By Mike Phelps

As the world's finest athletes gather in China for the Beijing Olympics, representatives from high schools and collegiate athletic departments from across the U.S. will also be attending the games. Many will assist individual American teams, while another is set to officiate the men's soccer competition.

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Texas State University Director of Athletic Training Jack Ransone will serve as the medical coordinator for the U.S. Track and Field team at the Games in Beijing. Ransone also assisted the team in Athens in 2004, and is excited to be making the trip.

"It is an adventure that I'm looking forward to," Ransone told News 8 Austin. "There's so many new things that are going to be happening."

Michigan State University will also be represented in Beijing by Dr. Larry Nassar, a professor in the university's Division of Sports Medicine and the national medical director for USA Gymnastics. Nassar, who will also act as a physician to the U.S. trampoline and tae kwon do teams, was also in Atlanta for the 1996 Olympics and traveled to Sydney, Australia, in 2000.

On the high school level, Taylor (Fla.) High School Athletic Trainer Kermit Quisenberry has worked 12 years as a referee for Major League Soccer, and he’ll be making his Olympic debut in Beijing as one of two U.S. referees selected to officiate the men’s soccer competition. Needless to say, the phone call caught Quisenberry by surprise.

"I was like, 'Am I hearing this right?'" he told the Daytona Beach News-Journal. "It's an amazing honor."

Dave Andrews, a Gig Harbor (Wash.) High School athletic trainer, will also be involved in the men’s soccer competition after being appointed to serve as the U.S. men’s soccer team Head Athletic Trainer. He’ll manage injury prevention, evaluation, rehabilitation, nutrition, recovery, hydration, doping control, and communication with the chief medical officer.

“I look back at watching the Olympics as a kid,” Andrews told the Peninsula Gateway. “I’m very excited to be a part of the Olympics.”

Sixth-year Woodstown (N.J.) High School Athletic Trainer Dan Evans is headed to the Olympic Games as well. A Woodstown alumnus, Evans will serve as a volunteer athletic trainer for the U.S. boxing team.

"This is such a reward," Evans told Today’s Sunbeam. "I feel really special just to have made it.

Mike Phelps is an Assistant Editor at Athletic Management.

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