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Roach Hired as Graduate Assistant at Clayton State

Article reposted from Clayton State Athletics
Author: Joshua J. Darling

Leigh Roach has been named as a Clayton State graduate assistant athletic trainer as announced by head athletic trainer Alicia Roane on Wednesday, September 21. She will be responsible for coverage of men’s soccer and men’s and women’s indoor track & field for the Lakers.

Roach joins the Lakers following an athletic training internship at Division II Southeast Region member Anderson University. During her time there throughout the 2015-16 season, she served as the athletic trainer for the Trojans women’s soccer and men’s and women’s basketball teams. She also assisted with other sports as necessary and was an athletic trainer at the Clemson University Tiger Tennis Camp.

Prior to her time at AU, Roach was a student-athletic trainer at Division I Gardner-Webb from 2012-15. As a senior in 2014-15 she handled evaluations, rehabilitation and treatment protocols and return to play decisions (with preceptor supervision) for both baseball and women’s basketball.

This was in addition to general medical clinical experience with Shelby Family Practice and orthopedic clinical experience with OrthoCarolina. In 2013-14 she assisted with football and wrestling, providing first aid, prevention and care skills, lower evaluations and modalities.

For wrestling, Roach added the responsibilities of upper evaluations and rehabilitation techniques. She also gained valuable experience with all of those areas while working with Crest High School that season.

She began her time at GWU working with men’s soccer and women’s track & field in 2012-13 with responsibility in first aid and prevention and care skills for both. For soccer she was also trained in how to handle spine boarding during a game.

Throughout her career Roach has also earned numerous recognitions, including University of South Carolina and Clemson University Valedictorian Scholarship offers. Those came in part to her achieving Valedictorian honors at Tamassee-Salem High School in 2011.

She has also served as a presenter at Life-of-a-Scholar in January of 2015 as well as at the Big South Research Symposium in April of 2015. Roach was also Secretary of the Athletic Training Student Club at GWU in 2012 along with being named to the Honors List in each semester in 2012, 2014 and 2015.

In addition to her efforts within her field, she has been involved in a number of charitable endeavors, including Toys for Tots (2011-15), Earth Day (2010-13), Habitat for Humanity (2013), Miracle Hands (2014) and town trash pickup efforts (2012).

Roach holds multiple certifications, including in EMR, CPR and First Aid through the American Red Cross. She is also BOC certified with South Carolina State Licensure and has been a member of the National Athletic Trainer’s Association (NATA) since 2013. Previously she was a member of the South Eastern Athletic Trainers Association Student Conference (2013, 2015) and the GWU Athletic Training Student Club (2011-15).

A 2015 graduate of Gardner-Webb University, Roach holds a Bachelor of Science in Athletic Training.