COLUMBIA, S.C. — If you’re a gamecock fan you might’ve seen him running on the field at Williams Brice during player injuries, USC’s head football athletic trainer Clint Haggard was recently named athletic trainer of the year by the National Athletic Trainers Association.
“Its unbelievably humbling to be selected nationally as the athletic trainer of the year,” Haggard said.
Legendary, hard working and deserving. These were only a few of the words staff used to describe the head football athletic trainer.
“There’s a lot of things that we do as athletic trainers that nobody ever sees. things that we’re doing with the guys when they’re at their lowest points right after they got hurt and then helping them to get back to playing football again,” Haggard said.
Haggard has been apart of the Gamecock family for 15 years, something he says has been incredibly rewarding.
“This is their dream of playing football, a lot of them want to go and go onto the NFL and play professionally and so when they get injured there’s a question mark there of are they going to be able to do that and so a lot of what we’re doing is reassuring them of that," he said.
After all these years, he says his motivation to continue comes down to one thing.
“I've got guys that played here in the early 2010s that call me when they’re sick now or when they’re injured now or they’re kids are injured now asking for advice, that’s very humbling to let them have that trust with you to do that," Haggard said.
Staff say that working alongside Haggard is a dream come true.
“Clint has been amazing. I've worked with him for almost five and half years now and I've learned more than I could've ever imagined working for him. I actually went to school here so I had heard about him, I never worked football when I went to school here but he was the legendary Clint haggard so getting to work with him is a dream come true,” Kelsey Hounshell, one of the assistant athletic trainers, said.
Hounshell says she can’t think of anymore more deserving for this award.
“He’s not just a boss, he’s a friend too. he does a great of making you feel like this is your home and this is your family too,” she said.