By Dan Smith

One is not simply given the title “Super Dave.”

Like anything worth having, it must be earned.

Such is the case for Troy’s Dave Bush, who recently added to the credentials and opinion that hold him in such high esteem with local coaches, parents, athletes, and especially his colleagues from across the state and nation.

This past Saturday Bush was named the Athletic Trainer of the Year by the Alabama Athletic Trainers Association at the annual conference in SanDestin, Fla.

Bush serves as the Head Athletic Trainer for all Charles Henderson High Athletics, but also serves other schools in Pike, Crenshaw and parts of Coffee County. Bush is the Outreach Coordinator for Champion Sports Medicine, where he has the responsibility of going to many schools once a week during football season and assigns graduate assistants from Troy University to the other high schools.

The award and recognition were totally unexpected by Bush, in his 17th year as an athletic trainer, and he is very appreciative of the association and his peers for honoring him.

“It’s a tremendous honor just to be nominated for it,” Bush said. “I work with some very good high school athletic trainers in the state, and just to be nominated is an honor, and I was blown away when I got the news. It’s just a tremendous honor and I am extremely humbled by it.”

Bush is a familiar face on the football sidelines and tending to athletes during football and baseball seasons, but does much more.

“I am available to all sports,” Bush said. “I may not be able to be at every sporting event, but I will have someone that works with me that will cover some of the events I can not get to if I have two or three things going on at once, but I try to get out to every sport at least two or three times during the course of the season. I want the coaches and players to know who I am and what I am doing, but I am mainly with football all the time but I am always around and always available.”

A native of Eufaula, Bush received his undergraduate degree and Masters from Troy University. Bush has worked in Mobile and Birmingham, and has been in Troy for the last 10 years.

“This is a great place to be to do what I do,” Bush said. “It’s a joy to come to work. It’s not like getting up and going to a job. I get up and get to watch sports and get to know these kids and see them go on after they leave Charles Henderson and have success, and just know they are growing as productive adults. That’s a huge benefit to this, to see them when they are young and see them go through the ranks.”

As a student at Troy University, Bush was able to work with two of the best athletic trainers in the nation in Troy University Head Athletic Trainer Chuck Ash and Doc Anderson, Assistant Program Director for the Athletic Training Education Program.

“I would not be where I am today without those two,” Bush said. “They have been like my father and grandfather of athletic training. They have been my mentors all the way through since the first day I have stepped on the campus of Troy. Anytime I’ve had a question about anything, they are the first people I go to. They are the reason I am able to do this, because they believed in me so many years ago, and made me what I am.”

Bush is employed by Champion Sports Medicine, a private company under contract with Troy University to do sports medicine and physical therapy for high school athletics, and Champion is under contract with those high schools to provide athletic training services.

While Bush logged many hours on the sidelines and the training room during football season under CHHS Head Coach Brad McCoy, he has just completed the season with the high school baseball team under Head Coach Derek Irons. The services of Bush are greatly appreciated by Irons, as well as all coaches and parents.

“We are blessed to have a full time athletic trainer on staff at CHHS,” said Irons. “There are many schools in the state that do not. But to have Dave Bush on our staff, who is the finest athletic trainer I have ever been around, is a tremendous blessing that we probably take for granted too often. Dave has no off-season, as most coaches and players do. He moves from one sport to the next immediately, and those sports often overlap.

“He goes above and beyond on a daily basis to make sure our kids receive the best care they could possibly receive. He works tirelessly all year for the success of all of our athletic programs.We have had players involved with serious injuries and Dave has always done a great job. But he is always there on a daily basis to tape ankles, check on strains or pulls, make ice baths, and ice arms. He is one of the biggest assets we have at CHHS, and I’m very proud he is a Trojan. I’m certain there is no one more deserving of this award than Dave Bush.”