SLU's Men's Basketball Gives Dayton the "Blues" on a Fun Saturday in St. Louis

Saturday, February 13th was a fun day on our campus!  Since it was Mardi Gras, many SLU students took shuttles to Soulard to enjoy one of the midwest's largest parades and celebrations at 11:00 am.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE ABOUT MARDI GRAS IN ST. LOUIS

The exciting day continued at Chaifetz Arena where the Billiken Men's Basketball team hosted the Dayton Flyers at 3:00 pm.  It was "Billiken Blue-Out" day and the first 6000 attendees received blue t-shirts.  The students section was loud and proud as they Billikens prevailed in double overtime!

CLICK HERE TO READ THE GAME STORY AND SEE THE GAME PHOTO GALLERY
CLICK HERE TO SEE A CELL PHONE VIDEO OF THE STUDENT SECTION DURING THE PLAYER INTROS

AIMS Workshop Participants Get Hands-on Sports Medicine Experience

The AIMS Summer Workshop, offered to high school students through SLU's Practical Anatomy Workshop took place during the last week of June.

The AIMS Summer Workshop began in 1993 as an overview of anatomy and introduction to careers in the health care field. Graduates of this program are already at work in the field of medicine. Physicians and professionals from various medical specialties provide programs in their areas of expertise through 3-D presentations, hands-on laboratory experiences, case studies and group discussions, and patient interaction. All students have an opportunity to observe a live surgery during the AIMS Workshop.

The Athletic Training faculty and the Athletics staff gave the students hands-on Sports Medicine experience at Chaifetz Arena.

Medicine Ball Toss in Strength and Conditioning Center

Slide Board Demonstration by

Strength and Conditioning Coach Erick Schork

Using PVC Pipe to Work on Lifting Technique

Ankle Taping Practice in Athletic Training Room

AT student Hannigan honored at Billiken Scholars Luncheon

"The Saint Louis University department of athletics honored 42 student-athletes at the "Billiken Scholars Luncheon" held Tuesday, May 5, 2009, at Lorenzini's in Chaifetz Arena. The luncheon recognizes all student-athletes who posted a straight A grade point average during the spring and fall semesters of 2008. Each student-athlete also invited an academic mentor to attend the luncheon to recognize their appreciation for the role faculty and staff play in their lives."

Athletic Training Student J.J. Hannigan, a sophomore track athlete from Arlington Heights, Illinois, attended with ATEP Program Director Tony Breitbach as his guest.

Congratulations J.J.!

Link to the official press release

In the "Pink" Zone.....

The SLU Women's Basketball Team hosted its annual "Pink Zone" game to benefit Breast Cancer Research on Saturday, April 14th vs. George Washington University.

The Billikens wore pink uniforms to commemorate the occasion, including Heather King (#30) who is a student in the SLU Athletic Training Education Program.

Athletic training students Kellie Black and Jacob Blasingame (above) worked with Theresa Hummel ATC to cover the game.

Big Weekend for the Billikens

Its been a fun weekend on campus!

Friday night, the Men's Soccer team hosted Drake in the NCAA Tournament, winning in the 2nd overtime 1-0. Congrats to the team and SLU men's soccer athletic trainer Angie Wills as they head to Indiana Tuesday night.

Click here to read about it.

Saturday afternoon, the Men's Basketball team knocked off Boston College at a rocking, nearly sold out, Chaifetz Arena. Athletic trainer Jonathan Burch was kept busy, especially when Kevin Lisch took a shot to the nose and came back to lead the team to victory!

Click here to read the story

Kevin Lisch gets bloodied.....

But not beaten!

Last, but not least, SLU hosted the A-10 volleyball championship. The 21st ranked Billikens swept its way to victory over Xavier and Dayton! Best of luck to them and athletic trainer Theresa Hummel as they move on to the NCAA tournament.

Click here to read the story

GO BILLIKENS!

Its 1:45 am and the Hockey Bills just beat Mizzou 4-2

Trying to serve a previously unmet need, our faculty covers the Billikens Hockey Club. Coach Darren Helmkamp and his team are great to work with, and we hope we are having a positive impact as we cover their home games and serve them otherwise as needed.

Tonight...due to technical difficulties at the rink, the game vs Mizzou, that was scheduled for 9:00 pm, had to be postponed until 11:30 pm. We stuck it out with the the team and were treated to a hard fought 4-2 win, ending at 1:45 am.

Best of luck to the Bills saturday night, as they play at Mizzou.

Click here for their website

Here are a couple of pics:

SLU Volleyball Lead Story on ESPNU website

The Saint Louis University volleyball program is featured on the ESPNU web site.

