Mark Teeples said it is long overdue for Ohio State to have an athletic training major.”It’s about time for a Big Ten school,” Teeples said.An athletic training major is being considered by the School of Allied Medical Professionals, said Dr. Steve Wilson, director. The faculty passed it in concept, and they are bringing in a consultant to devise a curriculum, he saidTeeples, a second-year student, wanted to major in athletic training, but he had to major in exercise science because OSU didn’t have an athletic training major. He said he was willing to settle for OSU’s internship program to have the opportunity to work for a big name varsity athletic program.Changes in the requirements to take the National Trainers’ Association’s certification exam are prompting OSU to consider athletic training as a major.It is a long process and still has to go through several steps, Wilson said.Trainers can now take the exam with any bachelor’s degree, as long as they go through an internship program, complete 1,500 hours of clinical experience and pass designated course work, said Bill Davis, director of athletic training at OSU. But, starting in 2004, the association will require students to graduate from an athletic training program in order to take the exam, said Chad Starkey, a member of the association’s educational counsel executive committee.The program currently includes students majoring in physical therapy, exercise science, and nursing, as well as a variety of unrelated majors, Davis said. Students get clinical experience by working with athletic teams under the direction of an athletic trainer.Because the internship program takes two years to complete, Starkey said that 2002 is the deadline for new students to enroll in the program at OSU.Some students are excited about the possibility of OSU offering an athletic training major.”It will give us an opportunity to learn about injuries in the classroom,” said Leah Kingery, a first-year student who was going to major in physical therapy before hearing of the proposed change.Kingery said she takes classes about the human body every quarter, but because they are through the internship program, she only receives credit toward her clinical experience, not academic credit.Miami University, the University of Toledo, Bowling Green State University, and Ohio University are among the universities in Ohio that offer an athletic training major, Davis said. Despite the lack of a major, he said OSU’s program is extremely popular.”It’s a competitive program,” he said. “We have 40 students, and are now selecting students for next year.”Davis said while his program has a better passage rate for the national exam among other schools with only internship programs, that is not the standard.”We have close to a 90 percent rate of passage,” he said. OSU has seven co-educational training rooms serving nearly 900 athletes on 34 varsity teams. Students can also work with professional sports teams, at state high school championship events, and for clinics and camps.