Jeffrey Clydesdale Will Be First Junior to Hold Highly Select Internship
Wilmington College’s presence in Major League Baseball continues as the Cincinnati Reds selected an athletic training student to serve as an intern during the team’s 2018 season.
PICTURED: Jeff Clydesdale
Jeffrey S. Clydesdale, a sophomore from Circleville majoring in athletic training, will hold that coveted internship and be with the team regularly from April 12 through the end of the season this fall. In fact, he will be the first WC junior named to the highly select internship in the longstanding partnership between WC and the Reds that goes back more than a quarter-century.
Jennifer Walker, associate professor of athletic training, described Clydesdale as “outstanding, an exceptional student and leader.”
Wilmington College AT students have regularly held internships with the Major League Baseball franchise since the early 1990s, when 1994 graduate Nick Kenney worked with the Reds. He became a full-time assistant athletic trainer in Cincinnati and later with the Cleveland Indians. For the past eight seasons, Kenney has been head athletic trainer with the Kansas City Royals.
With that kind of history, Clydesdale feels pressure to perform at the highest levels during his time with the team.
“I’m really excited being able to continue this tradition with the Reds,” he said. “The possibility of this opportunity is one of the reasons I wanted to come to Wilmington College. I’m motivated to get into professional sports as an athletic trainer, so I hit the ground running since my freshman year.
“I believe hard work will pay off in my career — it’s already paying off in college with this internship,” he added, noting a combination of having an “amazing” class in sports medicine at Logan Elm High School and working with his school’s certified athletic trainer, 2013 WC graduate Caleb Betz, served to spark an interest in both the field and WC’s prominent AT program.
“Caleb Betz has been such a great supporter,” said Clydesdale, who was heavily involved in sports as a high school athlete, competing in cross country, soccer, basketball and track and field. “He spoke highly of Wilmington College and its athletic training program.”
Clydesdale is a member of Wilmington College’s cross country and track and field teams, in addition to serving as a resident adviser, a vice president with Student Government Assn., recruitment chair for Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity, sophomore representative to the Sports Medicine Leadership Council and handles webmaster/public relations work for the Ohio Athletic Trainers’ Assn. Student Senate.
