Interview with the Great Anthony Hunter

For this weeks short interview I decided to reach out to a secondary school AT who I have been looking up to for awhile. I would love to one day make the trip out to Marietta, Ga to see Tony Hunter out at Walton High School.

So who is Anthony Hunter?

The first thing you need to know about this guy is that he is the kindest and one of the smartest people I have meet on social media. Again I am going to make it to Georgia to meet this guy in person. He is also pretty strong I hear.

More on the athletic training side, this awesome human being has been around the country. He started his character at Minnesota State University-Mankato earning his Bachelors of Science: Exercise Science and Bachelors of Athletic Training. From there it was on to Ball State to earn a Masters of Arts: Sports Performance. While at Ball State, Tony was a graduate assistant AT working with the football team. And post Ball State, Anthony did a fellowship at Oregon State University.

Continuing his experiencing with football at Kennesaw State University, Tony was an assistant athletic trainer in the sports medicine department before moving to his current position at Walton High School as the head athletic trainer.

This is where out interview really starts.

Knowing that every athletic trainer is passionate about something I asked Tony what he was passionate about in the athletic training profession.

His answer was unsurprising if you’ve ever followed @WaltonSportsMed on twitter (you totally should) or if you’ve ever talked to Tony. His answer you ask; “Establishing a blueprint to building sports medicines programs. This includes adequate staff, adequate sports medicine facilitiy size, and moving from a coverage model to a care model.

I will admit before I ever met Tony or followed him on social media, I was all about the coverage idea. I was there physically for the athletes and when they needed something. But after understanding the differences between covering a practice/game and providing healthcare during a practice or game I try to provide healthcare for my athletes in all aspects. Lately, this has been focusing on the mental health of my athletes (COVID reasons).

“Is there anything you experienced as an AT/clinican that you think non BIPOC ATs/Clinicans could benefit from understand?” This has been a question I have been asking everyone in my interviewsto get to know the experiences of my collegues that I know I have ignored or overlooked.

Tony’s answer was something that I have seen from many BIPOC collegues and an issue that much of out leadership needs to address. “The lack of representation in our profession association makes POC members feel undervalued and underappreciated.”

A following up question, “Overall are you happy with the direction the governing bodies (National, district, state) are taking with addressing race and ethnic diversity? What are some things you would like to see?

I think we can all agree with Tony’s answer that our governing bodies could do better. His solution would be to see true inclusivity within the NATA Board of Directors.

• As a secondary school athletic trainer, what would you like your colleagues, who do not work in this setting, to know about you and your staff and program?
  • ” We have been fortunate by God’s Grace to build a true Sports Medicine Program at the secondary level. We have CTAE Sports Medicine Pathway for our students to be exposed to the athletic training profession. We are also fortunate to have a 3000 sqft Sports Medicine facility. Our staff is diverse with 4 certified athletic trainers. Finally, we are able to affectievely provide full athletic training services and high-quality to our student athletes.”
• What is your favorite part about being an AT? What about being an SSAT?
  • “My favorite part about being an AT is providing outstanding athletic health services to my student-athletes.”
  • This is something we should all focus on as ATs no matter the setting. Our job is to provide our student-athletes with all the knowledge we have to help them live a healthy liftstyle. I think Tony embraces this more than most I know.

Something Tony and I have in common in a love of superheroes. And because of this I thought it would be a good question to ask which superhero Tony which superhero he thought would be the best choice to replace him at Walton. First, let me start off my saying there is no one who can replace Tony. He is already a superhero in his own right. I did like this answer though, because to be honest he picked my favorite Marvel hero (comics and movies). In fact, I think I am going to keep this question for the rest of my interviews.

So who was Tony’s choice? None other than King T’Challa aka Black Panther. GUYS, THIS IS LITERALLY THE PERFECT CHOICE BECAUSE THE TWO ARE SOOOO SIMILAR!!!

But why?

Tony’s responses:

• His leadership skills are second to none
• He is a servant to his people
• He is a genius, strategist, and tactician
• And he NEVER FREEZES!

Wow those are some great answers. And as a Blank Panther fan myself (seriously I own way too much Black Panther and Captain America stuff) here are my reasons why I think T’Challa and Tony are similair.

