GPS Athletic Trainer Named High School Trainer of the Year

Behind every great school athletic program are those who ensure the athletes stay healthy and fit for performance. In 1995, Robbie Williams accepted an employment offer from the Center for Sports Medicine to serve as the first full-time athletic trainer at GPS; for the past 23 years, he has been the only athletic trainer for the Bruisers. At the recent Tennessee Athletic Trainers’ Society annual meeting in Nashville, he was recognized as the Tennessee State Sandy Sandlin High School Athletic Trainer of the Year. 

In addition to his role at GPS, Williams still serves as the coordinator of athletic training at the Center for Sports Medicine, where he supervises 15 fellow athletic trainers; in 2010, he took on the role as athletic trainer for the Chattanooga Football Club.

A former high school athlete, Williams was unfortunately injured playing basketball, but his treatment and rehabilitation sparked an interest in athletic training and, upon recommendation from his coaches, he took coursework in that area his junior and senior years. Later awarded a scholarship to the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga and then to the University of Southern Mississippi graduate program, Williams began a path to a career he loves to this day.

In addition to taping ankles and knees, identifying injuries, mentoring college student trainers, and numerous other duties, he endures long bus rides, extra-inning games, frigid weather, scorching temperatures, driving rain, and late nights just to keep our girls playing the sports they love.

“When I am hosting student trainers from UTC, I will point out to them the difference in working at GPS: support and gratitude,” Williams said. “A day doesn’t go by that I am not thanked by an athlete, coach, parent, or administrator for my work here.” He said his greatest joy is helping students return to a high level of competition after an injury, and to do that in an atmosphere where he is appreciated, “is something I never take for granted.”

Williams and his wife, Angie, have two daughters, Jennie ’17 and Sydnie ’25.