“Failure is a fuel that helps you understand what not to do,” said NATA Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Accessibility Council Chair Trevor Bates, DHSc, AT, during the Athletic Training Student Seminar (ATSS) Otho Davis Keynote Presentation, June 26.
ATSS kicked off with the Otho Davis Keynote, where Bates presented the topic “Just Getting Started, Never Giving Up!” Bates, who is also the president of Mercy College and executive vice president of innovation and strategy for TRUE Empowering, an organizational culture and equity focused consulting firm, discussed how to view success and failure when embarking on an AT career.
Coordinated by the NATA Student Leadership Committee, ATSS is an annual event designed to equip students with professional advantage as they start networking and preparing for transition to practice.
After NATA President Kathy Dieringer, EdD, LAT, ATC, encouraged attendees to participate in leadership, Diane Zashin, SLC’s District Six representative and chair of the SLC planning subcommittee, introduced Bates.
Bates acknowledged SLC, leaders in the profession and personal influencers in his career development. He also alluded to four people whom he learned from and four kinds of people in the spectrum of career development.
He shared his experience with a former wrestling opponent, John. Noticing that he could not score in the match, Bates said, “maybe I should be stopping him from scoring.” Bates beat him 5-1. Hence, he learned that sometimes, when students face obstacles, changing their tactics may be the best decision.
From athletic training colleague Brian, he learned that success in clinical practice isn’t about the AT, but the patient. It’s also about raising next generation.
“When you become successful, your job is to help someone else do better than you,” Bates said.
Molly, Bates former student, taught him to not underestimate the power of students. Bates said Molly’s tenacity in seeking him out to teach her how to perform an ultrasound, despite his lack of experience in it, challenged him.
“What Molly taught me is you can’t assume that time equals quality,” he said. “You can’t underestimate where someone is in their career or what they are thinking about doing. Molly made me a better professor and a better person. What I’ve learned to do is identify talent and eat it.”
Peggy, Bates former boss, taught him to go beyond the obvious to what’s important when approaching a project.
With these influences, Bates said, he learned there are four kinds of people who make the four P’s of professional positioning or success: pupil, professional, producer and power player.
The pupil is in the development stage of their career, while the professional is at the stage where they apply their education to real-world experiences, he said. While the producer works at strategizing with the costs and consequences of a decision in mind, the power-player assesses the intricacies of each aspect and party related to the decision.
Bates ended his speech with “The Conway Concept,” a term he said he learned from NATA Hall of Fame Class of 2024 member Darryl Conway, MA, AT, ATC. Bates said according to Conway, “if you can predict it, you have the power to prepare for it.”
He ended his speech based on the “New Cup Concept,” from another mentor of his, which states, “don’t drink from the cups filled with your successes or your failures, they are equally intoxicating.”
Bates advised students to not be filled with too much success or failure, but leave it behind and move forward.
After Bates’ keynote address, SLC honored the recipients of the 2024 Chuck Kimmel First-Time Attendee Award. The Chuck Kimmel First-Time Attendee Award is named in honor of late NATA Past President Chuck Kimmel, who passed away March 19. During his tenure, Kimmel developed several initiatives that have had a lasting impact on the athletic training profession and association, including the creation of SLC and the NATA Young Professionals’ Committee, now the NATA Early Professionals’ and Career Advancement committees. You can read more about Kimmel and his legacy in the May NATA News.
Honoring his impact with gratitude, SLC offers the Chuck Kimmel First-Time Attendee Award to help more students attend the NATA Clinical Symposia & AT Expo.
Kimmel’s wife, Patty, presented the winners with their certificates. The 2024 award winners are:
- Erika Debenham
- Jiho Kang
- Emma Kyes
- Mitchell Morrill
ATSS continues at 9:15 a.m. June 27 with the ATSS NBATA Ultrasound Workshop in Hilton, Grand Salon A, and ATSS Leadership Career Roundtable at 11:15 a.m. in Hilton, Grand Salon A.
For more information about ATSS, visit the ATSS webpage on the convention website and the NATA 2024 app, which includes NATA 2024 details, schedules and planning tools for attendees.
