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Charlottesville, VA – The Virginia Athletic Trainers’ Association (VATA) honored two members of the Cavalier sports medicine staff Saturday at its annual Meeting and Symposium in Richmond. Associate director of athletics/head athletics trainer Ethan Saliba was inducted into the VATA Hall of Fame and associate athletic trainer/football athletic trainer Kelli Pugh was named the College/University Athletic Trainer of the Year.

Saliba is in his 28th year as a member of the Virginia athletic training staff. He has served as the head athletic trainer since 1998. He oversees all daily athletic training room operations and is the primary care provider for the UVa men’s basketball team. Saliba was honored in 2007 as the Division I Athletic Trainer of the Year.

Saliba earned a master’s degree in sports medicine/athletic training from UVa in 1986 and received his doctorate in sports medicine from UVa in 1992. He has faculty appointments as a professor in Virginia’s Curry School of Education and as an assistant professor in the Department of Clinical Orthopedic Surgery and the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation. In 2010 he received his doctorate in physical therapy from Virginia Commonwealth University.
Pugh was cited for the distinction because of her exemplary character and dedication to her profession. She recently completed her third year as the primary care provider for the Cavalier football team. She has worked with the UVa football program since 2002. She is responsible for all aspects of the team’s athletic training regimen which includes evaluation, treatment and rehabilitation of injuries.

Pugh received her master’s degree in athletic training from the University of Florida in 2002. While at the Gainesville, Fla., school, she worked with the football team as a graduate student athletic trainer. Pugh earned her bachelor’s degree in sports medicine from UVa in 2000. She spent four years as a student athletic trainer, working two seasons with the football team.

The Virginia Athletic Trainers’ Association is dedicated to the health and well-being of Virginians who are physically active. As such, the organization focuses on enhancing the professional development of Virginia’s certified athletic trainers and on communication between all persons and agencies invested in the health and well-being of athletes and the physically active.
The VATA supports the advancement of the athletic training profession through legislative and educational endeavors that promote and ensure the highest standards of professional practice.

VATA Hall of Fame Inductees

Jon Almquist – The Athletic Training Program Specialist for Fairfax County Public Schools.

James Buriak – The Athletic Training Program Director and Chair of the Health and Human Performance Department at Roanoke College.

Steve Cole – The Associate Athletics Director for Internal Operations at the College of William and Mary.

Ethan Saliba – The Associate Athletics Director for Sports Medicine at the University of Virginia.

Athletic Trainer Of the Year Winners
Secondary
Paul Rupp
– The athletic trainer at Oakton High School in Vienna Virginia.

College/University
Kelli Pugh
– The Associate Athletic Trainer/Football Athletic Trainer at the University of Virginia.

Educator
Dr. Jay Hertel
– Faculty member at the University of Virginia since 2004.

Clinical Emerging Practices
Lloyd Givan
– An athletic trainer, physical therapist, and owner of The Performance Place in Charlottesville, VA.

Researcher
Dr. Brent Arnold
– An Associate Professor, Co-Director of the Doctoral Program in Rehabilitation and Movement Science, and the Director of the Sports Medicine Research Laboratory at Virginia Commonwealth University.

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