William & Mary Athletics

Education
B.S., Physical Education, West Virginia University, 1972
MEd, Education, West Virginia University, 1974

Robbie Lester joined the William & Mary Sports Medicine Staff in the fall of 2016 and was promoted to Associate Athletic Trainer in 2019 and then named the Head Athletic Trainer in 2020. He currently serves as the athletic trainer for baseball and men's soccer. 

In his role with the Tribe, Lester is responsible for designing and assigning coverage plans for all 23 varsity sports.  He oversees a staff of 10 full-time athletic trainers and is responsible of the on-boarding of the student athletic trainer aides.  He is the lead athletic trainer for the baseball program and assists in all aspects of the training room’s day-to-day operations.  

Lester had previously worked as Chief Consultant for Sports Medicine with the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction (DPI) as well as a physician extender in Neurosurgery. While with DPI, Robbie was instrumental in developing a statewide system of high school teacher athletic trainers (TATs) that provided athletic training services to high school athletes through a series of athletic training courses and workshops. He developed and implemented the DPI Teacher Athletic Trainer Instructional Program that took selected high school TATs and over three years qualified them to sit for the NATA BOC certification exam. There was 96% passing rate for these candidates. Robbie was instrumental in the growth of the North Carolina Athletic Trainers Association during the early years of its development.

Lester brings with him experience as a collegiate athletic trainer, an educator, and as a clinician. He has presented sports medicine courses and workshops on the local, state, national and international levels. He developed and taught a sports medicine course for the Department of Defense (DOD) schools in Panama. He also helped develop sports medicine courses for the DOD schools in Germany.

He spent more than 30 years with the national certification process for Athletic Trainers. He served as an examiner, site coordinator and with the development of the various phases of the certification exam. He first served on the NATA Certification Committee, then served for two terms on the NATA BOC Board of Directors. While on the BOC BOD he served as BOC Secretary for two terms. After he completed his tenure on the BOC BOD he was then selected as Chairman for the BOC Nominating Committee, serving two terms in that role.

Lester has been inducted into the Mid-Atlantic Athletic Trainers Association HALL OF FAME as well as the North Carolina Athletic Trainers Association HALL OF FAME. He received the National Athletic Trainers Association MOST DISTINGUISHED ATHLETIC TRAINER AWARD. Other awards include the NCATA Pioneer Award, the NATA BOC Dan Libera Service Award, NCHSAA Athletic Trainer of the Year and NCHSAA Regional Athletic Trainer of the Year. He has been recognized for more than 50 years of service to the National Athletic Trainers Association.