EDEN PRAIRIE, Minn. —
The Minnesota Athletic Trainers’ Association presented the Vikings staff of certified athletic trainers with the Sports Medicine Enhancement Award for 2016 during the MATA Annual Meeting and Clinical Symposium.
In a letter to Vikings Director of Sports Medicine/Head Athletic Trainer Eric Sugarman, MATA Honors and Awards Chair Ronda Peterson, ATC, wrote, “The collaborative efforts given to athletic training and the State of Minnesota in your quest to provide athletic training coverage to local school districts have been nothing less than extraordinary.”
Sugarman’s staff — Coordinator of Rehabilitation/Assistant Athletic Trainer Tom Hunkele and assistant athletic trainers Rob Roche, Matt Duhamel and Albert Padilla — helped launch a grant program in 2014 to cover hundreds of football players in 13 high schools by providing certified athletic trainers at each school for practices and games each week.