• Both are deeply passionate about protecting their people
• Warm and sense of humor
• More strategic and willing to look at all sides of a problem before acting
• Last who doesn’t want that badass suit and all the vibranium in the world. Imagine all the cool AT related things you could make with it.

The last thing I asked was if there were any ATs that should be highlighted for Black History Month. So if you are on this list you may just be getting a message from me soon

• Larry Reynolds
• Larry Bell
• Rob Dicks
• Dr. Nikki Harris
• Dr. Mercedes Himmons

I want to thank Anthony for taking some time to answer a few of my questions. Thanks for everything you do for our profession!

Racism in a Dollar Store

For today’s post I want to share with you an experience that I had a few years ago in a small town in Texas.

I was at a store during my lunch break to buy snacks or something for my athletes. I was in line to check out when a young black man about my age walked into the store. Not thinking anything of it I continued to scroll on my phone as I waited. Just a minute or two later, I hear a store clerk begin to yell and holler at the man. She begins to accuse the man of stealing and harassing her. I honestly couldn’t believe it. Looking back, however, I shouldn’t have been surprised. I will never forget the man had literally walked to the paper aisle and picked up a spiral and walked to get in line behind me. The man started to explain to the store employee that he was not stealing and that he wanted to purchase the spiral in his hand for his daughter. Apparently, earlier that day, his daughter had been asked to leave class because she did not have the right supplies, and the man had taken off from work to pick her up a cheap little notebook.

The store employee did not belive the man and continued to harrass the gentleman and instist he was a thief. She even started to call the police.

Now I am not a confrontal person and I have extreme anxiety and am very shy when in public. But I could no longer take the abuse this man was recieving. I apologized to the man for having to put up with this ignorant, racist, and vial woman. I then stepped in between the two and not so politely told the store employee that if she did call the police I would stay and provide witness that she was the one harrassing the man.

Once I was finished with my rant, I turned and offered to buy the spiral and a pack of colorful pencils for the gentleman’s daughter. I did this not because I felt sorry for him (though he was was clearly not having a good day) but because as an educator I wanted him to see that the actions of his daughter’s school were uncalled for as well. I was an employee of the district his daughter attended and this was one small act I could do to show him that there are allies within the education system (though sometimes few and far between).

After having a lovely conversation with this gentleman I found out that he had just started his second job of the day when he got the call about his daughter He was a single father and he was overwhelmed and exhasuted from working and caring for an elementary aged daughter. Needing someone to take to myself, as I was in the middle of my first football season at a new school and feeling overwhlemed myself, I decided to invite this man to lunch. Needless to say, I think I made his day.

The point of this story it to say that as human beings and as a healthcare providers our job is to be nice and to genuinely care about people. Yet all we seem to do is tear each other apart.

I chose to post about this man who has become a friend of mine, even though I no longer work in the same school district, because it points out the obvious racism and the sometimes less obvious systemic racism that BIPOC members of our community face.

I as a white woman would have a near zero chance of being fasely accused of stealing a cheap spiral from a dollar store. My future daughter would likely not be sent out of class just because she did not have the needed supplies that day. Yet this is what BIPOC members of our community deal will on a daily (sometimes mutiple times) basis.

To all my white collegaues, I ask you to think about your day today. Was there any moment that you witnessed a BIPOC member of your community or your athletes/patients, or your colleague being racial profiled? Think long and hard, because you probably did. What did you do about it? Did you experience an unconscious racial baises towards someone who was not of your race? Did you use a microaggression and think to change the way you spoke, acted, or communicated?

As non BIPOC we must work to understand that we in fact to have bias and to completely understand them. We also have to put in the work

ackoneledge that bias and learn how to ignore the bias we percieve and just see a person as a person. Saying that skin color doesn’t matter shouldn’t be your only rational when thinking about racism. You should acknowledge that there are different races and that we non BIPOC need to work hard in understanding the struggles our community memebers face and listen and learn what it is that we can do to help.

Franchesca Ramsey (@chescaleigh on twitter and youtube) has some pretty amazing videos that I have been watching lately. But she has a quote that I want to end with.

“Stop Thinking of ‘Ally’ as a Noun – ‘Ally’ is not a label you can just choose, it is a process. It does not give you bragging rights. Always remember that you benefit from your own privilege ​daily, and in doing so, you still contribute to others’ oppression.”

Learning About Diversity in Athletic Training

Let me start this off by saying that I am not an expert in diversity nor will I ever be.

