Troy State head trainer Chuck Ash was one of 47 inductees into the prestigious American Sports Medicine Fellowship Society in Birmingham this summer.

The 14-year-old Society is composed of physicians who have trained with doctors James Andrews, Bill Clancy, Larry Lemak, Jim Whiteside, Kim Fagan, John Gould and Tracy Ray ­ and others whom the Society deems to be contributors to the sports medicine profession.

Ash has served as Troy State’s head athletic trainer for the last 11 years and spent five years before that as an assistant trainer at the school.

A noted authority on athletic training, Ash has been a featured speaker at sports medicine clinics throughout the region. In June, he spoke to more than 500 youth league recreational football coaches in Pensacola, Fla., in a presentation called "Sports Medicine Issues of the New Millennium."

HealthSouth, a major sports medicine provider in Alabama and a Troy State sports medicine partner, will present Ash with an award for devoted service to the profession later this month.

"Chuck Ash is a vital asset to our University and a fixture in our athletic department," Troy State Athletics Director Johnny Williams said. "His earning an honor such as this comes as no surprise. We are very fortunate to have a person of Chuck’s qualification and appreciate all that he does."

Ash graduated from Troy State in 1978 with a bachelor’s degree in physical education and earned his master’s degree from Troy State in education a year later while serving as a graduate assistant trainer.