SUMMERS NAMED DIRECTOR OF ATHLETIC TRAINING

FAYETTEVILLE - Matt Summers, who has spent the past four seasons as the Razorbacks' Head Athletic Trainer for Football, has been promoted to Director of Athletic Training, it was announced Thursday.

"Matt has done a tremendous job for our program since he came to the University of Arkansas," Vice Chancellor and Director of Athletics Jeff Long said. "The health, safety and wellbeing of our student-athletes are the primary responsibility of our athletic department and Matt and our athletic trainers are essential to our commitment. I am fully confident that with his experience, Matt will continue to lead our efforts in providing our student-athletes with the highest standard of care."

In his new role, Summers will oversee all of Arkansas' athletic training department, leading the staff of full-time, graduate assistant and student athletic trainers. He also will be in charge of developing and implementing healthcare policies and procedures for student-athletes, coordinating contractual agreements with healthcare providers that make up the Sports Medicine Team and managing the athletic training budget.

Summers will continue his duties with the football program. Along with the collaboration of team physicians, he is responsible for directly overseeing the healthcare of football student-athletes. He also develops, designs and implements strategies to prevent, treat and rehabilitate athletic and non-athletic related injuries.

Before coming to Arkansas, Summers spent the 2008-09 year as senior athletic trainer at the University of Kentucky. He was the director of rehabilitation, generated daily injury reports for coaches, supervised graduate assistants and students, was responsible for the budget and supplies and maintained injury records.

During the 2006 and 2007 football seasons, he was assistant athletic trainer for the NFL's San Diego Chargers. He conducted and monitored the rehabilitation program, monitored the field and communicated with the coaching staff during practices, managed inventory and budgeting and was responsible for the interviewing and hiring of summer students and seasonal interns. Following the 2007 season, Summers was a member of the 2008 AFC Pro Bowl Athletic Training staff.

He worked at the University of Louisville from 2003-06. Summers was a graduate assistant from May 2003 through June 2005 and assistant athletic trainer from 2005 until going to San Diego in 2006.

With the Cardinals, he assisted the head athletic trainer with the prevention, assessment and care of athletic injuries related to football, designed and implemented rehabilitation protocols and recruited and supervised graduate assistants and students. As a graduate assistant, his responsibilities included assisting in the design, implementation and documentation of rehabilitation protocols and supervising the student staff.

Summers began his career as a student athletic trainer at the University of Kentucky, where he worked with the football, men's basketball and men's tennis teams. He earned his bachelor's degree in education majoring in kinesiology from Kentucky in 2002 and his master's degree in health and wellness from Louisville in 2005. After graduating from Kentucky, he interned with the Chargers during the 2002 NFL season.