The North Carolina Athletic Trainers’ Association hosted its annual Clinical Symposium and Awards Ceremony March 8-10. During that event, the Kannapolis Fire Department was recognized as an Athletic Training Allied Partner and received the 2019 NCATA Presidential Award.
The Presidential Award is presented to individuals or organizations who go above and beyond in their support of the athletic training profession. The Kannapolis Fire Department was nominated by Jim Bazluki, an Atrium Health athletic trainer, who works at Northwest Cabarrus High School and who works with Kannapolis firefighters to ensure everyone is prepared to any athletic injuries that might occur during school events.
In his nomination, Bazluki commented that the department uses a stand-by system for Friday night football games and provides inner-agency training for athletic trainers and fire personnel. Because of this partnership, the Kannapolis Fire Department offered an EMT certification course for local athletic trainers, which led to 14 new EMTs. Bazluki stated, “During every step of this process, from onsite training for special sports medicine techniques to fire personnel teaching the athletic trainers to become EMTs, Kannapolis Fire has been the utmost professional organization that I’ve ever had the pleasure of working with.”
At the awards ceremony, Kannapolis Technical Services Division Chief Kirk Beard accepted the award on behalf of the department.
