This is the fourth in a series of features showing the impact your philanthropic gifts have on EKU student-athletes! Eastern Kentucky University's Giving Day 2021 will take place on Wednesday, April 14. This 24-hour online challenge is designed to increase giving participation among the entire EKU community. Also known as #GiveBigE, the event's goal is to receive support from 1,000 donors in 24 hours. Please consider a gift to the Colonel Club or sports program of your choice on EKU Giving Day.

On a fall Friday night in the early 1990s, a young Jeff Carrico and his Eastern Kentucky University athletic training classmates were driving down the Western Kentucky Parkway headed to help legendary athletic trainer Dr. Bobby Barton in his care of the Colonels' football team in a road game at Murray State.
 
It was no different than any other fall Friday night during Carrico's undergraduate days.
 
"It's great to learn on the computer and pass your tests," Carrico said. "But until you get that real hands-on experience, you're sort of at a loss. That's what I got to do. Building those relationships is so important with the student-athletes. A lot of it is just building the relationship and letting that student-athlete or that coach know that you care about them. It's a huge thing with us because you have to be able to talk to them in good times and in bad times. If you can get that done, you're going to go a long way."
 
Carrico has spent his entire career building relationships and caring for student-athletes. They're traits he learned from Barton, a member of the National Athletic Trainers Association Hall of Fame and a two-time NATA president. Things have come full circle for Carrico who, on July 12, 2019, was selected to lead the department as EKU's Assistant Athletics Director for Sports Medicine.
 
"I remember I was a high school student and had done some athletic training in high school," Carrico said. "I remember coming down and just wanting to see the campus one day. And Doc B arranged for one of the senior student-athletic trainers to take my mom and dad and I on a campus tour. I was hook, line and sinker that I was going here. I was sold on the first day that I met Doc B just because of who he is and how he builds relationships.
 
"I know I'm making him proud coming back here," he continued. "From a personal standpoint, that really drives me to be successful because I want to make him proud. He's been like a second father to me throughout my athletic training career."
 
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The role of an athletic trainer is multi-faceted. One may think of an athletic trainer assisting an injured student-athlete on the court during a basketball game, but the role extends far deeper than just assessing injuries.
 
"If you use the analogy of a wheel, we're like the middle part of that wheel and we are able to branch out to the different spokes of nutrition, sports performance, mental health, orthopedic injuries, all of those things," Carrico said. "We are that centerpiece of the whole healthcare of the student-athlete."
 
Within the Eastern Kentucky athletic training room, Carrico has created a culture that embodies Barton's principles. He and his staff are focused on being a resource for the student-athletes they serve in all aspects of their lives.
 
"The athletic trainer is around every day," Carrico said. "We are a listening ear. We are invested in them and show we care about them. We care about them not only as the athlete, but as a student-athlete and a person. That goes such a long way with the majority of people."
 
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The COVID-19 pandemic perhaps altered the athletic training area more than any other. Carrico and his staff took a lead role both in athletics and on campus in response to the pandemic and making sure student-athletes were staying safe.
 
As the pandemic shut down college athletics in mid-March of 2020, student-athletes went back to their homes at locations all across the country. The EKU athletic training staff had to adapt to a virtual environment and helping the student-athletes they serve in unconventional ways.
 
"We did a lot of virtual things," Carrico said. "We did virtual rehabs with our student-athletes. We were sending out questionnaires on a monthly basis during those times. We were checking in, especially with the student-athletes who were coming off of surgical rehabs. We were writing up programs and checked on them, not only physically but mentally.
 
"We had to become creative. Not everybody had their own home gym to do things. We were writing up plans and saying 'You tell us – what's at your house? Do you have dumbbells? Do you have a driveway that you can walk up and down the hill to work your hamstrings and your quads? Do you have somebody in your family you can play catch with?' We had to get to know what each individual person's situation was for them and us to be successful in continuing to get them healthy so when they did arrive back on campus, they hadn't missed too many steps."
 
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Returning EKU's student-athletes back to campus this summer during the midst of the pandemic and working to create a plan for return to competition was an unprecedented challenge. Carrico, who served on EKU's COVID-19 Task Force, and his staff had to implement health protocols, symptom screenings and a COVID-19 testing program.
 
"It took a lot of planning," he said. "There was a lot of discussion with doctors and our colleagues at other schools. A lot of organization with our testing companies that we worked with – and we worked with three different testing companies. Working with our student health services. We were planning for the unknown because we didn't know what was going to happen. We didn't have any blueprint from the last time this happened because it's never happened before."
 
For a profession that already includes a lot of hours and a myriad of different responsibilities, the COVID-19 pandemic added a great deal of change and another set of responsibilities to the plate of the EKU athletic training staff.
 
"It's added a lot more work to us," Carrico said. "Even just the simple thing of daily temperature checks and symptom screening. It took a lot of buy-in because people may not have realized the importance of why we were doing that. We had somebody stationed at the front door. We didn't want people walking through the building before they had their temperature checked and their symptoms scored and making sure they had their masks on. Being adaptable was huge and that's how we were able to be successful. Athletic trainers are one of the most adaptable, flexible groups you'll ever come across."
 
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It's been more than 30 years since Carrico first set foot on the campus of Eastern Kentucky University. And while much has changed, the guiding principles have remained the same.
 
"Our big mission is providing the best healthcare possible," he said. "When I say healthcare, that's not only physically, but that's also mentally and emotionally."
 
Not only is Carrico responsible for the care of each of EKU's student-athlete, but he also serves as a mentor to his younger staff and students in the University's athletic training master's degree program.
 
"I want to be a very good educator and role model and mentor for our young student athletic training students and our young athletic training staff," he said. "That was one of the reasons I took this job. We work long hours. Our pay probably isn't what it should be, but you have to be in it for other reasons.
 
"You have to be in it because you're a caring person. You have to be in it because you want to do good – because you're interested in the growth and development of student-athletes. I'm very passionate about that and I get fired up about it."
 
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Eastern Kentucky University's Giving Day 2021 will take place on Wednesday, April 14. The 24-hour online challenge is designed to increase giving participation among the entire EKU community.
 
Supporting Eastern Kentucky Athletics means providing opportunities for student-athletes to compete in the sport they love and earn their bachelor's degree – something they might not have otherwise had the opportunity to do. It means helping them pursue their dreams in life.
 
"The world of medicine is constantly changing," Carrico said. "We, as certified athletic trainers have to have continuing education hours every year. The big reason hopefully people will want to donate to us is that we are continuing to further educate ourselves in the field of medicine for the betterment of the student-athlete."