On one of the final days of his 33-year career as an athletic trainer in the Clear Creek School District, it was business as usual for Wilfred “Willie” Kyle.
    Clear Brook athletes still passed through the small boys training room seeking treatment. Anyone seeking to reminisce about Kyle’s career as of the first full-time trainers in the state would have to wait. There was still work to be done.
    When the month of May concluded, so did Kyle’s lengthy tenure in CCISD. He began at Clear Lake, then moved to Clear Brook when it opened in 1988.
    “I started getting the feeling in January of 2005,” Kyle said. “It became real apparent during (football) two-a-days. It was a hard decision. But I knew it was time to get out.”
Kyle’s career ambitions got a boost in 1971. The Texas Legislature passed a bill requiring all athletic trainers in public schools to be licensed. Before, most of those duties belonged to coaches.
    Sports medicine was just taking off as a profession. At the time Kyle was hired at Clear Lake in 1973, there were none of today’s modern advances.
    “When I started at Clear Lake, most of what we did was care and prevention,” Kyle said. “We used ice, heat and a few other things. Now we have to be concerned with heat, lightning and ozone. The technology is incredible.”
    Kyle came to Clear Lake just in time to join the company of legends. George Carlisle was the principal. Basketball coach Bill Krueger had recently began a tenure that would eventually end with more than 1,000 wins.
    After 15 years working with some of Clear Lake’s best-known coaches and athletes, Kyle moved over to Clear Creek ISD’s newest School, Clear Brook. He retired as one of the campuses’ last original faculty members.
    Sven Schultz is another charter Wolverine. Schultz began the Clear Brook aquatics program, then moved into administration as an assistant principal.   “Willie was like a second dad,” Schultz said. “You knew he was on athletics’ side. He treated everyone the same.”
    In almost two decades at Clear Brook, Kyle became more than just an athletic trainer. He worked on faculty upgrade, helped sponsor the National Honor Society and was instrumental in creating the “banners of success” that currently hang in the school lunch area.
    Athletes and faculty members from all the CCISD schools were welcome to seek advice and treatment from Kyle.
    While guiding the Clear Brook aquatics program, Schultz saw Kyle treat all athletes with equal skill and compassion. His expertise ranged from the knee problems of Richard Lau to Andrea Bahlo’s complex heart condition.
    “He never went home,” Schultz said. “If you had a problem, you went to Willie. He would handle maintenance issues. You don’t replace Willie.”
    Kyle switched to Clear Brook at its inception so he could be at the same campus as his two daughters. At the time, sports medicine was still having some image problems.
Changing the negative perception of trainers as glorified water boys was a goal that Kyle worked toward. When he came to Clear Brook, Kyle founded a kindred spirit in the school’s first head football coach, Jim Hatfield.
    “Coach Hatfield worked hard in communicating what we wanted to do,” Kyle said. “We both wanted excellence in education and athletics. Our student trainers worked hard. They were part of the team. That is why our teams worked like a machine.”
Hatfield began the ongoing Clear Brook tradition of treating every activity involved in football games with equal respect, whether they be athletes, trainers, band, drill team or spectators. In response, everyone worked just as hard.
That helped attract quality trainers for Kyle and Cathy Supak, who will remain in charge of Clear Brook’s female trainers.
    Several of Kyle’s former students have followed in his footsteps. They include Russell Mawery, who is now in his fourth year at Missouri, and Darrel Hausman, who is about to begin his professional career after attending Sam Houston State University. Becca McCollum is currently the girls trainer at Manor High School.   Currently honing their craft at various colleges are Nicole Lucas, Josh King and Justin Pepperding.
    Kyle is content to leave those students and others as his legacy. For now, the goal is to spend more time with his wife of 35 years, Kathy, and his children and grandchildren.
“My memories are mostly of great kids and great coaches,” Kyle said. “I have been fortunate. They have all impacted my life. I will miss the comradery with coaches and the kids.”
    Kyle had a chance to reflect on his lengthy and eventful career while attending his final event, the 2006 state track and field meet. His trip gave him a chance to see one more Wolverine state champion, Erica Alexander.
    It also gave Kyle a chance to visit with one of the few athletic trainers who have been around even longer than he has.
    “I have been thinking about how long I have been doing this,” Kyle said. “Then I went to state track and saw Al Wilson. He is in his 44th year at Killeen.”

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