ASHLAND – For the second time since Dr. Ross Dexter was promoted to Head Athletic Trainer in 2022, Southern Oregon University received the Cascade Conference Athletic Training Staff of the Year award on Monday, the CCC office announced.

The conference's top honor was voted on by the CCC Association of Student Athletes. In addition to Dexter, SOU's full-time staff includes Associate Athletic Trainer Lauren Oxford, Athletic Trainers Keenan Lotts and Kyler Wilkerson, and Faculty Athletic Trainer Dr. Michael Paddack.

"This is outstanding and well deserved," SOU Director of Athletics Matt Sayre said. "Along with our student interns, the group is so conscientious and hard working on behalf of all student-athletes."

The Raiders got additional assistance in 2025-26 from visiting graduate students Steven Bobsin and Alan Ploser of Northern Arizona University, Jorja Cooper of Colorado Mesa University, and Nicole Peden of University of Utah.

Dexter – an SOU alum who returned to the school in 2021 and now holds the title of Assistant Athletic Director for Health & Performance – is the lone holdover from the Raider group that won the award in 2023, heading the staff's efforts in basketball, cross country, and track and field.

Oxford has been at SOU for two years, working with the Raider football team. Lotts is in his first year, working with soccer and softball, after previously completing a clinical rotation at SOU. Wilkerson joined the staff last June and works with beach volleyball, volleyball, and wrestling. Paddack, who accepted a tenure track faculty position at SOU in 2020, works with the Raider golf team, the visiting graduate students, and is key to the staff's collaboration with the Health & Exercise Science Department.

Previously, the University of Utah Master of Athletic Training program recognized Oxford as its Preceptor of the Year and Peden as its Student of the Year.

"It is an honor to be named the CCC Athletic Training Staff of the Year, especially as it is voted on by the CCC Association of Student Athletes," Dexter said. "The conference has some of the finest Athletic Training staffs in all of small college sports, as is evidenced by the level of inter-institutional collaboration we see throughout each academic year. Winning this award for SOU is a reflection of excellent institutional support across the board, a fantastic staff of athletic trainers, our visiting graduate student clinical education program, collaborative efforts with our Health and Exercise Science department, and superb support from our medical partners."

Dexter will be put forward as the CCC's nominee for NAIA Head Athletic Trainer of the Year. That winner will be announced in the fall.