Head athletic trainer leaves for Big 12 job

~ Rob Hunt will be the head football trainer at Oklahoma State.

Southeast Missouri State head athletic trainer Rob Hunt said he wouldn't be leaving the university for just any other position.

But the chance to again be involved with Big 12 Conference football was simply too good to pass up.

Hunt recently accepted a position as the head football trainer at Oklahoma State University. His last day at Southeast will be Friday.

"It's a great opportunity. There's a lot going on that's good there, for me and my family," Hunt said. "It will be nice to be back in the Big 12. It's a nice professional opportunity."

Hunt, 31, has been at Southeast the past two years. Prior to that, he spent seven years as an assistant trainer at the University of Missouri, including five years as the first assistant for football.

"I wanted to get back in the Big 12," Hunt said. "Taking care of a Big 12 football team was always something I wanted to do."

Not that Hunt couldn't have envisioned he and his family -- wife Krista and two young children -- remaining at Southeast for quite some time.

"Coming to Cape Girardeau has been a wonderful experience. We had a wonderful, wonderful two years here," said Hunt, an Indiana native and a graduate of Ball State University. "I told somebody that, had we stayed another year, I bet we would have been here 10 years.

"This was a great professional opportunity for me, to be a head athletic trainer for the first time. When I came here, Don Kaverman let me run the show. I think we raised the bar as far as athletic health care."

Kaverman, Southeast's athletic director, said Hunt will be missed.

"He's done a phenomenal job for us. He's really professionalized that operation. The care our student-athletes have received has been second to none," Kaverman said. "He will be difficult to replace. We hate to see him go, but it is a good professional opportunity and we wish him well.

"We've already publicized the position, and we hope to have somebody in place by the middle of next month at the latest."