Becky Clifton (NAHS ’84)

Staff since 1991

In the fall of 1972, Becky Clifton started first grade. At Floyd Central – – Glen Snow was planning something new. He had just been hired as the school’s first certified AT. He set out to create a new program. It launched with (just) one student trainer for (just) one sport: football. As the school year 1981-82 began, year ten… attracting enough students was starting to feel like success. Becky Clifton had arrived new at Floyd Central that year, a sophomore. Three students from the class of ’82 had opted in, bringing the “pioneer alumni” to a total of 11. And yet, there had been no girls in that first decade. Becky changed all that. The number of student trainers in years 11 through 20 (1983-1992) had doubled (21) and ten of them were girls. Becky was the first of those ten girls. In the final year of “decade two”, Becky was at the helm, hired in 1991 as FC’s first female AT. Her unprecedented tenure has now spanned decades three, four – – and with this past spring, – – decade five. Such milestones don’t happen overnight. Having broken the barrier to be FC’s first female student trainer, she earned her bachelor’s degree (PE) cum laude at Indiana State in 1988. She also attained her AT certification from the NATA (National AT Association) that same year. She went on to earn her master’s degree at IU (Bloomington) in 1989.

She has now begun year 32 at Floyd Central. Her IATA peers (Indiana AT Association) have honored her three times: High School AT of the Year (2003), and her 2017 induction into its Hall of Fame. Most recently, she was chosen to be IATA president-elect for 2022-2024. We likewise salute Jan Clifton-Gaw, (FC ’87), certified as an AT also, for making it two sisters in a four-year span… with her Hall of Fame induction in 2021. All of this professional recognition – it’s genuinely deserved. Even so, it will forever be eclipsed by the roster of student trainers from her tenure. It’s very fitting that Becky came to Floyd Central just as the student trainer program was wrapping up its first twenty years. This school year, 2022-23 marks the program’s fiftieth year. Thirty-one students (including Becky herself) made up the bedrock on which she has built her legacy. Under her leadership, there have been almost twice as many added, creating her own “family tree”. It currently holds the names of fifty-three Floyd Central grads (and three more in the pipeline). Excluding the students from 2014-22 (who are still in school), 24% of them are in a healthcare profession. Their impact will be felt for the next fifty years.

When Becky is not working, you might find her in service to her church, the IATA or helping out a Bellarmine student. Since 2016, she’s been a preceptor in their master’s degree program.

Update: As of November 2025, Becky Clifton serves as the head athletic trainer at Floyd Central High School. She is also an adjunct faculty member at Bellarmine University’s College of Health Professions and the president of the Indiana Athletic Trainers Association.

Read the entire January 2023 Legacy Ledger (Issue 29).

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