Dr. Kirk Brumels and Dr. R. Richard Ray of the Hope College faculty are among the experts who have co-authored chapters in the new textbook “Core Concepts in Athletic Training and Therapy,” published earlier this year by Human Kinetics.

The book is an introductory text to athletic training and sports medicine coursework, and was developed to align with the newest, 2011, athletic training education competencies of the National Athletic Trainers’ Association (NATA).  Featuring 23 chapters by 12 athletic training educators with experience at the professional and collegiate levels, the 640-page hardcover volume was edited by Susan Kay Hillman, who is a member of the faculty of A.T. Still University in Arizona.

Brumels, who is an associate professor of kinesiology and program director of athletic training education, co-authored nine of the book’s chapters.  Ray, who is provost and professor of kinesiology at Hope and former director of the athletic training program, co-authored two of the chapters.

The chapters that Brumels co-authored are “Athletic Taping, Padding, and Bracing,” “Injury Mechanisms and Classifications,” “Principles of Examination,” “Upper Extremity Injury Recognition,” “Lower Extremity Injury Recognition,” “Head, Spine, and Thorax Injury Recognition,” “General Medical Conditions,” “Concepts of Rehabilitation and Healing,” and “Therapeutic Exercise Parameters and Techniques.”

The chapters that Ray co-authored are “Management Strategies in Athletic Training,” and “Reimbursement and Legal Considerations.”

Brumels has been a member of the Hope faculty since 2001, and previously spent more than a decade as an athletic trainer with the New England Patriots.  He is currently serving a two-year term as president of the Michigan Athletic Trainers’ Society (MATS), following two years as president-elect of the organization.  He has been a guest speaker or lecturer in numerous venues, and in addition to writing numerous articles published in scholarly journals is co-author of the fourth edition of the textbook “Developing Clinical Proficiency in Athletic Training: A Modular Approach.”  In addition to teaching and serving as head athletic trainer at Hope, he conducts research in athletic training, including collaboratively with students at the college.  His experience with Hope’s program includes having been a student himself:  he is a 1988 graduate of the college.

Ray joined the Hope faculty in 1982, and as director of athletic training led the development of the program into an academic major in the 1990s.  Extensively involved in the discipline of athletic training at the regional and national level, he is a past co-chair of the NATA Education Task Force, a past president of both the Great Lakes Athletic Trainers’ Association and MATS, and a former editor of the professional journal “Athletic Therapy Today” and former associate editor of the “Journal of Athletic Training.”  He is the editor or author of the books “Management Strategies in Athletic Training,” “Counseling in Sports Medicine” and “Case Studies in Athletic Training Administration,” as well as numerous articles in scholarly journals, and has presented several papers at professional conferences.  He has received multiple regional and national awards in athletic training, and in 2006 was elected to the NATA Hall of Fame, the highest honor in the athletic training profession.  He has been Hope’s provost since 2010, previously serving as dean for the social sciences from 2008 until 2010 and as chair of the department of kinesiology from 2003 until 2008.