ISU athletic training staffers have recently been recognized by the National Athletic Trainers Association for excellence and achievement in athletic training.

The association awarded its Athletic Trainer Service Award to both Jim Nespor, director of Cyclone Sports Medicine and head physical therapist, and associate director of athletic training Denise Harklau. The award is given to those whose volunteer efforts have made a positive impact on athletic training. Only 32 people from across the country receive this award.

Nespor has volunteered his time to athletic training activities in Iowa and around the Midwest, including the Iowa Athletic Training Society.

This was his first National Athletic Trainers Association athletic trainer service award.

“I attend NATA meetings in the summer, as well as the District 5 Athletic Training Association conference, which is held in the spring,” Nespor said.

Harklau said it was an honor to win the award.

She has spent 15 years doing volunteer work for the association, working on the Iowa Athletic Trainer Examination Board and the association’s Board of Certification.

She has helped develop and administer the national athletic trainer’s certification test. During that time, Harklau has given a large amount of volunteer time for her profession.

“I attend monthly meetings and have administered tests in Omaha on weekends,” Harklau said.

The trainers association’s National Public Relations Award for the nation’s most creative public relations program was awarded to the ISU Athletic Training Staff and Students for March’s National Athletic Training month.

“It’s cool to have the NATA honor the students and the training staff for their efforts,” said Abby Jorgensen, a graduate student in health and human performance.

“It is definitely good for the program,” Jorgensen said.

The association awarded Dawn Wedeking, senior in exercise and sports science, its National Research and Education Foundation Scholarship, one of 38 awarded nationally.

The association also bestowed its highest award, admission into its Hall of Fame, to Iowa State alumnus and current athletics director at the University of Texas at Arlington, Pete Carlon.

Carlon is the sixth ISU trainer or alum to have received induction into the association’s Hall of Fame. Previous inductees include former head athletic trainers Warren Airial and Frank Randall, current Cyclone assistant athletic director, athletic training program alumni Denny Miller and Mark Smaha and former head women’s athletics trainer Peg Houglum.