RECOGNITION

River Bluff High co-head Athletics Trainer George S. Wham won multiple honors for promoting health and safety among student athletes.

The National Athletic Trainers’ Association named him a Most Distinguished Athletic Trainer, only the third athletic trainer from South Carolina to receive this recognition.

The honor recognizes NATA members who have demonstrated exceptional commitment to leadership, volunteer service, advocacy and distinguished professional activities as an athletic trainer.

Gatorade and NATA also named Wham as District 3 Gatorade Secondary School Athletic Trainer of the Year, in addition to Most Distinguished Athletic Trainer recognition from the Mid-Atlantic Athletic Trainers’ Association.

Wham led Pelion High’s athletic training program for 21 years, joining RBHS for the 2019– 2020 school year. He is a member of the Mid-Atlantic Athletic Trainers’ Association, S.C. Athletic Trainers’ Association, S.C. Athletic Coaches Association and S.C. Medical Association’s Advisory Committee to the S.C. High School League.

Under Wham’s leadership, Pelion earned its second NATA Safe Sports School award in fall 2018, meeting all of the recommended and required safety and prevention elements. It led the way in high school safety, first in 2001 as the first athletics department in the state to implement an AED as a part of their emergency action plan, and in 2008, as the first athletics department in the state to begin using ImPACT testing for high school athletes.