When Texas Tech linebacker Ben Roberts walked off the field midway through the first quarter of the Big 12 championship game, no one expected he’d soon deliver the performance of his career. Roberts had suffered a painful lower-abdominal injury on the Red Raiders’ opening defensive series, leading to a first half spent cycling in and out of play.
“His ab, his hip was really bothering him,” head coach Joey McGuire said. “Man, (head athletic trainer) Mike (Ramirez) and his staff got it loosened up, and then all of a sudden you got two picks in the second half by this guy. So just hats off to our training staff for getting him back in the game.”
Ramirez, now in his third year as Director of Football Sports Medicine and ninth season on staff, oversees the round-the-clock care of more than 100 student-athletes and leads a team of three Athletic Trainers who collaborate with team physicians on prevention, treatment, and rehabilitation.
A graduate of Arizona State and Texas Tech Health Sciences Center, Ramirez joined the program in 2017 and has been instrumental in elevating football sports medicine at Tech.
Roberts made the most of the staff’s mid-game work.
“I just did everything I could to stretch it out and fix it up,” he said. “The trainers really helped me at halftime. They got it all heated up and relaxed, and I was ready to go in the second half.”
Two interceptions, a key fourth-down breakup, and a championship later, Roberts’ words said it all: the Athletic Trainers helped make a title-clinching performance possible. Read the full story here!