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Truman State’s Boyd Inducted into Missouri Athletic Trainer’s Hall of Fame

Article reposted from Kirksville Daily Express
Author: Paul Halfacre

When Michelle Boyd got the phone call early in the summer, the person on the other end was a little coy about what the call was about.Just a cryptic message asking how good she was at writing acceptance speeches.When the person finally got around to telling her the reason,

Boyd was extremely surprised to find out that she had been inducted into the Missouri Athletic Trainers’ Association Hall of Fame. Even nearly a month after the fact, it still hasn’t sunk in that she is a Hall of Famer.“It was really surprising and I didn’t expect it.

The people that are in the Hall of Fame, I’ve had tremendous respect for. I never thought my name would be next to theirs on any list, so that was amazing for me,” Boyd said. “Still not sure that I fully believe it.”Two weeks after being inducted into the Hall of Fame, Boyd received another prestigious award as she was named the National Athletic Trainers’ Association Division II Head Athletic Trainer of the Year.She points to Truman State University as a big reason why she was nominated as the Head Athletic Trainer of the Year with the Hall of Fame being more of a personal award.“I feel like you can’t become the head athletic trainer of the year without working with good coaches and without working at a school that supports you. A lot of that has to do with what you do in that environment and I’ve got amazing coaches that want the best for the athletes and want to listen to what that is, and not every place has that,” Boyd said.

Boyd has been an athletic trainer for 24 years; 22 of those years she’s been patrolling the sidelines of athletic events at Truman and helping the Truman athletic department keep its athletes healthy throughout their grueling schedules.She admits that even after 24 years of being an athletic trainer she feels she hasn’t done enough to deserve the recognition.“You think about being on that list and I don’t feel like I’ve done enough or been around long enough (for it),” Boyd said.Now that she is recognized by her peers as one of the best and a Hall of Famer, she’s had visitors to her office congratulate her as well as former and current students attend the ceremonies, all of which has meant a lot to her.“People that I really respect that aren’t on the list have stopped by to say congratulations and tell me that they’re proud of what I’ve done, and that means a lot,” Boyd said. “I’ve had a bunch of students attend the ceremony, former and current students, and that was really meaningful for me.”

While most of her students have listened to what she has to say during class as well as clinic sessions, having two prestigious awards next to her name has grabbed the attention of a few more.“I think at least in the immediate time period for sure, but then that’ll wear off and I’ll become ‘ole Michelle’ pretty quickly again,” Boyd said.With 24 years under her belt, Boyd has a lot of good memories both as a teacher as well as an athletic trainer.

“On the athletic side, when you see someone you’ve spent a long time with during rehabilitation with getting better and stronger, and when you see them do something successful, whether that’s just, ‘I ran a really good race’ or ‘I got to play Michelle,’ I get as excited or more than they do and that’s amazing,” Boyd said. “With the students, when they come back and say ‘I did it right’ and they’re proud and they thank me. So you get it from both sides.”