LUBBOCK, Texas – Texas Tech Athletics introduced Friday the promotion of Michael Ramirez to Associate Athletics Director and Director of Football Sports Medicine in addition to Katherine Carden to affiliate athletic coach and soccer rehabilitation coordinator.

Ramirez replaces Drew Krueger, who has accepted the pinnacle athletic coach place with the Arizona Cardinals within the NFL. Krueger beforehand served 9 seasons as a part of the Texas Tech sports activities medication workers, together with every of the previous seven as the pinnacle soccer athletic coach.  

“We are happy for Drew and know he will do great things in the NFL,” stated Grant Stovall, Senior Associate Athletics Director for Student-Athlete Health and Wellness. “I am excited that Mike has accepted this new role and know he will be great leading this group who will continue to provide outstanding care for our student-athletes. Katie has done a great job during her time here and has earned the trust of our players, team physicians and coaches. She will be outstanding in this new role coordinating and managing the rehabilitation needs for the football program.”

In his new function, Ramirez, who’s getting into his seventh season on the Texas Tech sports activities medication workers, will oversee the round the clock care of greater than 100 student-athletes within the Football Training Facility. He will direct a workers of three further athletic trainers who work with group medical doctors to offer essentially the most up-to-date prevention, therapy and rehabilitation for soccer student-athletes.  

Ramirez joined the athletics division in 2017 as an assistant athletic coach with the soccer program earlier than being promoted to affiliate athletic coach a yr later, a job Carden will now occupy. In addition to his function as Texas Tech’s head soccer athletic coach, he will even oversee the sports activities medication wants for each the boys’s and girls’s golf packages.

During his time at Texas Tech, Ramirez has served as a supervisor of undergraduate and grasp’s athletic coaching college students with the soccer program in addition to the athletics division’s relationship with Gatorade.

Ramirez additionally coordinated the athletics division’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, establishing protocols throughout all sports activities for testing procedures in compliance with NCAA and Big 12 tips in addition to securing applicable testing supplies. In response, Ramirez obtained the Director of Athletics Award of Excellence at Texas Tech’s end-of-year division banquet in 2021. 

Prior to Texas Tech, Ramirez was the pinnacle athletic coach for Desert Ridge High School in Arizona from 2015-17 and was an athletic coach for Deer Park High School in Texas from 2013-15. He was beforehand an athletic coaching intern for the Houston Texans within the NFL from 2011-13.

Ramirez is a graduate of Arizona State with a bachelor of science diploma in kinesiology (2009) in addition to the Texas Tech Health Sciences Center the place he earned his grasp’s in athletic coaching in 2011. He and his spouse, Lizzy, reside in Lubbock with their kids, Rory and Banks.

“We’re fortunate to have the best medical team in the country here at Texas Tech,” head coach Joey McGuire stated. “Our student-athletes truly receive the best care possible and that’s due to the work Drew, Mike, Katie, Steve (Lapso) and their team have provided every single day. We can’t thank Drew enough for the time and effort he put in to make our program and most importantly our student-athletes better. We know he will have great success in the NFL. We’re thrilled Mike has accepted this new position as he has quickly earned the trust and respect of our entire program during my tenure.”

Carden enters her third season on the Texas Tech sports activities medication workers as she joined as an assistant athletic coach with the soccer program previous to the 2021 season. She arrived at Texas Tech following two seasons as an athletic coaching intern with the San Francisco 49ers from 2019-21.

Prior to her time within the NFL, Carden was a graduate athletic coach at Oklahoma from 2017-19 the place she assisted with sports activities medication wants for soccer in addition to the ladies’s gymnastics and spirit packages.

Carden earned her undergraduate diploma in kinesiology from the University of Massachusetts in 2014. Like Ramirez, she can be a graduate of the Texas Tech Health Sciences Center as she earned her grasp’s in athletic coaching in 2017. She later added a grasp’s of schooling in intercollegiate athletic administration from the University of Oklahoma in 2019.

The sports activities medication workers is a part of Texas Tech’s Health and Wellness Department, which additionally contains different vital student-athlete companies akin to sports activities vitamin, sports activities psychology and energy and conditioning. The 4 models oversee the well being and well-being of greater than 400 student-athletes on campus throughout all 17 sports activities.