For Immediate Release: Monday, 18 August 2003 Contact: Dave Geringer, UTPA Sports Information Director, (956) 381-2240

EDINBURG, TX-A former student athletic trainer at The University of Texas-Pan American who has worked with Michael Jordan and LeBron James will return to UTPA as an assistant athletic trainer.

Mike Mancias is joining the athletic training staff at Texas-Pan American, effective immediately

A native of Brownsville, Texas, where he attended Homer Hanna High School and the University of Texas-Brownsville, Mancias served as a student athletic trainer and a graduate assistant in the athletic training department at UTPA between 1997 and 2001. He earned a bachelor's degree in Health with a minor in Kinesiology in 2000.

He has worked extensively in professional basketball, working as the Cleveland Cavaliers' Assistant Athletic Trainer and Strength Coach for summer leagues in Orlando and Boston this summer, and working with Michael Jordan's personal trainer, Tim Grover of A.T.T.A.C.K. Athletics, in the summers of 2001 and 2002. He also has worked several National Basketball Association pre-draft camps, served as the Interim Athletic Trainer for the Milwaukee Bucks' summer teams in 2000, and worked with both the Houston Rockets and the San Antonio Spurs.

Mancias also worked with the Edinburg Roadrunners of the Central Baseball League in 2001, and with the Rio Grande Valley Whitewings of the same league in 2002. He served as an Assistant Athletic Trainer at Porter High School in Brownsville, Texas between October, 2001 and May, 2002, was a Physical Therapy Technician at the Columbia Valley Regional Medical Center in the summers of 1998 and 1999, and is presently the Sports Medicine and Sports Enhancement Coordinator for Brownsville Physical Therapy and Sports Medicine.

"This is a good opportunity," said Mancias. "I'm glad to be able to come back to a Division I program and continue to help out. I enjoy working with (Head Athletic Trainer) Jim (Lancaster), he's taught me a lot. I'll be pretty much working with everybody. I'm looking forward to coming back and working with Jim and helping the university and the athletic department."

"We're excited about having Mike working with us on a full-time basis," said Lancaster. "The quality of his work and our previous experience working with him has shown us the kind of quality person and the kind of quality trainer he is. He'll bring an awful lot to our program. We're happy to have him on board, and we know he'll be a fine complement to our staff."