By Marco Clark, exclusive to the Times NCHS trainer Lennis E Watson said, “I am currently the Head Athletic Trainer for Natchitoches Regional Medical Center. I’ve been employed at the hospital since July 2005. We, NRMC offer an outreach program to Natchitoches and Sabine Parish’s high schools.My primary obligation, school coverage wise, is to take care of the medical needs of Natchitoches Central High School. This is my 13th season covering NCHS football. My daily responsibilities consist of assessment of injuries, education and management of injuries, and emergency medicine.
I have an awesome student athletic training staff, which consists of 12 students that work with the varsity, and four students that work with freshmen. Without these young men and women, it would be extremely hard to do an efficient job on a consistent basis. I was born and reared in Franklin. My father was a Baptist pastor for over 35 years and my mother was a teacher over 30. I played basketball for a couple years in high school, but my first love was baseball, which I played and lettered for three years at Franklin Sr. High. I moved on after graduating high school and furthered my education at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette where I received a Bachelor-of-Science Degree from the college of Education – Kinesiology (concentration Sports Medicine).
During my career as a student at ULL, I was fortunate enough to work with football, men’s basketball, men/women track & field, and women’s softball as a student athletic trainer/intern. After graduating from ULL, I worked as the Head Athletic Trainer for Louisiana Healthcare Group – Opelousas for three years, before taking the Lead Athletic Trainer position for NRMC in July of 2005. I am single, no children. I’m also the Athletic Director and a Deacon for the Abundant Life Church of Natchitoches where Dr. Ail R Harris Jr. is my pastor.
I also hold a position on the Executive Committee for the Louisiana Athletic Trainers’ Association, Inc., as well as the regional representative for region 7 for our state association.”