July 2, 2009
LEXINGTON, Ky. — After working with the New York Giants of the National Football League during the 2008 season, Gerry Garcia has been named the new Kentucky baseball head athletic trainer, UK head coach Gary Henderson announced Thursday.
“I am very excited to come back to the University of Kentucky,” Garcia said. “I would like to thank Mitch Barnhart, Rob Mullens, Gary Henderson and Jim Madaleno for giving me the opportunity to work at Kentucky. I’m excited to have the opportunity to work with one of the best baseball programs and coaching staffs in the nation.”
Garcia, who served as a graduate assistant athletic trainer during the 2007-08 Kentucky baseball seasons, replaces Eric Yochem, who spent five seasons as the trainer for the UK program. Yochem, a native of Warner Robins, Ga., has accepted a position at Utah, working with former UK senior assistant athletic trainer Paul Silvestri. Yochem will work directly with the football program, which is coming off a Bowl Championship Series win in the 2009 Sugar Bowl.
“We are excited to welcome Gerry back into the UK family,” UK director of sports medicine Jim Madaleno said. “His past year of work with the New York Giants will prove to be valuable to his day-to-day activities in the athletic training room. Having worked with such high quality athletes in New York will be extremely helpful. Gerry’s previous experience here at Kentucky will also help make his transition an easy one.”
“I am extremely glad to announce Gerry Garcia as our new athletic trainer,” Henderson said. “Gerry was a major piece of our program during the 2007 and 2008 seasons and he will do an outstanding job working with our student athletes. Gerry is bright, works extremely hard, and is committed to doing everything the right way. I am looking forward to him once again being a part of our team.”
Kentucky were spent working directly with baseball, in addition to assisting with UK’s 22-sport department. A graduate of the University of Texas, Garcia worked as an undergrad athletic trainer in the Texas athletic department, working with the men’s basketball, baseball, football and softball programs. Garcia earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Kinesiology-Athletic Training from Texas in 2006 and was named the Texas Athletic Training Student of the Year from 2005-06. During the summer of 2005, Garcia worked with the Washington Redskins as a summer athletic training student intern.
While at Kentucky, Garcia earned his Master’s of Science in Kinesiology and Health Promotion, with a concentration in Athletic Training. Garcia did his master’s thesis at UK on the effect of upper extremity plyometrics on baseball pitchers strength, motion and observation of injury time loss. Garcia’s case study in 2008 on shoulder pain in a college baseball catcher was also published in the Journal of Athletic Training.
Garcia is a member of the National Athletic Trainers’ Association, the Southeastern Athletic Trainers’ Association and the Kentucky Athletic Trainers’ Society.
