DALLAS – The National Athletic Trainers’ Association announced a new members-only platform that will make it easier to connect athletic trainers with per diem opportunities at youth sporting events.
Go4Ellis, NATA’s newest Preferred Provider approved in December by the board of directors, is a mobile platform that allows event operators or anyone looking for an athletic trainer to provide on-site health care during a game, practice or tournament to post the event details on the platform. NATA members can search and select those opportunities that suit their availability, track earnings and communicate directly with event organizers.
Designed to simplify the process of connecting ATs with those who need them, the overall goal of the app is to improve youth sports safety while providing more opportunities for athletic trainers.
“The Go4Ellis app reflects our shared goal: better health care for youth athletes,” said NATA President Scott Sailor, EdD, ATC. “There should be an athletic trainer at every youth sports practice and competition. We want parents to consider athletic trainers as an integral part of youth sporting events. The Go4Ellis app is an innovative and simple way to connect event operators to athletic trainers, and reinforces the association’s longstanding commitment to best practices.”
Go4Ellis was created by NXTsports, a youth sports education and event management company based out of Philadelphia, that specializes in youth lacrosse events. The company has now grown to include educational programming and skill development training for athletes four to 18 years old who play lacrosse, football, basketball, soccer and field hockey. NXTsports operates more than 40 large youth sporting events across the nation annually.
Ellis Mair, EdM, ATC, director of participant health and safety for NXTsports, oversees the NXT Safety Initiative and coordinates medical staffing for all NXT programming. After creating the app to find ATs for company events, the NXT team named the platform after Mair’s habit of answering the phone with the greeting, “Go for Ellis.”
“Our partnership provides another employment opportunity for NATA members and also offers important athletic trainer access to groups that might otherwise not know how to make those connections,” said Sailor.
NXTsports is continuing to refine the app to suit the needs of ATs in different regions. To download the program, search “Go4Ellis” in the App Store or Google Play. For a complete list of NATA Preferred Providers, visit www.nata.org/.