Amaria, Pickerman two success stories from SHS athletic training

ANN ARBOR — Dr. Noshir Amaria has quite a few acronyms following his name on the University of Michigan’s staff directory. Joel Pickerman does as well.

Both are success stories stemming from Sturgis Public Schools’ athletic training program. Neither one of them believes they would be in their current position if Jim “Doc” Lioy and the athletic training program at Sturgis was unavailable. But it was and continues to be under the direction of Ashley Hopkins.

Sturgis continues to be ahead of the game when it comes to athletic training as a program offered to its students. Like Amaria and Pickerman, there are countless success stories from the Trojan athletic training program. Lioy said seeing those successes has helped validate the time he spent at Sturgis.

“Those two guys, like so many others, to see what they are doing is such an honor as a former teacher and instructor,” Lioy said. “It lets you know that you did the job you were hired to do. They have both ended up at great positions and that is a measure of success for us, we’re proud of that.”

Pickerman, one of the originals 

Pickerman was one of the first student athletic trainers who went through Lioy’s program. While he was not the first, that honor goes with Matt Terrell, Pickerman was in on the grass roots portion.

Now, his day-to-day activities are featured around the wrestling program at Michigan. He’s the head athletic trainer for the Wolverine grapplers and said during his time as an athletic trainer, there have been many changes.

“It’s very important, there should be an athletic trainer around as much as possible,” Pickerman said. “There are certainly more resources now, which is great. Pretty much every sport has an athletic trainer now, so that’s probably the biggest change I have seen.”

In Pickerman’s time at Michigan, there have been several Sturgis graduates who have gone through the program.

“Quite a few have come through here,” Pickerman said. “I have had many of them in class.”

Pickerman, in addition to being the head wrestling athletic trainer, also is a lecturer at Michigan. He did his undergraduate studies at the University of Illinois and his graduate work at the University of Oregon.

Amaria, the team physician 

Amaria was hired by the University of Michigan last year. He’s a Spartan at heart and spent quite a bit of his professional life to date at Central Michigan University as well.

Amaria said he had always wanted to be a head team physician at the university level, no matter the sport. During his time with the Chippewas he was able to be the head team physician for a few years and now he has parlayed that into being one of the head team physicians for the Michigan football team.

But his day-to-day activities are so much more than that. Well, at least half. Amaria said half of his job requires specific attention to varsity athletes at Michigan. He’s one of a handful of main primary sports care physicians at Michigan, they are essentially the family practice doctors for the Wolverine athletes.

He’s been at the position for a year now.

“I get a lot of questions on how I like it and what the big changes are in my life, but I wanted to see how everything went for the first year before I made any judgments,” Amaria said. “But it’s been fun. I always wanted to be a team physician and it’s funny how it ended up. I’m a Spartan in my training, but this was an opportunity that I could not pass up.

Amaria studied at Michigan State and spent better than 15 years there as an undergraduate before attending medical school. He also studied at the school of osteopathic medicine and did two fellowships after residency training. There might not be a harder worker. But like many things in life, he had some bounces go his way. And no matter what colors his favorite are, he said he still roots for the athletes he cares for.

Where it started at Sturgis 

Pickerman was involved in the infancy of the athletic training program at Sturgis. He’s a 1991 graduate of SHS and said his beginning involvement with the program was a fun one. He and several other students interested in the program started hanging out in the training room at lunchtime and it took off from there.

“The education has changed so much from where I started to my undergraduate work to where I am now,” Pickerman said. “The students at Sturgis are certainly ahead of the game once they get into college. It’s great to see that program continuing to be strong.”

Pickerman got to Michigan in the fall of 1997. When he started, there were a couple of training room facilities, but it exploded as more attention has come to student-athletes at the college level.

Lioy was hired in 1988 to continue an athletic training program at Sturgis. Prior to that, there was no involvement from the students in the program.

“We did not have the education piece in place yet, but we were able to bring that in,” Lioy recalled. “It was a college model, because that’s where I came from, that’s what I knew. From there, it exploded.”

Lioy said he still receives correspondence from many of his former students, who are in professional capacities now. Amaria and Pickerman are two people whose numbers show up on Lioy’s phone quite often.