I am a white female from a middle class family who grew up in a small prodominately white town. I will never understand the struggles of what it is like to be a person of color. But I am curious and want to learn as much as I can.

I have spent the last 7 months talking to BIPOC Athletic Trainers and learning from their experiences to try and become more of an ally. I have done my own research into these topics and have found that I am becoming more and more interested in the diversity (or lack thereof) of my profession.

I have decided spend Feburary blogging about the things I have learned and hopefully sparking discussions with ATs who can help educate me and provide me with ways to become a better advocate for everyone.

I want to start off this month long series with a simple and small interview I did with an Athletic Trainer that I have followed on social media and really admire. I learned somethings from the 4 simple questions asked.

Mr. Larry Bell, MS, LAT, ATC twitter-@LarryBBell

• “What are some things you’ve experienced as a minority AT that you think would benefit from more recognition or change within the profession?” I asked this question because I wanted to know if there was anything that was happening to minority ATs (not just BIPOC ATs) that maybe I could help bring to light.
  • “After nailing interviews and being preferred by head ATs, being passed over for positions in favor of less experienced, white ATs.” -Larry Bell
  • This is something that I had heard of but did not know actually happened. Having worked with BIPOC ATs in the past, I couldn’t imagine them being passed over for someone else just because of skin color. Like holy crap!!! But now I am aware of this happening (after talking with others more in depth on this issue) and will make sure that I do everything in my power to never let this happen to anyone when I am in position to hire or make hiring decisions.

• “Is there something you want non-BiPOC ATs to learn, understand, or do to better understand their minority athletes?”
  • “Get to know your athletes as people. Holistic practice. Learn about their home lives. Ask questions. Be an active listener.”
  • This one hit home. I thought I had been doing this before, but boy was I wrong. I started making a note in my evaluation to ask about my athletes’ well-being. I would disguise this as just a friendly chat, talking to teachers or teammates, or just coming right out with it, if it was an athelte that I was immediately considered about. Let me tell you, this has completely changed the way I treat my athletes. And I have even used this approach to talk with co-workers. I believe it is starting to strengthen my relationship with my BIPOC athletes and co-workers.
• “Overall are you happy with the direction the governing bodies (National, district, state levels) are taking with addressing race and ethnic diversity? What are some things you would like to see?” Just a little background on this question; I interviewed Mr. Bell, after the death of Mr. George Floyd and the Nation’s outcry and protests.
  • “I would like to see them (NATA and State Associations) add an ethnic diversity committee to each state to coincide with the national committee.
  • I just found out that not every state has an EDAC committee and it left me dumbfounded. If your state has an EDAC could you please send it to me. I was trying to reasearch every state’s association but I could not find information on many of them.
• “Anything else you would like to add to the conversation?”
  • “Continue educating yourself and asking questions. I got into athletic training because I didn’t see ATs who looked like me when I was an athlete. Blacks made up the majority of athletes, but coaches and ATs were mostly white.”
  • This one hit hard. I mean it hit really hard. I got into athletic training because of my high school AT. And guess what she was white. When I went to college the ATs in my ATEP program where white. In fact the only BIPOC AT that the university was a graduate assistant who was Asian-American (shout-out to Phil). When I think about the preceptors I had I can only name 3 ATs who were not white and out of those 3, non were African American.
  • Now that I have spent time thinking about this I have made the effort to include as many BIPOC medical professionals in my sports medicine team as possible. Let me just tell you, we need more BIPOC in medicine. Especially in mental health. I have been struggling to find healthcare professional that are not white. I want someone that my athletes can feel comfortable around and who can relate to the aspects of my athletes’ lives that I can never understand.

Something else I enjoyed was discovery just a little more about sport psychology from Mr. Bell. Something that he really said touched home with me and I wanted to share with each of you.

“Oh yeah, we all have biases. That’s something that’s not touched on. Recognize them and ignore them as you get to know your patient population…” Larry Bell, MS, LAT, ATC

I hope that through all the interviews and information that I have been working on I can learn the biases that I have and understand how they can and do interfere with the care I provide my athletes. I cannot wait to share with you everything I have learned and still hope to learn.

If you would like to reach out and talk with me please do. I am always willing to learn new levels and how I can change for the better of those in this profession and the patients we take care.