Smith Cochran
Sports Editor
For the past few years, if an equestrian rider got a concussion, Sewanee Equestrian would use a return-to-ride concussion program to ease the rider back into competition. This program was published in 2020 and was the first of its kind, pioneered by Sewanee’s new Director of Sports Medicine Devon Serrano.
Serrano, hired over the summer, worked on the program at her previous job at Sweet Briar College in Virginia. She spent eight years there before making the move to Sewanee.
“All of my research is in equestrian, and so I wrote the first known return-to-ride protocol for concussion management for equestrian,” Serrano said. “Sewanee has actually been using it for a few years, funny enough.”
Serrano joined the athletic department after the previous Director of Sports Medicine, Ray Knight, resigned to take a position at Marietta College in Ohio. Knight showed unparallelled commitment and loyalty during the 24 years he led the sports medicine department. Knight leaving Sewanee presented a unique opportunity to decide the future of Sewanee Athletics. Shackleford used this opportunity to hire the first woman Director of Sports Medicine at the University.
“[Serrano] became the first woman to ever lead the Sewanee athletics training room, so we are very proud of that,” Shackleford said. “Devon’s experience, professionalism, and medical knowledge provide the perfect combination to build our athletic training room culture and staff.”
Serrano acknowledged the responsibility of breaking this gender barrier but feels well equipped by her experience working in dynamic environments. During her athletic training fellowship at Auburn University, she was a part of the Warrior Athletic Training program at Fort Benning in Columbus, Georgia. Serrano hopes to use all of her experiences to uplift the athletic community on the mountain.
“Being the first woman to lead here is a big honor and has a lot of responsibility because you want to set a good standard,” Serrano said. “It’s important to use this platform to make other people feel comfortable and see that there is not a limit…I think it’s a huge honor for Coach Shack to have trust in me to break that glass ceiling and set Sewanee Athletics up for the next phase of success.”
Serrano was the clear choice for the job.. With work experience including Bucknell University, the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, Auburn University, ESPN WorldWide Sports Complex, and Sweet Briar College, her resume spoke for itself.
“After Ray Knight announced he was leaving, they started the search for a new athletic trainer to fill his big shoes,” Serrano said. “Originally, they were talking to a friend of mine, and she determined the position was not what she wanted for the next stage of her career, so she recommended me for the job. I landed in New York, on my way to Boston for a trip, to a message from a friend saying, ‘I’m not going to take the Sewanee position, but I let them know you might.’ Right underneath that was a message from Coach Shack asking to chat.”
Like most collegiate athletic trainers, she was an athlete. During a fencing practice her freshman year of high school, she dislocated her knee. As she went through physical therapy and knee rehabilitation, the world of athletic training stuck out to her.
“I always had an interest in emergency medicine,” Serrano said. “When it was time to apply to college, I told my guidance counselor I liked sports and emergency medicine, and she said ‘well, that’s what we call athletic training.’”
All of her past experiences and jobs have helped shape Serrano and her approach to sports medicine. “Fort Benning taught me how to be efficient because you never know what you’re going to get at 5 am,” Serrano said. “It’ll either be three people in the two hour block, or it’s going to be 50. You just never knew what the morning was going to bring. I spent the first eight years of my career at Sweet Briar. More than anything, it showed me what I was made of and how to stand on my own two feet. For the first seven years, I was the only athletic trainer and it taught me how to be optimistic when things looked bleak.”
This summer, among moving states and starting a new job, Serrano joined the United States Women’s Box Lacrosse team as an athletic trainer. They won the Gold Medal in the first ever Women’s Box Lacrosse Championship. The Medal lives in her office.
She recognizes the potential of Sewanee Athletics and is looking forward to being a part of the future successes of the department and using her experience to carve a new lane.
“One thing I loved about my Sweet Briar job was I got to show all the young women there is another path,” Serrano said. “They got to see women out of the expected norm in positions of power…There is something that comes with being in a team environment that makes it more fun to go to work everyday.”