May 30, 2002
Missouri's Eric McDonnell, ATC, will be honored for his contributions to the athletic training profession at the National Athletic Trainers Association's national symposium this June in Dallas.
McDonnell, who is in his 19th year as an Assistant Athletic Trainer at Missouri, will be recognized as a Service Award winner at the national awards luncheon on June 17. The award honors those who have served as role models for future leaders in the athletic training profession and have made significant contributions to it over the past 15 years. He will receive a plaque recognizing the honor at the Missouri Athletic Trainers Association's state meeting on Friday.
Following a five-year term as a student athletic trainer for the Tigers, McDonnell was hired as a full-time member of MU's Sports Medicine staff. McDonnell served 17 years as the primary assistant with the football program before working with the women's basketball program. Currently, he oversees volleyball, men's and women's golf and tennis. As part of his administrative duties in the athletic training room, McDonnell taught the Advanced Athletic Training Course for seven years, and coordinated the medical coverage of the Show-Me State Games for sixteen years. He also received training as an EMT.
A member of the National Athletic Trainer Association, he currently serves on the Board of Directors for District 5. McDonnell was president of the Missouri Athletic Trainer Association from 1997 through 1999 and presently leads that organization's Governmental Affairs Committee. In June 2000, McDonnell was awarded the Glenn L. McElroy Distinguished Service Award from the Missouri Athletic Trainers Association.
McDonnell is a native of Platte City, Mo., where he was a student athletic trainer at Platte County R-III High School. He holds two degrees from Mizzou, a bachelor's degree in secondary education (Health and Physical Education), and a master's degree in educational administration. As a MU student, he received the Dr. James M. Baker Award in 1981, as one of MU's Outstanding Student Athletic Trainers
McDonnell is certified by the National Athletic Trainers Association and registered as an athletic trainer by the Board of Healing Arts in the state of Missouri. McDonnell has also received training through (LETI) Law Enforcement Training Institute, and is a commissioned police officer (reserve) for the Weatherby Lake Police Department, a suburb of Kansas City, Mo.
He is married to the former Sabrina Batterton of Auxvasse, Mo. They are the parents of a daughter, Madison, and a son, Grant.