Jun. 18, 2025
Knoxville Orthopaedic Clinic (KOC) will partner with Prisma Health and Blount Memorial Hospital to host a groundbreaking coaching conference offering sports medicine training and insight for local coaches, athletic trainers and healthcare professionals who work with student-athletes.
The symposium, the first of its kind in East Tennessee, will take place Friday, June 20, from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at First Baptist Maryville. The conference will focus on the role of sports medicine in high school athletics and feature keynote speaker Josh Nelson, director of performance science for the National Football League’s Atlanta Falcons.
Dr. Kyle Boden, a fellowship-trained sports medicine surgeon at KOC and the first full-time sports medicine surgeon in Blount County, helped coordinate the conference and will speak in addition to Nelson, someone he considers a friend and colleague.
“Josh Nelson brings a wealth of knowledge that goes well beyond the weight room,” Boden said. “He has been on the front lines of research in every aspect of sports performance, from nutrition, athlete recovery, and injury prevention strategies to utilizing wearable technology to track athlete performance. I feel privileged that he is willing to share his expertise with our community.”
Boden has his own experience helping care for elite-level athletes. He played as a starting quarterback at Emory and Henry University. After medical school, he helped care for the University of Kentucky football team as a chief resident before joining the Cleveland Browns medical staff as an orthopaedic surgery sports medicine fellow. Dr. Boden is now team physician for Alcoa High School.
“I’ve spent the last decade enhancing my expertise and building connections to bring elite sports medicine care to Blount County – and this inaugural conference is just one step,” Boden said.
The one-day symposium will cover topics such as concussions, injury prevention, training protocols, wearable technology and sports performance. It will include conversations with Nelson, Boden and KOC’s Dr. Greg Mathien, the 2025 SEC Team Physician of the Year for Orthopaedics.
The event is free to coaches, athletic directors and trainers. Coaches can receive in-service credit for attending, and the seminar also qualifies for athletic trainers’ recertification credit.
KOC has a longstanding tradition of investing in medical education and community outreach. Events like this emphasize KOC’s role as a community leader in health education, outreach and service across the region.
About Knoxville Orthopaedic Clinic
Knoxville Orthopaedic Clinic is the region’s largest provider of orthopaedic care and services with more than 520,000 patient visits annually at 12 East Tennessee locations. As a network of convenient and accessible clinics that provide exceptional orthopaedic care across the region, KOC comprises 10 office locations; two ambulatory surgery centers; and additional services including urgent care, MRI, orthotics and bracing, physical and occupational therapy and sports medicine outreach. KOC’s more than 150 orthopaedic experts, supported by over 1,000 team members, provide a superior quality of diagnostic proficiency; when needed, an unmatched level of surgical expertise; and a patient-centered approach to deliver unparalleled personalized treatment. The network recently earned a “Top Workplace” ranking from Knoxville News Sentinel two years in a row based on employee surveys measuring company culture. For more information, visit kocortho.com.
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