Congrats to Coach Anne Kordes and the #21 ranked Billikens!

Click here for the article

A "Grand Connection" with Billiken Athletics

We are very fortunate to have such a great relationship with the athletic department at Saint Louis University. They serve as partners in our efforts to provide the best possible professional preparation for our Athletic Training Students.

The SLU magazine "Grand Connections" ran a nice article on the academic/athletics collaboration in its July edition. We have also placed the article on the at.slu.edu website.

Read it here:
http://www.slu.edu/Documents/doisy/ATGrandConnectionsarticle.pdf

Our partnership is also evident by the SLU athletes that have chosen Athletic Training as their major:

Lindsay Ciresa, Freshman. Softball
Mallory Dugger, Freshman, Women's Track & Field
Ashley Gaillot, Freshman, Volleyball
J.J. Hannigan, Sophomore, Men's Track & Field
Evan Johnson, Freshman, Men's Soccer
Heather King, Senior, Women's Basketball
Colleen Kustura, Freshman, Women's Soccer
Zach Miller, Freshman, Baseball
Keri O'Keefe, Sophomore, Softball
Cody Stites, Sophomore, Baseball
Caitlin Werkmeister, Sophomore, Women's Soccer

Best of luck to them as they start fall practices!

A Grand Day!

A picture of the brick with my daughters' names inscribed that I purchased for the Arena plaza.

The Grand Opening of Chaifetz Arena, was simply that, grand!

Everything turned out better than I would have hoped and there is so much excitement on our campus!

We are especially excited about the arena, because our students will get to use it as their laboratory.

To see the article about that go to:

http://www.slu.edu/x22340.xml

To see the local media coverage of the event, follow the links:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ia5eNK_zBso

http://www.slu.edu/x22358.xml

http://www.stltoday.com/sports/slu

http://www.myfoxstl.com/myfox/pages/Sports/Detail?contentId=6275461&version=1&locale=EN-US&layoutCode=TSTY&pageId=6.10.1

http://www.ksdk.com/sports/sports_article.aspx?storyid=143979

http://www.kmov.com/video/topvideo-index.html?nvid=234896

Billikens.com posters impressions of the arena:

http://www.billikens.com/forum/index.php?s=b3c1984b091ff144df53b33840a9a693&showtopic=14929

On a personal note, this is a very proud day for me. I worked in SLU Athletics for 7 years and loved every minute of it. But I did know that West Pine Gym was an antiquated facility and we just made the best of it. Today, I went back to West Pine to turn in my keys and pick up the rest of my stuff from the Athletic Training Room. I am so happy for JB, Miya, Theresa, Angie and all of the athletic staff as they move into the facility that they and the Billiken athletes deserve.

If you attended the Grand Opening, I would love to hear your impression of the arena and specifically its sports medicine facilities. Please post a comment!

Sneak Peek of Chaifetz Arena

Media in St. Louis were treated to a sneak peek of Chaifetz Arena.

One of the areas featured included the hydrotherapy area in the Sports Medicine suite.

Photo courtesy of Billiken Report

St. Louis Post Dispatch photo gallery:
http://www.stltoday.com/mds/news/html/1406

Billiken Report photos:
http://saintlouis.scout.com/2/737989.html

KSDK video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=czjZ3hzOc3Y

Admitted Athletic Training Students will also get a private tour on Admitted Student Day, April 5, 2008.

WELCOME!

Greetings!!!!

My name is Tony Breitbach and I am the Director of the Athletic Training Education Program at Saint Louis University.

I am happy to announce that our program now has a blog, this blog will serve as an effective, informal means of keeping you updated on the goings-on in our program.

I would encourage you to subscribe to the blog or make comments.

If you want more information about our program, I would encourage you visit our program web-site: http://at.slu.edu/

We are all very excited about the some things that are coming up in the near future:

March is National Athletic Training Month, I would encourage you to visit the web-site for the National Athletic Trainers Association at http://www.nata.org/

Our faculty is covering the Missouri Valley Conference Men's and Women's Basketball Tournaments, you can stay updated on the tournaments at http://www.archmadness.com/

Chaifetz Arena, the sparkling new home for Billiken Athletics, is about to open in April of 2008. The Sports Medicine Facility in the arena is a 2500 square foot state of the art facility. For more information on the arena go to: http://arena.slu.edu/, for information on upcoming arena events go to: http://www.thechaifetzarena.com/

The Billiken basketball teams are starting A-10 conference tournament play, for more info go to: http://www.slubillikens.com/

We are also interviewing candidates for a new faculty and a new staff position in our program.

There will be more updates in the future.....feel free to subscribe to this blog and make comments.

Go Billikens!

--Tony