LSU Alumnus Tavis Piattoly to Deliver Lecture at National High School Athletic Healthcare Conference

BATON ROUGE – LSU alumnus Tavis Piattoly will present “Implementing Quality Nutritional Planning for High School Athletics” at the National High School Athletic Healthcare Conference, or NHSAHC, on Wednesday, July 20. Piattolly is the sports dietitian for the New Orleans Saints, New Orleans Hornets and St. Amant High School.  

The NHSAHC is a virtual conference for athletic trainers, team physicians, coaches, parents, administrators and anyone else involved in high school athletic healthcare. The conference will take place from 2 to 5 p.m. on Wednesday via a live Internet broadcast and accompanied by Facebook threads and Twitter feeds. Interested participants can attend at the conference hubs or watch and interact live from their own computers. Attendees will have the opportunity to ask direct questions to webcast presenters as well as to area sports medicine experts. Conference participants will receive a letter of participation for 3.0 continuing education hours. For more information on the broadcast or on hub sites, visit http://practicesafesports.com/.

A resident of Covington, La., Piattoly obtained a Bachelor of Science Degree in nutrition and dietetics from LSU College of Agriculture in 1999 and a Master of Science Degree in kinesiology from the LSU College of Education in 2005. He was recently appointed by Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal as a member of the Louisiana Board of Examiners in Dietetics and Nutrition.

The conference will be moderated by Ray Castle, an associate professor of professional practice and director of the concentration in athletic training in the LSU College of Education. A native of St. Joseph, La., Castle has been the director of the LSU College of Education Athletic Training Program in the Department of Kinesiology since 2002. He received a Bachelor of Science in kinesiology from LSU in 1991. He earned a Master of Science in 1993 and a Doctorate of Philosophy in 2000 from the University of Southern Mississippi.

Other nationally recognized conference presenters will be Donald Hooton, president of the Taylor Hooton Foundation in Frisco, Texas; Steven Broglio, director of the Neurotrauma Research Laboratory at the University of Michigan; and Karen McAvoy from the Rocky Mountain Youth Sports Concussion Institute in Denver, Colo.  

Additional topics are “Appearance and Performance-Enhancing Drugs:  A Pragmatic View” by Hooton; “Current Clinical Assessment Tools for Sports Concussions” by Broglio; and “REAP: A Community-Based Concussion Management Plan for Families, Schools and Medical Professionals” by McAvoy.

For more information about the NHSAHC and event registration, visit http://www.practicesafesports.com.  

For more information about the LSU College of Education Department of Kinesiology concentration in athletic training, visit  http://coe.ednet.lsu.edu/coe/Kinesiology/training.html.