WHITEFISH, Mont., June 23, 2020 — Frontier Conference commissioner Kent Paulson announced the 2019-2020 conference athletic trainer of the year and sports information director of the year.
Kaleb Birney was selected the Frontier's Athletic Trainer of the year in a vote of the conference athletic trainers. He is in sixth year as a Bulldog athletic trainer and entering his fourth season as head athletic trainer. Birney is the primary athletic trainer for volleyball, rodeo and men's basketball while overseeing all sports.
His resume include a stint at Georgia State University as an interim athletic trainer for men's soccer, football and baseball and internships with the NFL's Kansas City Chiefs and his alma mater. Birney graduated from Wichita State in 2012 and received his masters from California University of Pennsylvania in 2014.
In 2019, Birney was the recipient of the National Athletic Trainers' Young Professional Committee's National Distinction Award and in 2020 the Northwest Athletic Trainers' Association New Horizon Award. He is certified as a Performance Enhancement Specialist, Corrective Exercise Specialist and in first aid/CPR and Sound Assistant Soft Tissue Mobilization.
He is the Public Relations Chair for the Northwest Athletic Trainer's Association and a member of the Montana Athletic Trainers Board of Licensure Committee. Birney and wife Emilee are parents to step daughter Kezlee Lamey, daughter Georgia with another child due in December.
Casey Parrott was selected as the Frontier Conference's Sports Information Director of the Year in a vote of the conference sports information directors. He started at Montana Western as the Sports Information Director in October 2016. Like all sports information directors, his duties are multiple and ever changing. Parrott designs and produces game day programs of which his football program place third in the nation in the NAIA-SIDA publications contest. He also writes pre and post game stories, and designs new infographics for use on the Montana Western website and social media and maintains the athletics website.
He works closely with the campus marketing department on other athletic publications and branding projects. Parrott has become one of the most knowledgeable people in the conference statistical program DakStats. Parrott has set up the conference statistical page for post season tournament.
Parrott implemented the Bulldog Sports Network for the web casting of Bulldog athletic events. He worked press row at two NAIA national Women's Basketball Tournaments. In addition to an ever-changing sports information duties, Parrott is also the athletic facilities manager.
This is second consecutive year Parrott has received the award.
Parrott and his wife Hannah are the parents of daughters Kylie (5) and Lorelai (4). He is a 2010 graduate of the University of Minnesota Duluth.
— Frontier Conference —
