Athletic Training Month Interview: Eric Roux at Univ of Tennessee Chattanooga

March is Athletic Training Month and we are very proud to spotlight talented and passionate Certified Athletic Trainers who dedicate themselves to the performance of their athletes. They also understand the benefits of integrating Boost Oxygen into their protocols.

We thank Eric Roux of the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga and appreciate him taking the time to share his personal feedback about being an Athletic Trainer.

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BOOST: When did you decide to become an Athletic Trainer?

ROUX: I decided to become an athletic trainer after suffering an ACL rupture in High School, I fell in love with the science behind it and everything sports medicine.

BOOST: What is the most rewarding part of your job?

ROUX: The most rewarding part is the bonds you develop with your athletes. Especially at the college level you get to see a person grow up and develop right before your eyes. You see a lot of different personalities and it’s easy to have fun.

BOOST: What is the most challenging part of your job?

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ROUX: COVID-19 has definitely added a new challenge to everyone’s work days. I’d be lying if I didn’t say it was on my mind 24/7. Besides that, the biggest challenge is finding the hours in the day to help everyone especially covering multiple sports in the same season this year. Going into the start of our basketball season we had a few COVID cases that required our team to shut down completely. Knowing how quick of a turnaround we had from their quarantines back to full competition we wanted any kind of cardiovascular advantage we could get. I had personally used Boost in the past so I knew how effective it was with repeatable anaerobic bouts, which mimics basketball perfectly. We implemented use for game days to help enhance our recovery during timeouts and substitutions. I think it was also helpful in controlling breathing patterns especially with the masking requirement on the bench. The Lady Mocs played 8 games in 15 days in December and I think Boost helped us bounce back to our normal conditioning status quicker especially after the disruption to our preseason.

BOOST: Describe the most amazing experience that affirmed your decision that “I am doing what I love to do”.

ROUX: I don’t think I’ve had a specific a-ha moment yet. But I do really love when you’re able to help someone out that has struggled before. Whether it be an acute injury or something chronic. It’s like finding the right key to a lock, seeing it work and result in that persons betterment is an amazing feeling.

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Eric’s Bio:

“Eric Roux begins his first year as an assistant athletic trainer for the women’s basketball team at University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. Roux earned a B.S. degree in athletic training from High Point University in 2013 and a M.S. degree in kinesiology from the University of Connecticut in 2015. He came to Chattanooga during the fall of 2020 from fellow Southern Conference member Samford University, where he served as an assistant athletic trainer with men’s basketball and men’s golf (2018-2020).

Previous to Chattanooga, Roux has served as an assistant athletic trainer at Francis Marion University (NCAA Div. II) (2017-2018), injury prevention and care coordinator at Georgia Southern University (2015-2017), and graduate assistant athletic trainer at University of Connecticut (2013-2015).

In addition to higher education institutions, Roux has served as an athletic trainer for the Florence RedWolves baseball club (2017-2018), and head athletic trainer for South Georgia Tormenta football club (2016).

A native of Vernon, N.J., Roux is a board certified athletic trainer, certified strength and conditioning coach, and American Red Cross FA/CPR/AED instructor.”