FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – AUGUST 15, 2008

Two New Athletic Trainers On Board at SMC

SPARTANBURG, SC – Two new athletic trainers were recently hired at Spartanburg Methodist College to lead its athletic department’s sports medicine division. 

Cory Peters and Kelly Bilbrey started their duties as SMC’s athletic trainers in late July. The services of both athletic trainers are being provided through Spartanburg Regional Sports Medicine. 

SMC has a long-standing relationship with Spartanburg Regional Sports Medicine, which provides many benefits and additional medical expertise for its student athletes to utilize.  

“It is with great pleasure that Spartanburg Regional Sports Medicine continues to support SMC with the addition of our two new certified athletic trainers (ATC’s). Regional Sports Medicine is committed to providing the best possible health care services delivered with quality customer service. With the assistance of Mark Perdue, we screened several candidates over the summer months and were thrilled to find two ATC’s like Cory and Kelly to service the SMC community,” says Matt Lyden sports medicine manager at Spartanburg Region Sports Medicine. 

Regional Sports Medicine provides services and support to 10 high schools, four colleges and employs 13 ATC’s to cover these entities throughout the region.  

Peters, 31, received his undergraduate degree Athletic Training and Sports Medicine from Mercyhurst College and has a Master’s in Exercise and Sports Science from Ithaca College.  

He worked with the football and lacrosse programs at Cornell University for two years while attending Ithaca College. Peters worked for seven years with Clemson Sports Medicine and Rehabilitation – with four years spent at D.W. Daniel High School and other surrounding schools as an outreach athletic trainer and three years as a clinical athletic trainer. 

He attributes his interest in sports medicine to his love of sports as a youth. 

“When I saw people running out onto the fields to help the athletes, I decided that’s what I want to do. It’s a hybrid of both sports and medicine – and I knew I would enjoy it,” he says. 

Peters, an Upstate New York native, currently lives in Spartanburg. 

Bilbrey, 22, is a 2008 graduate of Georgia Southern University with a degree in Sports Medicine. She spent three years working in athletic training at Georgia Southern – including working with the soccer and softball teams for one year, another year with the basketball teams, and one year working with local high schools. 

“I played a lot of sports when I was little. I was always interested in medicine also,” she says. 

Bilbrey, a Georgia native, currently lives in Greenville. 

Both Peters and Bilbrey have national and state licensure as certified athletic trainers. 

“We’re very excited to have Cory and Kelly on the team here at SMC. They will bring a great degree of professionalism and knowledge to our Sports Medicine division. We’re very thankful to Spartanburg Regional Sports Medicine for their continued, generous support of our athletic programs. Our partnership with them has been a key part of our success and our ability to provide the level of care that our student athletes require,” says SMC Athletic Director Mark Perdue. 

Spartanburg Methodist College has 14 intercollegiate teams that compete in Region X of the National Junior College Athletic Association, which includes colleges in the Carolinas, Virginia, and West Virginia.  

Spartanburg Methodist College is in its 98th year of providing quality education to students in a Christian environment.  More than 90 percent of SMC graduates continue their education at other institutions of higher learning.

For more information contact Mark Perdue at (864) 587-4237 or Matt Lyden at (864) 560-5104. 

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