SAINT PAUL, Minn. --- Athletic Trainers do more than just treat injuries and help student-athletes get back to competing, and Blaine is a prime example of what going above and beyond the job description is as an athletic trainer. Britzer was honored by Perry Weather for his exceptional work as an athletic trainer by being awarded to the 2026 AT Excellence Award Top 10 this past week. 

Nominated by head athletic trainer Tara Dooley, here is what she had to say in her submission about Blaine when asked "How does this nominee go above and beyond in their duties as an Athletic Trainer?":
 
"Blaine has been working as a full time athletic trainer at Hamline University for 6 years. He has been an incredible asset to the staff, faculty and student athletes at Hamline and goes above and beyond in almost every aspect of his position.

Why I initially thought of nominating him for the Perry Excellence Award, is that besides sports medicine, Blaine loves weather! If he was not in medicine, he would probably work for the NOAA or be a storm chaser. He has turned his passion into a benefit for athletic training.  The sports medicine team is in charge of monitoring and making weather delay decisions. Blaine creates daily weather reports that are sent out to the entire department staff with predictions for the week to prepare for outdoor practices and competitions.  The informative and concise reports he created were noticed by other schools in the conference who also requested his daily reports. Blaine is very data and evidence driven and has been a strong voice in decisions for conference wide weather safety protocols. He always ensures our weather instruments are calibrated properly and when there is something amiss, he is determined to rectify them.  For example, when government jobs were being cut in the spring of 2025 and NOAA employees were stretched thin, we noticed our WBGT monitor was very off from our Perry app. Because of his diligence and investigative work, Blaine was able to alert a local NOAA employee and they were then able to discover that the device used to take readings for the app was not working properly. While this was being rectified Blaine developed a relationship with the NOAA team in the Twin Cities and they were more than happy to provide us with real time predictive information to ensure we were getting the most accurate data for athlete safety.

Blaine is very data and evidence driven in other aspects of his job as an athletic trainer. He has a folder of articles that he keeps to read in his "spare time"  to ensure that he is staying on top of the most recent evidence. When there are cases that he has trouble solving, he dives into research to ensure there is nothing he has missed or to learn the latest technique for treatment. Blaine will also go out of his way to ensure athletes are getting the best care possible. The most recent example of going beyond his duties is while on a spring travel trip across the country with one of his teams, an athlete broke their wrist. He brought them to urgent care for an x-ray and asked for the opinion of the radiologist to determine if the athlete needed to be transported back home earlier than the rest of the team. After multiple requests at the time of injury, the provider only stated the wrist was broken and nothing more.  Blaine then requested the image which was presented to him on a disc. He then had to go out to find and purchase a disc reader he could attach to his laptop to access the images to send to the team physician back in Minnesota, to then confirm whether the athlete needed surgery.

Because of his practice, he has been sought out by local and state level organizations as the subject matter expert on certain topics for speaking engagements, repeatedly.  Directly from these engagements, he has recruited athletic training students for him to be their preceptor.

On the education front he is a passionate educator, believes that knowledge is power and wants everyone to feel the same way. I have been told directly from athletes and students of his, that he has directly affected their desire to want to go into an allied health profession.  He teaches in the Biology Department at Hamline University and Heath Exercise Rehabilitative Sciences Department at Winona State as an adjunct. He creates many opportunities for students to ask questions, get caught up on their homework, or class projects and caters to their preferred learning style. He truly wants his students to succeed.

Blaine extends his compassion to his athletes as well. He is very in tune with the needs of his athletes; mental, emotional, physical, financial, social etc. Blaine will go out of his way to ensure they are supported with what they may be lacking.  He will set aside time to tutor athletes who are struggling in a class he has knowledge in, glue their shoes back together and repair them when he knows they cannot afford another pair in the season, set up regular access to feminine hygiene products in the women's locker room, and develop such good rapport with his athletes that they feel comfortable to come to his office to break down about sports and life. He has personally funded a small food pantry in his office for athletes that may not have eaten that day as well as coordinated a satellite food pantry from the University's Food Resource Center to be on the side of campus where athletes spend most of their time. He has also used the gift cards he received from his athletes as thank yous to buy coffee for the athletics department as a way to connect when the University was in the midst of a disheartening experience."

We thank Blaine for all the time and dedication he puts into working with the student-athletes at Hamline!