Upton Dabney, the head athletic trainer at Oregon Institute of Technology for nearly the past five years, joined the athletic training staff at Tennessee Tech University in 2008 in the role of assistant athletic trainer.
   
Dabney, 41, has a varied background that led him in 2004 to Oregon Tech, an NAIA school in Klamath Falls, Ore., where he personally handled all of the sports medicine needs for the school’s 11-sport athletic program. In 2008, Oregon Tech won its second national championship in men's basketball.
              
A graduate of Morristown (Tenn.) East High School, he earned a degree from the Tennessee Institute of Electronics and worked for several years in the computer field. In 1992, he joined the U.S. Air Force and worked in the medical field at Offutt AFB (Neb.) for four years.  While at Offutt AFB, received an Airman of the Quarter Award and served on the Base Honor Guard and Hospital Color Guard.
   
In 1996, Dabney returned to school for athletic training at the University of Nebraska-Omaha, and worked at the University of Nebraska Medical School. In addition to working in surgery, he also put his computer skills to work in developing a computerized scheduling system for the 20 operating and procedure rooms.
   
After returning to school at UNO, he transferred to East Tennessee State in 1998, serving as a student athletic trainer before earning his bachelor’s degree in Athletic Training in 2001.
   
He spent one year at Emporia (Kan.) State beginning graduate studies, then interned at Jacksonville (Fla.) University and finished a master’s degree in physical education while at The Citadel (SC) in 2003-04, leading to his position at Oregon Tech. While at Jacksonville, he worked with baseball in their post-season play at the NCAA Regional.  During his time at The Citadel, he worked with wrestling on their way to the schools' second conference regular season and tournament championships, with five wrestlers making it to Nationals.

As an avid cyclist, he enjoyed the summer bike racing throughout Tennessee, and wishes that the opportunities existed prior to leaving the region.  In the past, he has competed in multiple triathlons, marathons, 5Ks, 10Ks, and cycling centuries.  In the summer of 2007, Dabney served as assistant crew chief and medical advisor for the first single speed soloist to complete Race Across America (RAAM) and is currently working toward the goal of competing in the traditional RAAM in the near future.