The Leopard Sports Medicine team, the student athletic trainers, got the chance to attend the one of a kind Dallas Mavericks Texas HOSA Career Day Monday afternoon at the American Airlines Center.

The HOSA Career Day is an educational workshop presented by the Mavericks intended to promote careers in the health science field, specifically in sports medicine. The students were able to discover educational backgrounds, experiences, and various tasks that are performed by those in healthcare based fields, such as doctors and trainers as they are related to the Dallas Mavericks.

“[The purpose of the career day] was to give the student trainers a chance to hear a perspective from professional trainers and team doctors,” Athletic Trainer Susan Smiley said.  “It was also kind of team building because we do everything for everyone else, but we don’t ever really take time for ourselves or our team.”

The day was sponsored by HOSA, the Health Occupations Students of America, a national student organization endorsed by the U.S. Department of Education and the Health Science Education Division of ACTE, to promote career opportunities in the healthcare industry and to enhance the delivery of quality healthcare to all people.

At the event, the students also got the opportunity to tour the American Airlines Center on a private tour with their own school, the first event of the day. On the tour the students got to view the permanent practice facility for the Mavericks, the Dr. Pepper Fan Zone, a view into one of the many luxury boxes, and some brief history about the Mavs and the American Airlines Center.

After the tour, the students sat in the front row seats on the court and heard from guest speakers and workers of the Mavs. While this was going on, they also got to view the Mav and visiting team players warming up and practicing about 10 feet away from themselves.

The student trainers heard from the Mavs Assistant Athletic Trainer Dionne Calhoun and a surprise guest, the team physician Dr. Tarek O. Souryal, an orthopedic surgeon for Texas Sports Medicine. Both talked on the many years it takes to become what you want to do in the field of medicine, how they each reached those goals themselves, the many diverse fields of medicine and health science, and their favorite parts of their own jobs and what it takes to do those jobs.

After the lectures from the speakers, the students got to stay and watch the Mavs Game.

“I really liked hearing the professional trainers talk because they have a little bit different perspective than we do,” Smiley said.