Since entering the athletic training profession, Lydia Tyson always had one career move at the top of her wish list. Christmas came early for the Turner County native this fall when she was selected as the Head Athletic Trainer at Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College.

"For me, it’s the opportunity of a lifetime that I couldn’t pass up,” Tyson said. “I have always had the ABAC job at the top of my list.”

When longtime ABAC athletic trainer Donna Sledge told Tyson she was retiring late this summer, Tyson was quick to respond to the job vacancy.

“It’s working out great,” Tyson said. “I see the ABAC athletes in the morning for rehab and treatment. Then I’m over at the Red Hill Athletic Center training room in the afternoons for practice.

“All the athletes and the coaches are great to work with. The athletes here are very respectful, and the coaches seem to value my opinion and advice.”

A 2012 graduate of Turner County High School, Tyson played softball at ABAC for the Golden Fillies of Coach Donna Campbell. A pitcher and a catcher, she’s glad she transitioned from high school to the college atmosphere at ABAC.

“It worked out great for me and my family,” Tyson, an ABAC Allied Health major, said. “I received a couple of academic scholarships, and the core classes really helped me when I started my athletic training classes at Valdosta State University (VSU).”

Tyson earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Athletic Training with a minor in Nutrition at VSU where she worked with the softball, volleyball, basketball, tennis, and football teams while completing her undergraduate degree.
With a solid education in hand from ABAC and VSU, Tyson catapulted herself into the job market with Phoebe Putney Health Systems as an assistant athletic trainer at Georgia Southwestern State University in Americus.

“I learned a lot, and I grew a lot in my profession,” Tyson said. “I had women’s soccer, softball, and cross country. I also started working with high school athletes at Southland Academy and Marion County High School.

“I was working about 75 hours a week, but I was learning at the same time. I think that’s when I fell in love with college athletics.”

Opportunity knocked again for Tyson when she returned to Tifton in December 2021 to work for Southwell at an athletic training position at Tift County High School.

“I was happy to come back to Tifton,” Tyson said. “The work environment at Tift County and Southwell was great. I still have that relationship with them.”

Tyson is looking forward to the warm months when the Golden Stallions and Golden Fillies will compete in softball, baseball, golf, and tennis, sometimes on the same day on a blue-sky spring afternoon.

“I plan to make the rounds in a golf cart when we have tennis, softball, and baseball going on at the same time on campus,” Tyson said. “The athletic training room will be open, and it’s right in the center of all that.”

In the immediate future, as in this weekend, Tyson and her husband, Hal, are training for a half marathon coming up on Dec. 3 in Panama City Beach, Fla. Married in 2020, they live in Cordele.

“Hal works for South Georgia Oil, and he also attended ABAC,” Tyson said. “We’ve always been close to this college.”

Besides the half marathon on the beach in the Florida panhandle, Tyson is also looking forward to December for another reason. She is scheduled to graduate from the University of Florida with her Master of Science degree in Sports Management.

That degree might pave the way for her next career move somewhere distantly down the road.

“I like where I’m at,” Tyson said. “The next step would be to own my own clinic. Big goal. Big dream. Right now, I am focused on our ABAC athletes who have their goals in mind, and I am helping them get there.”