If elected president, Sailor’s goals can be summed up in three words: access, awareness and allies. Sailor would like to see improved access to athletic trainers in secondary schools and youth-sports organizations. Sailor points out that many schools throughout the country lack adequate staffing of athletic trainers, so those ATs are often required to scale back the services they provide in order to meet the overwhelming demand. He plans to work toward making athletic trainers more accessible to the general population, especially adults who need help returning to their active lives after an injury. “I envision a day when members of the public consider consulting an athletic trainer a normal part of an active lifestyle, much like they currently consider consulting personal trainers prior to undertaking a fitness program,” says Sailor.

Though Sailor says awareness of athletic training has improved in recent years, he believes NATA members need to continue to raise awareness about their knowledge, abilities and clinical research. Sailor wants to continue to emphasize the AT’s role in the management of concussions, sudden cardiac arrest and heat illness. “I believe we will soon see a day where athletic trainers are fully engaged and leading health policy discussions, especially when it comes to topics related to youth sports safety,” he says. He thinks those grassroots efforts, along with the association’s collaborations with like-minded organizations that understand the value of athletic trainers, will continue to raise the profession’s public profile. Sailor points to the importance of engaging and maintaining serious dialog with long-standing allies about issues such as appropriate models of supervision for ATs, rules changes and growing demands on student-athletes and athletic training staffs. “It is imperative, as we move forward, that we [strategic allies] work together to bring about positive change for this profession which will result in improved outcomes for our various stakeholders.”

– Jordan Grantham (NATA Convention Daily News)