Brett Knight
Brett Knight
  • Title:
    Assistant Athletics Director / Sports Medicine
  • Phone:
    (231) 591-2872
  • Email:
    Knightb1@ferris.edu.

Bio

Ferris State University's nearly 400 student-athletes continue to receive highly-professional care under the direction of Brett Knight, who was promoted to Assistant Athletics Director for Sports Medicine in October 2021. He begins his fourth year with the Bulldogs in 2021-22.

Knight, who spent six years as the Head Athletic Trainer at Alma College before his FSU arrival, filled the void created by the retirement of Dave Lucey, who oversaw the Bulldogs' sports medicine area for more than 32 years as a dedicated employee serving thousands of student-athletes. 

Knight is the Bulldogs' designated athletics Health Care Administrator as required by the NCAA. He is the lead athletic trainer for Bulldog Football and provides oversight of the sports medicine area, which includes three other full-time athletic trainers. He has played an instrumental role to Ferris State University, Bulldog Athletics and the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (GLIAC) in handling the COVID-19 pandemic and is a member of the GLIAC's COVID-19 Task Force, helping develop guidelines and protocols in dealing with COVID-related logistics among his other duties leading FSU's sports medicine team.

Knight spent seven years as part of Alma College's athletics training staff, including six years in a head role where he supervised three certified athletic trainers, numerous athletic training students and served as the department's designated Health Care Administrator, providing direct oversight for the medical services of over 575 student-athletes competing in 25 varsity sports programs at the NCAA Division III level.

During his time at Alma, Knight helped integrate new programs, enhance and improve current practices for the betterment of the overall delivery of athletic training services and provided the best possible care for student-athletes. He recruited new physicians to the Alma team, added an electronic medical records system, increased the number of full-time staff while also developing and managing key policies impacting student-athletes such as mental health, concussion, sickle cell, institutional drug testing and an athletic training department policy and procedure manual.

As a clinician, Knight has accumulated experience providing healthcare to multiple collegiate athletics programs, including football, men's basketball, softball, lacrosse, swimming and tennis among others. In these roles, he's been able to gain extensive clinical practice evaluating, treating and rehabilitating numerous orthopedic injuries.

In his Alma tenure, Knight also helped coordinate coverage for hosting conference and regional championship events and was certified in the Functional Movement Screen and as a Corrective Exercise Specialist, providing valuable skills in the prevention of injury and during the rehabilitation phase of chronic and post-surgical cases.

A 2008 graduate of Alma College, where he earned a bachelor's degree in athletic training, Knight also attended Western Michigan University, completing a master's degree in Exercise Science and Sports Medicine with an emphasis in Athletic Training in 2010 while serving as a Graduate Assistant Athletic Trainer. After his graduate work, Knight was hired at NCAA Division III affiliate North Carolina Wesleyan College where he was an Assistant Athletic Trainer from 2010 to 2011 overseeing the healthcare of the football and baseball programs.

A certified instructor by the American Red Cross for First Aid and CPR/AED for the Professional Rescuer, Knight also served as a Preceptor for the Athletic Training Education Program at Alma. He has taught First Aid and CPR along with an Athletic Training Clinical Course.

While at Alma, Knight served on numerous campus and professional committees, including the Alma Student Health Insurance Task Force, the Alma Tobacco-Free Generation Campus Task Force and as a mentor to the Michigan Athletic Trainer Society Young Professionals Committee among others. He also chaired a committee for the development of a partnership between Alma College and the Well Sport Sports Medicine of Mid-Michigan Health System. Knight was the 2016 recipient of the Alma College Presidential Award for Excellence.

Knight and his wife, Danielle, have one daughter, Aubrey. He holds professional memberships in the National Athletic Trainer's Association and the Michigan Athletic Trainers' Society.