CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – Yumi Kuscher, MS, LAT, ATC, CSCS, Harvard's Associate Director of Sports Medicine/Head Athletic Trainer for Football, has been named the NCAA Division I National Athletic Trainers Association – Intercollegiate Council for Sports Medicine (NATA-ICSM) Head Athletic Trainer of the Year.
 
Each year the ICSM recognizes one individual for exceptional performance as a head athletic trainer in each of the following collegiate divisions: NCAA DI, NCAA DII, NCAA DIII, NAIA, Two-Year Institution and Club/Intramural/Recreational Sports. Award recipients are actively involved in their community or campus, athletic training associations and promotion of the profession.
 
Kuscher joined Harvard's sports medicine staff as an athletic trainer in the summer of 2010 and is the head athletic trainer for Crimson Football. From 2010-18, meanwhile, Kuscher worked with the women's ice hockey, women's tennis and men's water polo teams.
 
Kuscher arrived in Cambridge from Florida Atlantic University, where she served as an assistant athletic trainer for two seasons after working as a graduate assistant athletic trainer for two years. Kuscher spent the 2008-09 and 2009-10 seasons working with FAU Women's Basketball and both swimming and diving programs, and also managed the department's graduate athletic training students.
 
From 2006-08, Kuscher worked with the FAU football and tennis teams. She also previously served as an intern athletic trainer at both NFL Europe and FAU, and as a physical therapy aid at First Rehab.
 
Kuscher earned a master's degree in strength and conditioning from Florida Atlantic in 2008 after completing a bachelor's degree in athletic training in 2005. She also owns an associate degree in science of nutrition from Osaka Kun-Ei Women's College in Japan.
 
Kuscher will be recognized as the NCAA Division I Head Athletic Trainer of the Year at the NATA Clinical Symposium in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on June 30.