Doug May has announced his retirement as head athletic trainer at The McCallie School after 20 years of service.

In 1999, May was inducted into the National Athletic Trainers Hall of Fame, the highest honor given in the athletic training profession. He is only the fifth Tennessean to be inducted and the first one from a secondary school.

“We’ve been very fortunate to have a man who is known on a national level as one of the best athletic trainers in the country,” said Kenny Sholl, McCallie’s upper school head and a longtime coach. “While his skill level is unmatched, it is his unique rapport with the boys that we will miss the most.”

May is also the co-author of a college textbook on athletic training and has traveled widely working at special athletic events. In 1996 he worked as an athletic trainer during the Olympic Games in Atlanta, and on other occasions has traveled to such places as Cuba and Japan with U.S. track and field teams. He has also assisted with the Atlanta Falcons in the NFL.

May has previously been chosen National Athletic Trainers Association’s Most Distinguished Athletic Trainer, and he has served as NATA Vice President. On a regional level, Doug has been director, secretary-treasurer, and president of the Southeast Athletic Trainers Association. On the state level, he was the first president of the Mississippi Athletic Trainers Association and is a member of the Tennessee Athletic Trainers Society Hall of Fame. In the spring of 2007 he was inducted into the inaugural class of the Southeast Athletic Trainers Association Hall of Fame.

May has also been involved with the United States Olympic Committee Drug Testing Program and served on the 1991 Pan-American Games medical staff in Cuba and the 1991 World University Winter Games medical staff in Japan. He was also a member of the host nation medical staff for all track and field events at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta.

In addition to accolades received from peers and his many professional accomplishments, May leaves a legacy of strong bonds with the students he treated and served.

“We will never truly know just how many injuries Doug’s skill and dedication prevented or helped minimize,” said McCallie Headmaster Kirk Walker. “We do know, however, that he was an invaluable asset to our athletic program and to keeping our boys as healthy and safe as we possibly can.”

Jay Hildebrand ’01, a McCallie alum who now serves the school as an assistant director of boarding admission, said, “I have known Coach May as a volunteer with the Boy Scouts, as an athletic trainer, and now as a colleague, but it is his wisdom and friendship that has left a lasting impression on me. Like the rest of the McCallie community, I am going to miss his expertise and dedication to this school and its people.”

May is a native of Meridian, Miss., and received a bachelor’s degree from the University of Mississippi and a master’s degree from Tennessee Technological University. Prior to coming to Chattanooga, he served in athletic training positions at Florida State, Tennessee Tech, Mississippi State and Mississippi University for Women.

He and his wife, Cissy, a chemistry teacher at McCallie, live on campus and have two grown children, Stacey and Warner.

(E-mail Stan Crawley at wscrawley@earthlink.net