FOLLOWING IN THE FOOTSTEPS
1/29/2020 3:05:00 PM | General, Men's Basketball, Health & Wellness
Snyder Enjoying Ride With Men’s Basketball After Replacing DC
By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider
When veteran athletic trainer David Chandler transitioned from athletics to a development job last summer, he left a huge void with the men's basketball program.
"Kenny (Boyd) and I were racking our brains," said Dave Snyder, director of sports medicine at the time and working specifically with football. "We knew that bringing in the wrong person could be detrimental to what we have going here, and the dynamic is so fragile. You don't want to shake that up."
Snyder, who had already followed Hall of Famer Mike Sims as the head trainer for football, took another leap when he replaced Chandler with the basketball program and became assistant AD for athletic medicine.
"I think the first thing Dave said was he's not going to try to fill DC's shoes," said Boyd, senior associate AD for student-athlete health & wellness. "Certainly, DC had some suggestions about working with the team, specifically the current players and coaches. But ultimately, Dave was not about to try to replicate what DC was doing."
What the 40-year-old Snyder walked into was an ideal situation where "all the work has been done," he said, and Chandler had "laid all the ground work."
"I didn't mince words, the fact that I'm not DC. I can't do it the way DC did," Snyder said. "I try to do it the best I can, based on every situation that presents itself. It's impossible to have a better opportunity to come in and a better year to do more things. I've been able to come in, get absorbed by the easiest group to get along with. They took me in right away. They welcomed my wife and family just right off. And that was awesome. I have one of the best group of student-athletes that you could ask for. I just can't complain."
Leaving football before the Bears' breakthrough 11-3 season and first trip to the Sugar Bowl in 63 years, Snyder can take some solace in working with a basketball team that's matched its best-ever start (17-1) and ranked No. 1 in the nation.
"It's not easy following in the footsteps of a legend," coach Scott Drew said, "but Dave has done a great job in gaining the players' trust and respect with his hard work and knowledge. He is always looking for the latest and greatest, which really translates well with college athletes."
Growing up as the son of a Baptist minister, Dave was born in Memphis, Tenn., and moved to Arkansas before the family settled in southern Georgia in the early 1990s.
"Sports were always a big thing for us," he said. "We always played whatever was in season, but I really enjoyed wrestling."
His two brothers, Peter and Stephen, played baseball at Georgia Southwestern, while his younger sister, Laura, played tennis there. In addition to wrestling, Snyder ran cross country at Irwin County High School and worked his way up to playing No. 2 singles for a tennis team that won region every year.
"Never in a million years did I think I would play tennis," he said. "One of our football coaches and teachers was the tennis coach. And he saw that a lot of his older guys were leaving, so he talked to me in eighth grade about coming to play tennis. He just found people that were willing to try to learn someth8ng new, and he would teach us. And he was a great teacher."
In dealing with multiple shoulder dislocations as a high school wrestler, Dave worked with an athletic trainer in his rehabilitation, and that piqued an interest for a possible career path.
"Once I got into college and got into the athletic training program, I realized I didn't have that desire to be a physical therapist. I was more interested in what we do (as trainers)," he said. "There are a lot of dual-credentialed people, which is great, but that was not a road I wanted to go down."
As a student trainer at the University of Georgia, where he was under the tutelage of Ron Corson, Dave worked with football, baseball and volleyball and did a summer internship with the Indianapolis Colts. He earned his undergrad degree from Georgia in 2003, took a position as a GA at The Citadel and earned his masters there two years later.
"The size of the school didn't matter to me. I spent two years there, and it was just an awesome experience," he said. "I just never had any doubts about it, and it always seemed to work out, God's plan. I just worked hard, kept my head down and really enjoyed it."
Taking another NFL internship, Dave spent the 2005 season with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and serving under head trainer Todd Toriscelli. The Bucs went 11-5 that year, won the division title and lost to the Washington Redskins in the NFC wildcard game.
"I really like the history of sports. I like the history of football, the history of basketball," he said. "But, it was really interesting to me, because I got a chance to be around history. I got the chance to meet Bill Walsh. I didn't talk to him, but I saw Jack Tatum. People like Terry Bradshaw and Troy Aikman, they would come to practice. Not to mention the guys on the team – Derrick Brooks, Mike Alstott, Ronde Barber. It was just a cool experience and such a great time."
At 25 years old, he could have stayed on for another year as an intern, but Toriscelli told him, "You don't need to stay, you need to keep progressing."
Working under three different head football coaches, Snyder was an assistant athletic trainer at the University of Kansas from 2006 to 2012 and was on the sidelines for the Jayhawks' last two bowl games – the 2007 Orange Bowl and 2008 Insight Bowl.
"I think my bowl rings from there are almost more valuable because they're so rare," he said. "I loved it there. Honestly, there was never a place I didn't love."
Taking his first head job, Dave was hired as the head athletic trainer for football at the University of Tennessee-Chattanooga and eventually became director of sports medicine at the Division I school.
