What does a head athletic trainer do?
Head athletic trainer responsibilities
Here are examples of responsibilities from real head athletic trainer resumes:
- Provide health care to student athletes in men's and women's basketball, volleyball, baseball, softball.
- Prepare and administer appropriate rehabilitation programs according to protocol
- Provide leadership and supervision of both cross country/ track and field graduate assistant and volleyball graduate assistant.
- Care for and rehabilitate professional soccer players, as well as handled the duties of travel secretary for the organization
- Serve as co-head athletic trainer covering athletic periods throughout the day, including baseball, softball, and spring football.
- Coordinate all medical services for professional soccer team.
- Supervise rehabilitation guidelines administer to student-athletes.
- Prepare and administer appropriate rehabilitation programs according to protocol
Head athletic trainer skills and personality traits
We calculated that 22% of Head Athletic Trainers are proficient in Rehabilitation, CPR, and Game Coverage.
We break down the percentage of Head Athletic Trainers that have these skills listed on their resume here:
- Rehabilitation, 22%
Prepared and administered appropriate rehabilitation programs according to protocol
- CPR, 8%
Created the curriculum and instructed AED, CPR and First Aid for Upper School students.
- Game Coverage, 7%
Provide athletic training services, including and not limited to practice and game coverage, and weekend event coverage.
- Athletic Injuries, 6%
Evaluate, prevent, treat and rehabilitate athletic injuries-Sport physicals to athletes-Designed conditioning programs for athletic teams
- NCAA, 5%
Head Athletic Trainer responsible for the safe participation of the student-athletes in 15 NCAA Division I & II varsity athletic sports.
- Physical Therapy, 4%
Developed and implemented orthopedic physical therapy programs under supervision of staff physical therapist at Institute for Athletic Medicine.
"rehabilitation," "cpr," and "game coverage" are among the most common skills that head athletic trainers use at work. You can find even more head athletic trainer responsibilities below, including:
Compassion. The most essential soft skill for a head athletic trainer to carry out their responsibilities is compassion. This skill is important for the role because "athletic trainers work with athletes and patients who may be in considerable pain or discomfort." Additionally, a head athletic trainer resume shows how their duties depend on compassion: "exhibit an excellent bedside manner by treating patients with compassion, patience, and respect while diffusing ailing and frustrated clientele. "
Detail oriented. Many head athletic trainer duties rely on detail oriented. "athletic trainers must record patients’ progress accurately and ensure that they are receiving the appropriate treatments or practicing the correct fitness regimen.," so a head athletic trainer will need this skill often in their role. This resume example is just one of many ways head athletic trainer responsibilities rely on detail oriented: "maintained detailed record keeping including medical history, pre-participation examinations, injury reports, treatment records, and rehabilitation programs. "
The three companies that hire the most head athletic trainers are:
- University of Pennsylvania2 head athletic trainers jobs
- Agnes Scott College2 head athletic trainers jobs
- University of Alaska2 head athletic trainers jobs
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Head athletic trainer vs. Sports medicine coordinator
A trainer is responsible for instilling knowledge and process techniques for a specific business role. Duties of a trainer include facilitating engaging classes, identifying areas of improvement and opportunities for the learner, evaluating skills and attending to the learner's challenges, organizing training materials and scheduling training sessions, and submitting timely reports to the management on progress. Trainers are required to have excellent public communication skills and extensive product knowledge to provide effective learning methodologies and maintain strategic project management.
There are some key differences in the responsibilities of each position. For example, head athletic trainer responsibilities require skills like "cpr," "game coverage," "ncaa," and "emergency care." Meanwhile a typical sports medicine coordinator has skills in areas such as "patients," "ekg," "drug screens," and "clerkship." This difference in skills reveals the differences in what each career does.
On average, sports medicine coordinators reach lower levels of education than head athletic trainers. Sports medicine coordinators are 5.2% less likely to earn a Master's Degree and 0.9% more likely to graduate with a Doctoral Degree.Head athletic trainer vs. Trainer
Each career also uses different skills, according to real head athletic trainer resumes. While head athletic trainer responsibilities can utilize skills like "rehabilitation," "game coverage," "athletic injuries," and "ncaa," trainers use skills like "pet," "training programs," "leadership," and "bonds."
In general, trainers achieve lower levels of education than head athletic trainers. They're 10.0% less likely to obtain a Master's Degree while being 0.9% more likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.Head athletic trainer vs. Sports medicine trainer
There are many key differences between these two careers, including some of the skills required to perform responsibilities within each role. For example, a head athletic trainer is likely to be skilled in "game coverage," "ncaa," "emergency care," and "injury prevention programs," while a typical sports medicine trainer is skilled in "dme," "student athletes," "injury prevention," and "splints."
Most sports medicine trainers achieve a lower degree level compared to head athletic trainers. For example, they're 9.4% less likely to graduate with a Master's Degree, and 2.2% less likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.Head athletic trainer vs. Graduate assistant athletic trainer
Types of head athletic trainer
Updated January 8, 2025











