Goldberg leaving Stephenville for Baylor Institute for Rehab

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Stephenville assistant athletic trainer Kendall Goldberg, seated second from left, is leaving for Dallas and a position with Baylor Institute. || RUSSELL HUFFMAN/TheFlashToday.com

By BRAD KEITH

TheFlashToday.com NEWS & SPORTS – FREE & LOCAL

STEPHENVILLE (May 20, 2015) — After five years nursing injuries, helping student-athletes with rehabilitation, teaching injury prevention methods and dealing with the ever-present curve balls thrown at high school athletic trainers, Kendall Goldberg is saying goodbye to Stephenville High School.

But she’s certainly not saying goodbye to athletic training.

Goldberg, the assistant athletic trainer at Stephenville since the beginning of the 2010-11 school year, is leaving for the Baylor Institute for Rehab in downtown Dallas.


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“I’ll be making sure athletic trainers are made available for events such as marathons, club soccer matches, rugby games and others that usually don’t have the athletic trainers they need,” said Goldberg. “I’m excited for the opportunity to do this and to get to Dallas. I’m a city girl, but I will miss the small town environment.”

And she will miss SHS and the many relationships she has developed the last five years.

“Definitely the biggest thing I’ll miss is Mike Carroll,” she said, reference to the long-time Stephenville athletic trainer and eighth-year assistant athletic director she has worked beside the last five years. “He and I have a great relationship and he’s an excellent mentor. I couldn’t have asked for anyone better to work for and work with, and the same goes for the administration and everyone here in Stephenville. This is a special place for sure.”

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Then there are the kids.

“The best part of athletic training is seeing a kid who suffered an injury work hard to get back out there and then experience great success,” she said, even naming a couple specific examples. “We’ve had a lot of them, like Jarrett Stidham coming back the way he did and really playing some of his best football after he returned from injury, or Jon Clark Giddings just last weekend, overcoming injuries to get fifth in the state (in pole vault) with a personal best at the state meet. That’s the reward for us as athletic trainers is seeing the success of the kids and knowing you played a role in helping them get where they are.”

The 2012 3A Division I football championship, the fifth won by Stephenville, ranks high on the chart of lifelong memories for the departing athletic trainer.

“That was definitely exciting, one of the most exciting nights of my career,” she said. “I’ll never forget that team or that journey. It was just such a special time for everyone involved, the coaches, players, us as athletic trainers, the whole school and community.”

The working hours of her new job will even allow her to follow the ongoing careers of many of the student-athletes she has aided through the years.


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“That’s one off the great things about it, is we have so many kids going on to play in college, and I love college sports, especially college football,” Goldberg said. “I’ll have the chance to go and watch them and enjoy again seeing their success and knowing I had a hand, even if it was just a small part, in helping them to get there.”

Baylor Institute for Rehab may be able to take Goldberg out of Stephenville, but what it will never do is take Stephenville out of Goldberg.

“I’ve had a great time here. Like I said before, this is a special place with a lot of special people who have been a big part of my life the last five years and will continue to be part of my life,” she said. “At the same time, I’m excited about this new opportunity and what the future holds.”

Kendall Goldberg
Kendall Goldberg

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