"I think it was good for me to get that experience at a lower-level school," he said, "because you have to draw more on yourself and make the most of your resources because you don't have a lot."
When Sims retired in the summer of 2017, Snyder was hired as head athletic trainer for football and director of sports medicine at Baylor, arriving just five days before the start of fall camp under then first-year head coach Matt Rhule.
"I've had bad seasons before, but even during the 1-11 year, that year was just so different, because it was business as usual," Dave said. "Everyone just kept doing what they were supposed to do, and there just kept being improvements and positive energy in the midst of that. And I think a lot of people wouldn't understand that. That gave way to the next year (7-6), and then obviously it gave way to this year (11-3). It was just interesting to see that happen on a daily basis."
Not only did the move to basketball give him a more favorable schedule as a dad with three young children, it also gave Dave a chance to elevate former assistant Matt Kuehl into his "dream job" as the head trainer for football.
"When in your life are you able to put somebody in their dream job?" Snyder said. "That, essentially, is Matt's dream job. You don't get to do that very often, and that was not lost on me. I was really excited to be able to do that."
Instead of a football roster of 120, Snyder is working with the 15-man roster for basketball and is able to take more of an "overt approach to just get to know them, spend time with them, ask them about their families, get to know their families. You can't rush that sort of thing, but you just try to be very intentional about it."
Much like former Buccaneers and current Oakland Raiders head coach Jon Gruden, Snyder said "you know what you're getting" with Coach Drew.
"Coach Gruden was the same at the coffee maker as he is on Monday Night Football," he said. "Coach Drew is the same off the court as he is in the basketball game. He is that way all the time. That's just who he is, which is awesome. Because you'd be able to see right through it if it wasn't real. That's just how he is, just an energetic person, super positive."
Dave and his wife, Erin, who he met at Chattanooga, have three children – Jack, 4; Hollis, 3; and Chandler, who is seven months old.
"My wife is a rock star," Dave said. "She manages to get them dressed to the nines, take family photos, do this, do that. She is unreal. And she's a nurse, which right now she's not working as much as crazy as our house is – three kids under 4, I work ridiculous hours. So, she just never gets enough credit."
Outside of work, Dave is an avid reader and something of a movie buff, with his favorites being the James Bond flicks, "Mission Impossible" and the older classics with John Wayne and Clint Eastwood. His dog, a six-pound Morkie, is named Duke.
"He's one of those hybrids that I bought for my wife going into her very first training camp as a spouse," he said. "I bought him right as we got going, and she had a companion for the times when I'm not there."
Baylor Bear Insider
When veteran athletic trainer David Chandler transitioned from athletics to a development job last summer, he left a huge void with the men's basketball program.
"Kenny (Boyd) and I were racking our brains," said Dave Snyder, director of sports medicine at the time and working specifically with football. "We knew that bringing in the wrong person could be detrimental to what we have going here, and the dynamic is so fragile. You don't want to shake that up."
Snyder, who had already followed Hall of Famer Mike Sims as the head trainer for football, took another leap when he replaced Chandler with the basketball program and became assistant AD for athletic medicine.
"I think the first thing Dave said was he's not going to try to fill DC's shoes," said Boyd, senior associate AD for student-athlete health & wellness. "Certainly, DC had some suggestions about working with the team, specifically the current players and coaches. But ultimately, Dave was not about to try to replicate what DC was doing."
What the 40-year-old Snyder walked into was an ideal situation where "all the work has been done," he said, and Chandler had "laid all the ground work."
"I didn't mince words, the fact that I'm not DC. I can't do it the way DC did," Snyder said. "I try to do it the best I can, based on every situation that presents itself. It's impossible to have a better opportunity to come in and a better year to do more things. I've been able to come in, get absorbed by the easiest group to get along with. They took me in right away. They welcomed my wife and family just right off. And that was awesome. I have one of the best group of student-athletes that you could ask for. I just can't complain."
Leaving football before the Bears' breakthrough 11-3 season and first trip to the Sugar Bowl in 63 years, Snyder can take some solace in working with a basketball team that's matched its best-ever start (17-1) and ranked No. 1 in the nation.
"It's not easy following in the footsteps of a legend," coach Scott Drew said, "but Dave has done a great job in gaining the players' trust and respect with his hard work and knowledge. He is always looking for the latest and greatest, which really translates well with college athletes."
Growing up as the son of a Baptist minister, Dave was born in Memphis, Tenn., and moved to Arkansas before the family settled in southern Georgia in the early 1990s.
"Sports were always a big thing for us," he said. "We always played whatever was in season, but I really enjoyed wrestling."
His two brothers, Peter and Stephen, played baseball at Georgia Southwestern, while his younger sister, Laura, played tennis there. In addition to wrestling, Snyder ran cross country at Irwin County High School and worked his way up to playing No. 2 singles for a tennis team that won region every year.
