BUFFALO BITS 2004 SCHEDULE - Collegefootballdatadvds.com

STEVE WILLARD
SPORTS MEDICINE
Director of Sports Medicine
Steve Willard is in his sixth year as CU’s
director of sports medicine, returning to
his alma mater to head up the department
on July 1, 1999. He is certified with the
National Athletic Trainers Association
(NATA).
Willard, 39, joined the Colorado staff
from Northwestern University, where he
had been the head athletics trainer for over
five years after taking the position in March
1994. He went to Northwestern after having
worked four years as a full-time member of
Dave Burton’s sports medicine staff at CU,
where his main responsibilities were with
the men’s basketball program, though he assisted with the football
team.
This is the third “tour of duty” in Boulder of sorts for Willard. He was
a student assistant primarily with the football program for five years as
an undergraduate at CU, where he earned his bachelor’s degree in biology
in 1988. He then worked as a graduate assistant trainer for two years
at the University of Florida, where he received his master’s degree in
exercise sports science in 1990.
As a student at CU, he also interned with the National Football
League’s Denver Broncos for the 1987 season.
He has a major bloodline with CU Athletics, as his great uncle, J. Lee
Willard, earned 16 letters in four sports between 1918 and 1922 and has
the football team’s most outstanding freshman award named after him.
Willard is an accomplished fisherman, and regularly spends his vacation
time from CU hosting Hollywood celebrities, politicians and other
famous sorts on his family’s property in southwestern Colorado. From
stocking the lakes with fish to hosting bull sessions around the campfire
every night, he has over 100 pictures taken of him and the celebs with
their prized catches. Those include photos with the late Marlon Brando
when he landed a 25-pound marlin and with country music singer Sara
Evans, who he taught personally how to make S’mores.
Born April 9, 1965 in Denver, he graduated from Durango (Colo.)
High School, where he lettered in golf. He was also the school’s assistant
trainer as a junior and senior. He is single.
ANDY HOLTZAPFEL
Assistant Trainer
Andy Holtzapfel is in his fourth year as
an assistant athletic trainer for the
Buffaloes, as he joined the CU staff in
August 2001 and works solely with the football
program and its 100-plus players.
Holtzapfel, 28, came to Colorado from
Mississippi State University, where he
worked two years as a graduate assistant
trainer. One of the programs he was responsible
for, baseball, made two appearances
in the NCAA baseball tournament.
He graduated from Eastern Kentucky
University in 1998 with bachelor’s degree in
athletic training, and he earned his master’s
in sports administration from Mississippi State in 2001.
Born November 26, 1975 in Ashland, Ky., he graduated from
Covington (Ky.) High School in 1994. His hobbies include golf. His father
(Mike) played football at Notre Dame between 1966-68; a brother (John)
played football at Western Kentucky in 1997-98; and a sister (Katie) is
currently a junior on the soccer team at Alabama. He is single.
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KRISTEN PAYNE
Associate Trainer
Kristen Payne is in her sixth year as a
member of the CU sports medicine staff,
her second as an associate trainer as she
joined the department in May 1999. She primarily
works with the women’s basketball
program, and the men’s golf and women’s
tennis teams.
Payne, 34, came to Colorado from the
University of Iowa, where she had spent
four years (1995-99) as an assistant athletic
trainer. She worked with the men’s
wrestling program, which won the NCAA
Championship all four seasons she was
associated with the team.
She graduated from Washington State University with a bachelor’s
degree in athletic training in 1992. She earned her master’s degree in
exercise science in 1995 from the University of Nebraska at Omaha,
where she worked as a graduate assistant trainer.
Born October 13, 1969 in Spokane, Wash., she graduated from
Puyallup (Wash.) High School in 1988, where she lettered in volleyball,
basketball and track. She was an honorable mention all-state performer
in basketball, earning first-team all-league and all-area honors. She has
a twin sister (Karen) who is a nutritionist in the Denver area. She is single.
WENDY VEATCH
Assistant Trainer
Wendy Veatch is in her fifth year as an
assistant athletic trainer, as she joined the
department in August 2000. She primarily
works with the women’s soccer and men’s
and women’s ski programs.
Veatch, 31, came to Colorado from the
United States Olympic Training Center in
Colorado Springs, where she worked for a
year.
She rotated between weightlifting,
freestyle and Greco-roman wrestling and
women’s volleyball during her tenure at the
USOTC.
In the summer of 2003, she worked the
Pan American Games in Puerto Rico, where she assisted with the sports
medicine needs for volleyball. Then in 2004, she worked with USA
Swimming and was on the training staff for swimming, diving and synchronized
swimming for the Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece.
She is a 1997 graduate of Cumberland University in Tennessee,
where she earned her degree in natural science and physical education
with an emphasis in sports medicine. She attended the University of
South Florida for graduate school, where she earned a master’s degree
in physical education.
Veatch was a collegiate softball player, playing three years of junior
college softball before transferring to Cumberland to complete her eligibility.
She earned National Softball Coaches of America Academic
All-American honors, as well as TCAC Academic All-Conference. She
played both catcher and centerfield at Cumberland.
Born August 23, 1973 in Topeka, Kan., she graduated from Shawnee
Heights High School in Tecumseh, Kan., where she lettered in softball.
Her hobbies include tennis, golf and skiing. She is single.