AUBURN, Ala. – Joining exclusive company that includes a pair of Auburn athletic training legends, Dr. Karen Straub Stanton has been selected as the Alabama Athletic Trainers' Association 2020 Hall of Fame inductee.
"It was honestly very surprising," said Straub Stanton, who joins former Auburn athletic trainers Kenny Howard and Herb Waldrop in the Hall of Fame. "These men and women have done amazing things for our profession and they have such a passion and grace for it. To even be considered with them, I'm awestruck."
Straub Stanton came to Auburn in 2005, working with football and volleyball before serving as the athletic trainer for the Tigers' two-time reigning national champion equestrian program.
"It's a lot of fun for me to practice in this profession because I do get to serve these student-athletes, developing young people, and watch them change and grow and achieve all the dreams that they want to," she said. "No two days are ever the same."
Straub Stanton's interest in the field began in high school, attending athletic training camps.
"I love interacting with people," she said. "Athletic trainers have such a grace in being able to be there in so many big ways in different peoples' lives, that's what I really wanted to do.
"Besides the medical, the athletic, the biomechanics, you do get to enter these peoples' lives in a different way. The relationships you develop in helping and supporting them, and really empowering them, it's different than anything you'll ever do."
A veteran of the ALATA Executive Council, Straub Stanton will mark 15 years of serving Auburn's student-athletes this fall.
"This is a very proud moment for us," equestrian coach Greg Williams said. "As long as I have been in this, it still amazes me the quality of medical care student-athletes can get here.
"We've got a large group of girls and we're extremely fortunate to have somebody of Dr. Straub Stanton's caliber to look after them. She is a big part of our national championships that we've won the past two years. She's tops in her field."
Straub Stanton credits her husband, Nate, with helping balance her demanding profession with family life.
"My home team is amazing," she said. "I married very well. My husband is a hundred percent my partner in this."
Because of the coronavirus pandemic, Straub Stanton's formal induction will take place during ALATA's 2021 annual meeting.
"I've heard student-athletes state that she's like a second mom to them at the equestrian center," Auburn director of sports medicine Joe-Joe Petrone said. "They look up to her because of her work ethic and the fact that she's raising young children and doing the thing she loves the most, and that's being an athletic trainer at the highest level in Division I athletics.
"She's an important cog with our staff. She completes our team. She does many things outside of being the equestrian athletic trainer, and that just makes us that much better. Our whole staff is like that, the Auburn family, and she is the epitome of that."
Jeff Shearer is a Senior Writer at AuburnTigers.com. Follow him on Twitter: @jeff_shearer
From ALATA: The ALATA Hall of Fame is designed to recognize and honor those members of our State who performed extraordinary service and brought honor to the profession of athletic training and have distinguished themselves throughout the years in the service of athletic training, particularly at the ALATA level. Service at local, state, and national levels is considered but service to ALATA is the primary consideration. Minimum eligibility requirements include 15 years as a certified member working or living in Alabama and at least 20 years of service in the profession.