Athletic Trainer David Maldonado celebrated for Hispanic Heritage Month

Alamogordo Public School District's very own head trainer, David Maldonado, for the Alamogordo Athletic Training Program, was honored by the National Athletic Trainers Association on their Facebook page and website for National Hispanic Heritage Month.

The National Athletic Trainers Association is a professional association for certified athletic trainers. Maldonado is the head trainer for Alamogordo High School but oversees the athletic department for the entire district.

As a longtime sports fan who played sports in high school, Maldonado said his passion for becoming a trainer came from his time as an athlete.

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"I grew up in Estancia and played all the sports I could play," Maldonado said. "But once I got to college and realized I wasn't college material as far as sports, turned out the profession as an athletic trainer and work with sports medicine, so I thought it was perfect."

After Maldonado decided he wanted to pursue a career in the medical field, more so as an athletic trainer, he attended college at New Mexico State University (NMSU) in Las Cruces and graduated in 2015.

Before making his way to Alamogordo, Maldonado became an athletic trainer for Espanola Valley High School for a year.

Maldonado became the head trainer for the Alamogordo Public School district in the spring of 2016 and has been a member of the National Athletic Trainers Association for 10 years.

As a member of the National Athletic Trainers Association, he now serves on the New Mexico Athletic Trainers’ Association Secondary School Committee where he is working toward having athletic trainers at secondary schools.

Outside of serving on the National Athletic Trainers Association committee, he has been a member of the Rocky Mountain Athletic Trainers Association for 10 years as well.

Maldonado also serves on the Board of Directors for the New Mexico Athletic Trainers Association as the Southern New Mexico representative.

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Maldonado said his goal after college was to go back to work at a small school like his hometown school, or Tularosa because he felt as though there were little to no trainers at the high schools.

"The smaller schools unfortunately had some setbacks when it came to hiring a trainer, they just did not have the capacity for a trainer at the time, so I had to start at a larger school," Maldonado said. "Now, that I am in the position that I am in, I just want to push my goal of having an athletic trainer at all the high schools in New Mexico."

He went on to say that although it is a lofty goal, he wants to achieve it at as many schools as possible.

"When I was a student in high school and people got hurt, we had to go nearly an hour away just to get treated if, say, we got a fracture on the field playing football," Maldonado said. "A trainer would have been so beneficial during that time even if it's just to wrap an ankle and treat a player with the right medicine until they get to a hospital closest to them."

Maldonado said a lot of the high schools, such as Estancia, face problems that can be handled if they just had an athletic trainer on site.

Although he has accomplished a lot of his aspirations, Maldonado said he is continuing to work toward his goal of filling athletic trainers across rural New Mexico. He said much of this could not flourish without the support of his family.

Maldonado grew up in New Mexico but said his father, who was an immigrant from Mexico, pushed him to be the best he could be. He said being a Mexican American from New Mexico definitely puts pressure on him.

"You know the movie, 'Selena?' In one scene where her father Abraham Quintanilla, (played by Edward James Olmos) said to her it's exhausting to be a Mexican American because you have to be American enough to be American but Mexican enough to be Mexican," Maldonado said. "You just have to know both, Spanish and English, Selena and Christina Aguilera, so it's hard."

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Despite facing difficulties, Maldonado said he continues the Hispanic culture in his home with his kids.

"My family is Hispanic but my wife is white and so we do share that cultural merge and my kids get to see a lot of that," Maldonado said.

Mariah Maldonado, David's wife, said that she loves the uniqueness her family has knowing her kids are immersed in such a bicultural environment.

"My family celebrates Christmas on Christmas Day for example, but David's family will celebrate the holiday on Christmas Eve," Mariah said. "They get the best of both worlds but not just for holidays, in everything we do."

Mariah said her eldest, Zeke, who is eight years old, is fine with just knowing English but her youngest, Zanen, who is five years old, is curious about the Spanish language and gets most of his education from Maldonado's side of the family.

"My youngest, we call him Little Osito (little bear), really tries to speak in Spanish if he can and is intrigued by it," Mariah said. "I know when we visit David's family, he is always with David's parents picking up all the words."

Mariah said she loves to see her children grow from both her family and her husband's heritage. She said during the time she has been with David she has seen his heritage influence the person he is.

She continued by saying David has always been driven and competitive to be the best he can and she admires that in him.

"He is a first-generation college graduate in his family so we both come from that narrative, we both got our bachelor's, he now has his master's," Mariah said. "For him to achieve all this has been really cool, you know, I know he says it's whatever but it's such a big deal, and it's so awesome. The roles he plays statewide in athletic training is just so impactful. I'm so proud of him."

Juan Corral can be reached at JCorral@gannett.com or on X, formerly Twitter at @Juan36Corr.

This article originally appeared on Alamogordo Daily News: Head Trainer at APS recognized for Hispanic heritage month