Hall of Fame
Bancells was a member of Hall of Fame trainer Bobby Barton’s EKU training crew from 1979-1981. He was a part of the athletics training staff that served for the 1979 and 1980 football seasons which produced a national championship in 1979 and a national runner-up in 1980 for the Colonels. Following his time at EKU, Bancells earned a position as an athletic trainer for the Baltimore Orioles minor league affiliate in Bluefield, West Virginia. On his first day on the job, he met Cal Ripken, Jr., forming a bond that would last all the way to 2015 when Ripken retired and had eclipsed Lou Gehrig’s major league consecutive games played record. Besides being Ripken’s trainer, he has a lofty resume of awards including being a trainer in 1993 and 2004 for Major League Baseball’s All-Star Games and is a two-time recipient of the Major League Baseball Training Staff of the Year award in 1995 and 2011. In 1999, he received EKU’s prestigious Distinguished Alumnus Award. He has served three terms as President of the Baseball Athletic Trainers Society and has been a member of the Major League Baseball Medical Advisory Committee. Bancells also traveled the world as both a practicing athletic trainer and lecturer at many places, including to Japan to speak to the Japanese Pro Baseball Athletic Trainers Society. He served with the Baltimore Orioles organization for 40 years, 34 years with the Major League team, before retiring in 2017 and being inducted into the Baltimore Orioles Hall of Fame.