“Yeah, a lot of them still call, ask for advice, whatever it may be,” Lioy said. “That’s one of the things with these kids — as long as we both want it, this can be a lifelong relationship. It’s good for us to bounce things off each other.”

At one time in recent years, there was a 10-year consecutive streak at Michigan State where there was an SHS graduate as an athletic trainer.

High school students receiving college credit 

Hopkins said colleges and universities are beginning to give college credit for high school students in the athletic training field. It’s akin to Advance Placement courses and dual enrollment. Hopkins took over the SHS athletic training program in 2017 when Lioy retired. She said that is one of the bigger changes in the athletic training world for high schoolers and plenty of Trojan students will take advantage of it in the near future.

Ironically enough, Central Michigan, where Amaria spent quite a bit of time, is offering this. The course title is ATR 150, a three-credit class, which is an introduction to athletic training. It will be offered face-to-face or online.

Hopkins said during her high school years, not so long ago, there were never really opportunities for those in the athletic training field. She started in California and spent her senior year at Portage Central here in Michigan, but none of those four years featured student athletic training programs.

“We’re really proud of what we are doing here,” Hopkins said. “It’s a lot of fun and we try to take the trainers to a college every year to learn more about their options and facilities.”

The goal, Hopkins said, is to get as many students college credit while in high school. SHS athletic training students are ahead of the game, much like Pickerman said, in taping courses and how to help with injury prevention.

Amaria, the humble man 

Amaria is one of six or seven former Sturgis athletic trainers who have become physicians. His parents played a major role in his life and decisions, obviously. His father Yazdi still practices medicine in Sturgis.

“I am blessed to have learned every day from one of the hardest-working and caring physicians I have ever met,” Amaria said of his father. “My dad served the Sturgis community with a care that I hope I am bringing in a similar way to my student athletes and patients. Both he and my mother have been with me every step of this journey toward chasing my goal of being a collegiate Division 1 sports medicine physician.”

While his parents have not been holding his hand every step of the way in his professional life, he said he will forever be grateful to them.

“Without my father wanting to open his own practice in a small town, I never would have been a student at SHS, or met Jim Lioy, or been a part of the Sturgis High School athletic training program,” Amaria said. “I also have to credit a lot of amazing teachers I had at Sturgis Middle School and Sturgis High School, who also pushed me to get where I am today as well.”

Amaria said being a part of the Michigan team, especially as a team physician, is certainly a high stress job. Many people only see the glamorous parts of the job — for instance, locating him on television wearing his black sunglasses as a play heads out of bounds.

“People always want to talk to me about the fun parts of the job. The reality is, there are a lot of moving parts in the world of sports medicine and collegiate health and safety,” he said. “The well-being of the student athlete and teams occurs 24-7 and we are always on call. In managing all the stresses that come with this position comes the willingness to be dedicated to the care of the ones who seek our care and the work involved in that.”

Amaria is no stranger to knowing where he came from. Sturgis is home and many of the youth often talk about getting out of Sturgis as quickly as they can. But as Amaria said, Sturgis is home and you’re always welcomed back at home. Plus, those in the community you call home have always done a lot for you.

Lioy’s reputation continues to be important 

Everyone involved in the Sturgis athletic training program speaks highly of their time with Lioy. He’s certainly built something special and as the field continues to grow, Lioy’s name will also be synonymous with student athletic training.

“The reputation he built with this program, the foundation he built with this program, that speaks to what he has done for athletic training students,” Pickerman said. “I hope it continues, I hope that training room is always there and students want to be a part of it.”

Lioy’s attention to detail have been important for those in the student athletic training field. For people who show up on a Friday evening to watch a game, they might see an injury or two.

But it’s all the work that goes in behind the scenes. Many athletes have chronic issues that needs work in the training room and not on the field of play.

“That was the point of the program, to help build up student athletes and student trainers to be exposed to these types of things, whether injuries or injury prevention,” Lioy said. “Our kids, because of their dedication, were miles ahead of someone from another school who was interested in athletic training. I’m happy to have been a part of it and happy that it continues today.”

Lioy continues to work on a daily basis at Advanas Foot & Ankle Specialists in Sturgis.

This article originally appeared on Sturgis Journal: Amaria, Pickerman two success stories from SHS athletic training