Posted on March 27, 2023 by Nydia Cabra
National Football League
Three students from the UTSA Kinesiology athletic training concentration have been selected as interns for the National Football League this summer. The three students will receive a scholarship check and will be paid during their summer tenure.
Daryn Minst will work for the Baltimore Ravens, Roxana Moreno for the LA Rams and Octavio Lagunes will serve the Indianapolis Colts. The three students joined the athletic training apprenticeship program in the spring of 2022. The process to join the program includes time as an observation student, then upon acceptance into the Kinesiology concentration an assignment under a certified athletic training Preceptor from the UTSA Athletics program.
All three students served under the guidance of certified athletic trainers Nik Turner, Samuel Hinojosa, Brian Benitez and Justine Humphrey during the fall 2022 football season.
“The students showed up day after day proving they could endure trials that came with camp and season and shined through it all,” Turner said. “The NFL is an experience and opportunity that can set them up for a future in the profession.”
Currently, the students are excelling in their new sport assignment. Minst, a senior from McKinney, Texas, is assigned to softball for the spring of 2023. Her Preceptor is licensed and certified athletic trainer Caitlynn Morris. Minst earned her EMT license in 2018 and has been able to use those skills to become exposed to multiple facets of the medical field. Her career goal is to work in the NFL after she graduates with her master’s in athletic training.
Moreno is a first-generation Latina student raised in Eagle Pass, Texas. She played multiple sports and treatment of injuries became something she wanted to learn more about. She is currently assigned to track for the spring of 2023 with licensed and certified athletic trainers Jayson Vincent and Kaitlin Boothe. Her career goal is to either work at a professional D1 school or the NFL.
“I am very excited to see athletic training at the professional level,” Moreno said. “I’m grateful to have this opportunity as it feels one step closer to my athletic training goals.”
Lagunes comes to UTSA as a first-generation Latino student from Mirando City, Texas. He played four years of football and had his fair share of injuries, leading him to spend quite a bit of time in his athletic training facility. That is what helped him determine that he wanted to become an athletic trainer at the professional or collegiate level. His current spring 2023 assignment is with women’s soccer under licensed and certified athletic trainer Shelby Dale.
The UTSA athletic training apprenticeship program provides an experiential learning opportunity for kinesiology majors in the athletic training concentration. Students in the program gain hands-on clinical experience, mentorship, and adhere to the polies and procedures as laid out by the scope of practice in the Texas athletic training law regulated by the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation. Students who complete an apprenticeship program are eligible to earn a Texas athletic training license upon completion of their undergraduate degree.
Visit our website for more information about the UTSA athletic training concentration and apprenticeship.
— Nydia Cabra
