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Japan native serving as Neosho County athletic trainer

Article reposted from The Chanute Tribune
Author: JOSHUA VAIL

Hiroko Matsuura always enjoyed athletics through high school and college.

She now trains Neosho County Community College athletes and teaches athletic training courses to students.

Matsuura is originally from Tokushima, Japan, and came to the United States after graduating high school in 2006. She received her Bachelor’s degree in athletic training with a minor in coaching from Ashland University in Ohio in 2010.

She then went to a graduate assistant position at Fontbonne University in St. Louis, where she received her Master’s degree, before taking on an athletic training internship at Morgan State University in Baltimore. There she worked with the football, men’s basketball and track teams.

“It was a great experience,” she said. “I just loved my job even more, but it was time for me to get a real job to make money.”

Matsuura took the job at NCCC after a year in Baltimore and has been working there for four years.  She said that she wanted to be an athletic trainer but also teach others. She enjoys working with students in a college setting and working with students of different learning styles. She also enjoys helping student-athletes recover from their athletic injuries.  She enjoys athletic training because she can still be involved in sports and she enjoys watching NCCC sporting events and practice.

In addition to her school life, she enjoys talking with her family in Japan and hanging out with other coaches at NCCC.

She is hoping to grow the athletic training program by adding more students. High school students looking for scholarships at NCCC can get an athletic training scholarship if they are a resident of Kansas, maintain a 2.5 GPA through their time at NCCC, take one of the athletic training classes, and work 15 hours a week as an assistant in the athletic training department.