 and Dr. Samuel Church of Synergy Health. Years of Pirate Athletics in 2016-17 with a year-long program. Currently the second-longest tenured sports information direc- North Georgia’s Huggins, Smith Receive Dissinger tor in the Peach Belt, Jackson will transition to the Georgia Southern Reed Athletic Training Graduate Scholarships media relations office this summer. HILTON HEAD, SC – North Georgia graduate students Katelyn Huggins and Tanika Smith have been named the 2017 recipients of the Dissinger Reed Athletic Training Graduate Scholarships. The honors were presented at the PBC athletic trainers annual symposium in Augusta. Both students will receive financial sup- port from Dissinger Reed as the continue their studies towards a masters degree in health and physical education at North Georgia with the goal of becoming full time athletic trainers. 2017 is the third year of the program. Huggins began her graduate work at North Georgia in the fall of 2016. From Dahlonega, Ga., she earned her undergrad degree in health & physical education while working with nine Nighthawk programs as a Young Harris Named Dissinger Reed Athletic Train- student trainer. She is now a graduate assistant working with men’s soccer, men’s and women’s golf, mixed rifle and spring season women’s ing Staff of the Year soccer. A member of the National Athletic Trainers’ Association (NATA), she has also assisted at local high schools. AUGUSTA, GA – Young Harris College was awarded the 2017 Smith earned her undergraduate degree from West Alabama and Dissinger Reed Athletic Training Staff of the Year award on Tuesday will begin taking classes through North Georgia while working as a night at the Peach Belt Conference’s annual athletic training sympo- graduate assistant at Columbus State University. From Demopolis, sium in Augusta. Ala., she earned her bachelors of science in athletic training from UWA The award is the second for Young Harris, who also won in 2015. while also a part of the varsity cheerleading squad. Smith is a member This is the sixth year the honor has been presented. of the Blue Key Honor Society, Iota Tau Alpha Honor Society and was Overseeing one of the largest athletic programs in the Peach named to the Presidents List three times. Belt Conference, the Young Harris athletic training staff continues Providing insurance for student athletes since 1982, Dissinger Reed to provide comprehensive, high-quality medical services to every is one of the largest and most respected independent athletic insur- Young Harris College student-athlete. This is completed through the ance agencies in the United States. The company currently advises 180 education of student-athletes in injury prevention, injury care and higher education institutions and 19 state high school associations rehabilitation, nutrition, training techniques, and healthy choices across the country, including the National Federation of State High for life. The Mountain Lion athletic training program continually School Associations. Responding to the rising costs of premiums and improves upon the current knowledge available in the sports medical expenses, Dissinger Reed is proactive in securing the most medicine field regarding the newest treatment, rehabilitation, and comprehensive insurance coverage for any risk within a college/uni- prevention techniques in order to enhance each student-athlete’s versity athletic department, including insurance for camps and clinics, athletic success. international students and more. Under the direction of head athletic trainer Jared Sandler, the YHC staff includes assistant athletic trainer Halee Brown and grad- uate assistants Ashton Phillips and Shanda Callenback. The staff also works with Dr. John Vachtsevanos of Specialty Clinics of Georgia Orthopaedics, Dr. Michele Thompson of High Mountain Healthcare 2016-17