by Alan Hoskins, KCKCC
Kylie Heim, a former volleyball standout with a background of six years in athletic training at the collegiate level, is the new assistant athletic trainer at Kansas City Kansas Community College.
An athletic trainer at Stetson University in Deland, Florida, for the past two years, Heim will be working with the Blue Devil volleyball and softball teams.
She joins a staff of head Athletic Trainer Rodney Christensen and assistant Jordan Williams.
A graduate of Nixa High School near Springfield, Missouri, where she was an outstanding basketball and volleyball player, Heim got her bachelor’s degree in athletic training from Southwest Baptist University in Bolivar, Missouri.
A four-year volleyball starter, she captained the team her senior year.
While at Southwest Baptist, Heim also participated in the college’s mission program and after graduating, she spent a year volunteering at an orphanage in La Mision, Mexico.
“I had gone on mission trips and had the opportunity to work in Mexico,” she said. “It was very nice and I learned a lot.”
She returned to Southwest Baptist in August of 2013 to pursue a master’s in athletic administration, working part-time in athletic training and at the hospital in Bolivar.
The following August, she joined the university on a full-time basis, working three years with the college’s women’s soccer team and men’s basketball team.
Heim holds certifications in Graston M1, Mental Health First Aid and BFR Smart Tools.
She joined the Stetson University training staff in 2017, working with the indoor volleyball and beach volleyball teams for two years before taking the assistant’s position at KCKCC.
“It was a chance to get back closer to my family and create a better work balance in my life,” Heim said. “I really like it, the people, the area. It’s nice.”