On Tuesday April 7th, 17 TATS members, ascended onto Capitol Hill for our “day on the hill”. We were accompanied by Zach Bates, our legislative liaison, who had set several appointments with legislators in advance. While we did not have a specific want or need from lawmakers at this time we were able to continue to foster relationships previously established as well as begin some anew.
It was a good opportunity for athletic trainers to say thank you for the work that had been done with regard to the concussion bill and the protection of health and wellbeing of the athletes that we serve. We even had one legislator who agreed to sign on to support the sudden cardiac bill when we made him aware of the current legislation.
Another byproduct of our meeting was the initiation of talks, with the members of the executive board, to develop a strategic plan as to how we go about strengthening our relationships with legislators and being more of a presence on Capitol Hill.
A special shout out goes to the 10 MTSU athletic training students who showed to support our efforts; Amanda Januchowski, Brandi Caruso, Chris Miles, Colin Biegas, Dabrisha Garner, Isaiah Foster, Matt Warner, McKenzie Leonard, Pali Dingler, and Trey Link.