On the walls in the office of
Scott Sunderland, whose official title these days is Knox Associate Director of Athletics for Sports Medicine and Performance, Event and Facility Management, and Internal Operations (yes, quite the mouthful), are the framed mementos of a long and storied career as the head athletic trainer for the Prairie Fire. Degrees, certificates, photos. These only begin to encompass his more than three decades tending to the needs of thousands of Knox student-athletes.
But the time has come for those frames to come off the wall of the only home they have known as Sunderland has announced his retirement, effective August 1 — 34 years to the day since his first arrival on campus.
During his tenure at the college, Sunderland has served as not only the head athletic trainer, but as an assistant athletics director, an associate athletics director and interim director of athletics, the last of which he has filled no fewer than three times. He has also received the Meritorious Service Award from the Midwest Conference in 2019, recognizing his significant contributions and outstanding service to the league and its member institutions having been the MWC Athletics Trainer Committee Chairperson for 20 years. When Knox — or the Midwest Conference — has called his name, he has answered that call every time.
"For over 30 years,
Scott Sunderland has been the steady presence and quiet force holding this department together," said Knox Vice President and Director of Athletics
Justin Newell. "Always dependable, deeply caring, and endlessly committed to our student-athletes and staff. From the start, he made me feel right at home, generously sharing his insight, his stories and the kind of institutional knowledge that only comes with a lifetime of dedication. I can't thank him enough for all he has done for Knox College."
Anyone who has spent time as a Knox student-athlete since the early 1990s — and countless administrators over that time — is well aware of the impact Sunderland has had on the athletics department. Beginning in 1991, he began working at Galesburg Orthopedic and was tasked with covering Prairie Fire games and practices as an athletic trainer.
Sunderland recalled, "I was in grad school at Illinois State [where he received his undergraduate and graduate degrees], and I asked my graduate program director, Dr. Bill Kauth, about any job possibilities. He left the class and came back with a card for an orthopedic surgeon, John Speca, here in Galesburg. He told me to call him, that there was a job that would be perfect for me. I met with the people at the clinic, then I interviewed with the AD, the legend himself, Harley Knosher, and a couple of coaches …. Randy Oberembt and Tim Heimann. And that's how I got started here at Knox."
When Dr. Speca moved to Ohio nearly three years later, Knox was looking for someone to join the staff full-time, and Sunderland was a natural choice. In true Sunderland fashion, he made it a point to mention (in his self-deprecating manner) his first day in the full-time role was on April Fool's Day in 1994.
But the facilities that the athletic training staff has today were not quite what they were back then. "I only got a brief glimpse at the training room because Harley opened the door, turned the light on, then turned it off and shut the door. It was typical of athletic training spaces back then — small with a concrete floor — but they were in the process of tearing that down. So, my first training room was actually my biggest because it was the auxiliary gym for about the first month."
After working in a wide-open space with three or four tables for the first month on the job, Sunderland moved into the newly constructed athletic training room, which consisted of his office, the main area and a hydrotherapy room. About a decade later, the space was expanded by knocking down the wall to the east and taking over what had been the equipment cage. And when the fitness center opened in 2006, the athletic training room gained more space on the opposite side.
While Sunderland was the first full-time credentialed athletic trainer on staff, he had help in the form of the coaching staff and, of course, student workers.
"Before I arrived, Knox already had a system of coaches and student workers," he recalled. "There were tables and supplies, and the coaches did quite a bit. Coaches like Kathy Wagoner and Coach Knosher were really good, they knew injuries and injury care. Jane Stangl was very knowledgeable as well, even though she'd laugh at hearing that. And on the men's side, Coach Heimann — never Tim, always Coach Heimann to me even though he said I could call him Tim — did a lot of taping. I essentially just took over an operation that was just done in a little bit of a different way."
Even with the help of coaches and students, it was still a lot on his plate. Over the years, he would get people off and on that were finishing their degrees, looking for a place that they could come and practice their skills, what would be considered interns today. After a while, the college worked with Western Illinois University to supply a grad assistant to help him out for several years, until that position became a full-time position. Eventually a graduate assistant job was added again, which became a full-time position, with another graduate assistant position coming on board.
"I have had a lot of terrific staff members," Sunderland noted. "But the good news there is that the list isn't really that long. I've been blessed with quality staff members who stayed for extended periods of time, like Erica [Witkowski] right now who is in her eighth year. And Shana Sewick before her was seven or eight years as well. Those two are definitely the longest tenured during my time here, but there have been many others along the way, including our current assistant athletic trainer,
Tim Ladewig."
The facilities and staff aren't the only things to undergo transitions at Knox in Sunderland's tenure. The additional staff has brought about being able to provide more professional, quality care to more student-athletes, something he is especially proud of. He also noted the upgrades to the sophistication of the record keeping and documentation on each student-athlete being an enormous help to providing that quality care.
Along with his work at Knox, Sunderland was afforded opportunities to ply his craft on the international stage with some national teams as well. A two-week stint at the Olympic Training Center led to working the 1998 Goodwill Games in New York City, covering the facility and working with athletes from all over the world. From there, his next assignment was the 1999 Pan Am Games in Winnipeg, Manitoba.
"Luckily, all those events were during the summer," he noted, "so it didn't really affect Knox with me being gone for two or three weeks. I covered freestyle wrestling and synchronized swimming."