"Never in a million years did I think I would play tennis," he said. "One of our football coaches and teachers was the tennis coach. And he saw that a lot of his older guys were leaving, so he talked to me in eighth grade about coming to play tennis. He just found people that were willing to try to learn someth8ng new, and he would teach us. And he was a great teacher."
In dealing with multiple shoulder dislocations as a high school wrestler, Dave worked with an athletic trainer in his rehabilitation, and that piqued an interest for a possible career path.
"Once I got into college and got into the athletic training program, I realized I didn't have that desire to be a physical therapist. I was more interested in what we do (as trainers)," he said. "There are a lot of dual-credentialed people, which is great, but that was not a road I wanted to go down."
As a student trainer at the University of Georgia, where he was under the tutelage of Ron Corson, Dave worked with football, baseball and volleyball and did a summer internship with the Indianapolis Colts. He earned his undergrad degree from Georgia in 2003, took a position as a GA at The Citadel and earned his masters there two years later.
"The size of the school didn't matter to me. I spent two years there, and it was just an awesome experience," he said. "I just never had any doubts about it, and it always seemed to work out, God's plan. I just worked hard, kept my head down and really enjoyed it."
Taking another NFL internship, Dave spent the 2005 season with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and serving under head trainer Todd Toriscelli. The Bucs went 11-5 that year, won the division title and lost to the Washington Redskins in the NFC wildcard game.
"I really like the history of sports. I like the history of football, the history of basketball," he said. "But, it was really interesting to me, because I got a chance to be around history. I got the chance to meet Bill Walsh. I didn't talk to him, but I saw Jack Tatum. People like Terry Bradshaw and Troy Aikman, they would come to practice. Not to mention the guys on the team – Derrick Brooks, Mike Alstott, Ronde Barber. It was just a cool experience and such a great time."
At 25 years old, he could have stayed on for another year as an intern, but Toriscelli told him, "You don't need to stay, you need to keep progressing."
Working under three different head football coaches, Snyder was an assistant athletic trainer at the University of Kansas from 2006 to 2012 and was on the sidelines for the Jayhawks' last two bowl games – the 2007 Orange Bowl and 2008 Insight Bowl.
"I think my bowl rings from there are almost more valuable because they're so rare," he said. "I loved it there. Honestly, there was never a place I didn't love."
Taking his first head job, Dave was hired as the head athletic trainer for football at the University of Tennessee-Chattanooga and eventually became director of sports medicine at the Division I school.
"I think it was good for me to get that experience at a lower-level school," he said, "because you have to draw more on yourself and make the most of your resources because you don't have a lot."
When Sims retired in the summer of 2017, Snyder was hired as head athletic trainer for football and director of sports medicine at Baylor, arriving just five days before the start of fall camp under then first-year head coach Matt Rhule.
"I've had bad seasons before, but even during the 1-11 year, that year was just so different, because it was business as usual," Dave said. "Everyone just kept doing what they were supposed to do, and there just kept being improvements and positive energy in the midst of that. And I think a lot of people wouldn't understand that. That gave way to the next year (7-6), and then obviously it gave way to this year (11-3). It was just interesting to see that happen on a daily basis."
Not only did the move to basketball give him a more favorable schedule as a dad with three young children, it also gave Dave a chance to elevate former assistant Matt Kuehl into his "dream job" as the head trainer for football.
"When in your life are you able to put somebody in their dream job?" Snyder said. "That, essentially, is Matt's dream job. You don't get to do that very often, and that was not lost on me. I was really excited to be able to do that."
Instead of a football roster of 120, Snyder is working with the 15-man roster for basketball and is able to take more of an "overt approach to just get to know them, spend time with them, ask them about their families, get to know their families. You can't rush that sort of thing, but you just try to be very intentional about it."
Much like former Buccaneers and current Oakland Raiders head coach Jon Gruden, Snyder said "you know what you're getting" with Coach Drew.
"Coach Gruden was the same at the coffee maker as he is on Monday Night Football," he said. "Coach Drew is the same off the court as he is in the basketball game. He is that way all the time. That's just who he is, which is awesome. Because you'd be able to see right through it if it wasn't real. That's just how he is, just an energetic person, super positive."
Dave and his wife, Erin, who he met at Chattanooga, have three children – Jack, 4; Hollis, 3; and Chandler, who is seven months old.
"My wife is a rock star," Dave said. "She manages to get them dressed to the nines, take family photos, do this, do that. She is unreal. And she's a nurse, which right now she's not working as much as crazy as our house is – three kids under 4, I work ridiculous hours. So, she just never gets enough credit."
Outside of work, Dave is an avid reader and something of a movie buff, with his favorites being the James Bond flicks, "Mission Impossible" and the older classics with John Wayne and Clint Eastwood. His dog, a six-pound Morkie, is named Duke.
"He's one of those hybrids that I bought for my wife going into her very first training camp as a spouse," he said. "I bought him right as we got going, and she had a companion for the times when I'm not there."
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