PANAMA CITY BEACH , FLORIDA (March 24, 2009)… Franklin resident Gary Beatty was recently honored by the Southeast Athletic Trainers Association at their recent annual meeting in Panama City Beach, Florida as the “Backbone Award” winner for 2009.

The Backbone Award is given to an athletic trainer that has exhibited the highest levels of professionalism, dedication, and service to the field of sports medicine.

He was selected for this honor for his more than eighteen years of service to the profession of athletic training at the high school, college and professional sports arenas. Gary is employed by STAR Physical Therapy as the head athletic trainer for Battle Ground Academy. He has been helping the Wildcat athletes stay safely in the game and on the field since 2006.

Beatty was recognized during the association’s thirty-ninth annual awards banquet with over 250 people in attendance. He is the first recipient of the Backbone award from Tennessee in more than a decade.Beatty and his wife Sarah have been Franklin residents for twelve years. He is an alumnus of Columbia Academy and Lipscomb University.
The Southeast Athletic Trainers’ Association is made of the nationally certified athletic trainers from Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Tennessee. This group represents over 4,200 health care professionals in the 7 state region who take care the physically active population from the little league baseball player to professional sports teams to marathoners of all ages.

Gary was also the Tennessee Athletic Trainers’ Society Backbone Athletic Trainer of the Year for 2007.

Photo From left: STAR Physical Therapy’s Chris Snoddy poses with Gary Beatty at the Southeast Athletic Trainers Association annual conference last week as Beatty was honored with the “Backbone Award” by the regional professional association. Beatty is the head athletic trainer for Battleground Academy in Franklin, Tennessee, and Snoddy was Beatty’s mentor in the field of sports medicine while a high school student more than twenty years ago.

Previous STAR Family Members to receive TATS Backbone award are:
2000 - Kent Chapman, ATC,LAT, Partner
2002 - Shawn Allender, ATC,LAT, Clinic Director-Franklin Clinic

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