In her third year as basketball trainer is Shelley VanDover. VanDover, 26, came to Missouri after working as a graduate assistant at the University of Wisconsin for two years. During her time in Wisconsin, VanDover worked specifically with women's basketball, football and men's soccer.
No stranger to the Big Eight Conference, VanDover received her bachelor's degree in kinesiology from the University of Colorado in 1988. While at CU, the Cortez, Colo., native was a student trainer with the athletic department. Working with the Buffaloes' women's basketball and football programs, she was one of the first woman trainers to travel with the football team on a full-time basis.
On Jan. 1, 1991, while traveling with the women's basketball team in Santa Barbara, Calif., VanDover applied CPR to a gentleman who had collapsed while jogging on the beach. Suffering an apparent heart attack, the man had stopped breathing until VanDover revived him. Recognized for her heroic efforts, she received the "Jack Creasy Memorial Life Saving Achievement Award" from the Columbia Safety Council on May 23, 1991. Also honored within her profession, VanDover was then awarded the Missouri Athletic Trainers Association "Distinguished Service Award" on June 1, 1991.