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Eastern Oregon’s Yap, Yanda and Ishii Named Athletic Training Staff of the Year

Article reposted from The Oregonian
Author: CASCADE COLLEGIATE CONFERENCE

Russell Yap, Megan Yanda and Hillary Ishii of Eastern Oregon University have been recognized as the Cascade Collegiate Conference Athletic Training Staff of the Year for 2016-17 as announced by the league office.

Winners are selected based on a survey that was taken by CCC Student-Athlete Advisory Committee members and distributed to student-athletes around the conference. This is the third year of the award.

“At EOU, we strive to provide the best care possible, not only for our own student-athletes, but for all who participate,” stated Head Trainer Russell Yap. “The CCC has some of the best sport medicine staffs in all of the NAIA and to receive this award is an amazing honor. We want to thank everyone who has allowed us to provide the care that we do, especially our administration, coaches, and student-athletes. We would also like to extend a special thank you to the individuals from around the conference who felt that our staff provided special attention and care during their time visiting us in La Grande. Again, we appreciate this recognition and look forward to the upcoming athletic year.”

Yap who has been with EOU as the head athletic trainer since 2007 has oversight for all of EOU’s varsity programs and primarily works with football and men’s basketball. Prior to EOU Yap was an assistant ATC at Missouri University of Science and Technology from 2005-2007 and an intern at New Mexico State University during the 2002-2003 season. He received his undergraduate degree in Science from Oregon State University and his Masters from Oklahoma State University.

Yanda has been with EOU since 2012 and works directly with men’s and women’s soccer, women’s basketball and softball. A graduate of Iowa State University with an undergraduate degree in Science, Yanda completed her Masters at the University Nebraska-Lincoln. Prior to EOU she served as an assistant ATC at Hastings College.

Ishii joined the EOU staff in January of 2016 after serving as an assistant ATC at Eastern New Mexico University from 2012-2015. Her primary duties are with men’s and women’s cross country, volleyball, men’s and women’s wrestling and men’s and women’s track/field. Ishii received her degrees from Eastern Washington University and Cameron University.

“At EOU we are truly blessed with trainers who not only care about our physical well-being but our emotional and mental well-being,” stated women’s basketball player Maya Ah You Dias.  “A lot more goes into an injury than just the physical aspects and they truly understand that and do whatever they can to make sure we are provided with the care we need.”

“Our athletic training staff works incredibly hard for our student-athletes and coaches and are more than deserving of this award and I am happy for them to get the recognition,” stated Athletic Director Anji Weissenfluh. “Without our outstanding athletic trainers our student-athletes would not be able to perform at the level they do and I am so grateful that we have such an extraordinary athletic training staff to work with.”

Yap will be put forth as the CCC’s nominee for NAIA-ATA Athletic Trainer of the Year.