Tony Nguyen, MS

After eight years as head athletic trainer at UWF, Tony Nguyen was promoted to assistant athletic director for operations in September 2008. In September of 2011, he was again promoted to associate athletic director.  Nguyen oversees the daily operations of the Athletics Department and has oversight of softball and women's swimming and diving.

In his role as head athletic trainer from 2000-2008, Nguyen oversaw the medical coverage and safety of student-athletes from 13 different sports, managing a staff that included a full-time assistant, two graduate assistants and 30 student athletic trainers. In addition, he has served as an instructor for the division of Health, Leisure and Exercise Science in the College of Professional Studies at West Florida.

In July of 2002, Nguyen added the job of clinical coordinator for the athletic training education program to his duties at UWF. He was the liaison between clinical instructors and the Athletic Training Education Program (ATEP) director. As a member of the ATEP Advisory Committee, Nguyen worked hand in hand with the ATEP Program Director to attain CAAHEP accreditation.

Before coming to West Florida, Nguyen spent a year as an assistant athletic trainer at NCAA Division I Western Kentucky University in Bowling Green. He was responsible for daily coverage of the men's basketball team, supervised intern athletic trainers for baseball and men's soccer, and assisted with the football team. He was also the Inventory Control Coordinator for the athletic training department.

Nguyen spent two years at NCAA Division I University of Southern Mississippi (USM) as a graduate assistant, where he was the primary athletic trainer for football, women's basketball and baseball. He was the co-coordinator of athletic insurance and assisted with all intercollegiate programs while attaining his masters degree in sports administration. While Nguyen was a football athletic trainer at Southern Miss, the Eagles competed in the 1998 Humanitarian Bowl.

During his stint at USM, Nguyen was the interim assistant athletic trainer from November of 1997 to July of 1998. He was the athletic trainer for the baseball team that made it to the 1998 NCAA Tournament. Again, he coordinated athletic insurance claims, inventory and staff scheduling.

Before heading to graduate school, Nguyen was the head athletic trainer at Vanguard High School in Ocala, Florida for 33 athletic teams in the state 5A classification. In addition to his responsibilities with the student-athletes, he provided clinical supervision of undergraduate students from the University of Florida Athletic Training Program and assisted with data collection for a large scale epidemiological injury study of high school athletes participating in football, men's and women's basketball, baseball and softball. During that time, he was an instructor for the Department of Exercise and Sports Sciences in the College of Human Performance at University of Florida in Gainesville.

In the school year of 1995-96, Nguyen was an intern athletic trainer at Lynn University in Boca Raton, Florida. He assisted the head athletic trainer in all aspects of the training room including prevention, treatment and rehabilitation of athletic injuries, record keeping, and he traveled with intercollegiate teams on the NCAA Division II level. During that time, he gained valuable experience as an athletic trainer for the Miami Heat post-season basketball camp and Major League Soccer training camps in Boca Raton.

Nguyen earned a bachelor's degree with honors in Exercise and Sport Sciences with a specialization in Athletic Training from the University of Florida in 1995. He added a master's in Sports Administration from the University of Southern Mississippi to his education in 1999.  He is a member of several professional organizations, including the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA), the College Event and Facility Management Association (CEFMA), the International Collegiate Licensing Association (ICLA) and the National Athletic Trainers' Association (NATA).

He is married to the former Christal Henderson of Waynesboro, Miss., and they have two children, Sydney and Noah.