Phillylacrosse.com, Posted 11/14/17
From Press Release
“Not trainer, Athletic Trainer.”
That refrain is heard constantly from the small team running Go4Ellis, a tech startup based in Philadelphia’s Navy Yard that serves as the Uber of staffing athletic trainers at youth sports events.
“Athletic Trainers are medical professionals, many with advanced degrees,” notes Ellis Mair, Go4Ellis’ EVP of User Acquisition & Experience and a licensed athletic trainer, “all research indicates that the easiest way to increase safety in youth sports is to staff athletic trainers at games, practices and trainings.”
The Go4Ellis team consists of Mair, along with Andy Hayes, Joel Zuercher, and Brian Murray, all youth sports industry veterans who have worked to build Philadelphia-based NXTsports into one of the nation’s leading youth sports event management and education companies. The name comes from the way Mair answers her radio when the call goes out for an athletic trainer at a sports event.
One of the pillars of NXT has been a passion for safety. Joel Zuercher, Go4Ellis’ General Counsel and a former associate in Pepper Hamilton’s Philadelphia office, noted, “at NXT we hire athletic trainers for everything we do. Creating the safest possible youth sports environment is the right thing to do generally, but it also helps us with insurance, liability, and creates peace of mind for our coaches. But we found that staffing per diem athletic trainers can be hard, through Go4Ellis we want to make it easy.”
The Go4Ellis platform efficiently links athletic trainers with sports event operators looking to hire athletic trainers. Athletic trainers register for free accounts and set up a professional profile, including proof of licensure, liability insurance, and other legal requirements.
Similarly, event operators can register for accounts and post upcoming work opportunities and pay rates. Payment is automated through the platform, Go4Ellis also handles all year-end tax documentation for both athletic trainers and event operators, and auto-generates an emergency action plan for every venue athletic trainers are at.
Go4Ellis sees a changing sports landscape that reflects a growing awareness of the importance of athletic trainers. As Andy Hayes, a co-founder of NXTsports and the CEO of Go4Ellis put it, “when safety standards change, they change quickly.
In 2006 not a single state required high school coaches to undergo concussion awareness training, now they all do. Right now groups like the American Medical Society are making the presence of athletic trainers at youth sports a top safety recommendation. We expect to see a dramatic increase in demand for athletic trainers over the next five years, and we are poised to help meet that demand.”
Go4Ellis is currently open in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York and Delaware. The company is recruiting athletic trainers nationally and has 1,600 registered accounts. Go4Ellis quickly earned the endorsement of the National Athletic Trainers Association (NATA), and is NATA’s official per diem app. Go4Ellis is undertaking a controlled roll-out, and will open in new regions as soon as enough athletic trainers are registered to ensure that posted work gets picked up.