Baldwin County High School’s Andrew Shivers has had an interesting and long journey to becoming the schools first full-time head athletic trainer.
Before Shivers arrived at Baldwin the Braves did not even have a training table in the training room of their field house, but Shivers took on the challenge and helped build Baldwin into one of the top 21 high school athletic training staffs in Georgia.
Shivers was hired by the school in the spring of 2024 but his story begins when he was working for Delta Airlines in Atlanta.
“In undergrad, before transferring to Georgia College and State University (GCSU), I worked at Delta Airlines as a rehabilitation technician at the ACS (airport customer service),” Shivers said. “The side of the operations we helped were employees like the baggage handlers, and gate agents when they got hurt on the job.
“When I graduated from GCSU in 2017 with a Bachelors of Science in athletic training, I started my professional career in the industrial setting at Bluebird Bus Company in Fort Valley. Going into the athletic training program I thought I wanted to work in the industrial setting so this job lined up with my professional goals. However, during my time there I would cover home events such as football, basketball, and wrestling at Baldwin High School throughout 2018 and 2019. This exposure to working in the secondary school setting sparked my passion for working in athletics.
“At the time, Baldwin did not have a full time position available. I took a job at Alcovy High School until Covid. I had an opportunity to work at Spalding High School in my hometown of Griffin. I worked there for four years until coach (Dexter) Ricks, the athletic director at Baldwin, called me saying Baldwin now has a full-time athletic training position open. I knew coach Ricks. I liked working with coach Ricks, so I took a leap of faith and applied for the position of head athletic trainer.”
Shivers was hired and immediately embraced the challenge that Baldwin presented for him as an athletic trainer.
“That is actually the thing that was most appealing to me about taking the job at Baldwin,” Shivers said. “I wanted a professional challenge, I wanted an opportunity to build something here at Baldwin.
“Due to my previous working friendship with coach Ricks and Mr. Flanders (previous principal), I knew I would get support from the school’s administration to implement a program that I could fully believe in. I knew we could start something from nothing. Due to my previous experience of running an established sports medicine program, I understood the things we needed to do and get. I had a specific plan, from annual budget, to capital investment items, down to the specific hand written drawing of the field house athletic training room layout.”
Shivers added that thanks to the help of his relationships with other middle Georgia athletic trainers as well as BHS Principal Markeeta Clayton and district level leadership the Braves have become one of 21 schools in Georgia with a Safe Sport School Designation by the National Athletic Training Association.
Baldwin’s recently established relationships with GCSU’s Athletic Training Program and undergraduate Health Science program can also be accredited to Shivers’ hard work. This relationship allows Baldwin High School’s CTAE (Career, Technical, and Agricultural Education) sports medicine students to interact with college students. Baldwin has also begun a partnership with Ortho Georgia so their athletes can now see doctors whenever they need to.
“This speaks volumes to the support of the coaches, administration and stakeholders,” Shivers said. “The best thing now is if you have a child that plays sports at Baldwin High School you know they will be safe. If they are injured you know they will be able to get the physical rehabilitation needed to get healthy again.”
The Baldwin athletic training program’s future is bright and Shivers wants to lead the program to the level of rivals around the state.
“My goal is to grow the athletic training program here at Baldwin into a program like our region rivals at Peach County and Mary Persons,” Shivers said. “They have two and three full-time athletic trainers on staff.
“I would like to grow the staff large enough to cover and care for every athlete in the Baldwin County School District.”