Evaluators felt that Sunderland's work was excellent enough that they invited him to be on the staff for the Summer Olympic Games in 2000, down in Sydney, Australia.
"I found out I was invited to be on staff the same day our football team had a rough day with a lot of injuries at St. Norbert," Sunderland stated. "But when I get home, I have a letter from the US Olympic Committee [framed on the wall] asking me to work at the Olympics in Sydney. Of course, summer in Australia is not quite at the same time in the Northern Hemisphere, so the Games were being held in October, right during one of our busiest times of the year.
"I will forever be grateful to Knox for allowing me the opportunity to work those Games," he continued. "I ended up missing six weeks in all, three for Olympic training camp right as our athletes were arriving on campus, and three more for the Olympic Games. But the person — Wade Bowman was his name — who was helping out at the time got certified and filled in for me while I was away. He then became a contracted assistant. So, it worked out really well!"
While athletic training has been constant throughout his tenure in various capacities, and he still teaches a class to this day on athletic training techniques, Sunderland has worn many hats while on staff. Twice he has served as the co-interim director of athletics, and then a third time on his own just two years ago.
"I hadn't even thought about being an administrator when Dan Calandro '77 [exiting AD in October 2005, though Sunderland admits he's not good at recalling exactly when moments in his career happened …
you try keeping track of 30-plus years of
your career] recommended to the dean that I serve as the interim AD," Sunderland said. "I ended up doing it in tandem with
Larry Welch. But being the athletic director and the head athletic trainer with one staff person was just crazy because we had three big facility projects going on at the same time — the new fitness center, redoing the track and putting turf in the Knosher Bowl. Not to mention the fundraising that went with those projects."
After serving seven months in his first term as co-interim athletics director, the new AD, Chad Eisele '93, gave Sunderland the title of assistant director of athletics. Essentially the second-in-command, if you will, he was there to fill in anytime Eisele wasn't available, though Sunderland admits it wasn't that often.
Eisele remained as the AD for 11 years, but with his departure, Sunderland was called upon once again to fulfill interim duties, this time with Lexi Vernon. She was also an assistant AD at the time but had begun her time at Knox as a member of the athletic training staff. "We didn't have quite as much going on as my first stint," Sunderland related, "but we were finalizing the soccer field. The money had been raised, but now we needed to actually build the thing. That's what I spent doing most of those 8-10 months, or however long it was, during that stint."
The next director of athletics, Daniella Irle, saw Sunderland as more of an associate AD, so that's exactly the title she gave him. With that role came less time for athletic training, though he maintained oversight of the staff, which had grown to three others. Now his role blossomed into more of a director of facilities and event management with the fourth athletic trainer staying on full-time.
"The great thing about being in charge of facilities and event management was I was at most of our events and acted as a second athletic trainer," Sunderland pointed out. "So, if something happened, there was some redundancy in that area. Facility safety and the safety of our student-athletes is always at the top of my list. It worked out really well to have the events and facility person also be the head athletic trainer. I like building, designing, fixing things, so it was a really good fit."
Six years later, he filled in as the interim AD, which came at a time of some great athletic successes. First, the women's basketball team won its first-ever Midwest Conference Tournament championship, securing its first berth for the NCAA Tournament. And the track team had a couple of athletes qualifying for nationals.
Another long-time Knox staffer arrived on campus for the first time the same day as Sunderland, giving him a front-row seat as to what Sunderland has accomplished within the department. Andy Gibbons, now the Assistant Director of Athletics – Fitness Center and Intramurals and Head Strength and Conditioning Coach (the longer you are here, the longer the title) sees right through Sunderland's humble description of what he accomplished in athletic training.
"It is very hard to imagine Knox without Scott," said Andy Gibbons,. "We were both really young when we got here, and I was just trying to make my way as a college coach. But we didn't have an athletic training department before Scott, just coaches doing the best they could. Scott built it from the ground up. He has always been someone you could rely upon, and he has answered the call from the college every time it has come. He has done everything selflessly, always putting the students first. How do you replace someone like that?"
With more than 30 years under his belt at Knox, the successes of women's basketball and the track team are just two of Sunderland's myriad memories, but there are a few others that truly stand out.
"The 2008 baseball conference championship was really something, but what made it extra special was that we had a pretty decent outing at the track championships on the other side of the circle, going on at the same time," Sunderland reminisced. "There have been some Knox-Monmouth football games that were a lot of fun," he added. "Trips with the baseball team to some really nice places — Hilton Head, Panama City, Fort Myers, Arizona — stand out because those trips are pretty long, you really get to know people on those trips, and we certainly had fun. I also had a nice trip with the men's basketball team to Hawaii, which gave me the opportunity to bring my wife as well. Anytime I've had the ability to incorporate my family has been great.
"Knox is very much a family place. When I leave Knox, I will certainly miss the people here, and the student-athletes in particular."
Sunderland's athletic training talents won't go to waste in his retirement as he plans on helping out at various high school and junior high events, where he notes there is a huge shortage of athletic trainers. But helping out as an athletic trainer won't be the only thing that keeps him busy.
"Not only is there a shortage of athletic trainers, but also school bus drivers. So, I'm going to drive a school bus for the Rowva School District, which is going to give me the opportunity to still interact with young people," he said excitedly. "Both of my parents did it in retirement, though my mother's retirement happened a lot sooner, after she had kids. It's kind of like getting into the family business!"
Out of one family business, and into another. And many more framed pictures and awards to come.
