Jim Lancaster begins his 27th year as the Assistant Athletic Director for Sports Medicine at The University of Texas-Pan American.
During his career at UTPA, Jim Lancaster has worked with thousands of student-athletes; worked alongside hundreds of UTPA coaches and administrators; and trained and mentored a plethora of athletic trainers that range from the professional to high school athletics.
The UTPA Assistant Athletic Director for Sports Medicine assumes primary responsibility for the health and injury care, injury prevention and rehabilitation of all of the Bronc and Lady Bronc student-athlete injuries. During his tenure, Lancaster has made a commitment to provide first-class health care while educating each and every one of his student-athletes in good health practices and injury maintenance. He has set a high standard of care for himself as well as his staff in providing for all of the UTPA student-athletes that he oversees every year.
In addition to overseeing all of the functions provided by the Athletic Training Department, Lancaster is also responsible for helping each student-athlete be prepared to perform to his/her maximum potential through a comprehensive system of preventive medicine, treatment and rehabilitation. He also works hand-in-hand with the team doctors to ensure that the health and safety of the UTPA student-athletes is first and foremost.
Since becoming the head athletic trainer in 1980, Lancaster has seen his role expand with every passing year and has become the department's equipment manager, facilities' manager as well as its Interim Director of Athletics for six months. Upon the departure of former Director of Athletics William J. Weidner, Lancaster was promoted to Interim Director of Athletics where he oversaw the day-to-day functions of the entire athletic department while still performing his duties as Assistant Athletic Director for Sports Medicine.
A native of San Antonio, TX, Lancaster has worked as an athletic trainer close to three decades after he began his career as a student under highly-respected athletic trainers Frank Medina and Spanky Stevens during his undergraduate days at the University of Texas. While working with the Longhorns, Lancaster's primary responsibility was working with the men's basketball team under former UTPA head coach Abe Lemons. In 1978, he served as the student athletic trainer for a Longhorns' basketball squad at the captured the National Invitation Tournament title.
After earning his bachelor's degree in physical education in 1980 from the University of Texas, Lancaster came to the Rio Grande Valley where he earned his master's degree at Pan American University while serving as the program's full-time head athletic trainer.
Lancaster has also acted as the Medical Coordinator for the National Youth Sports Program, a federally-funded program of summer sports activities for local children held on the UTPA campus, for the past two decades.
The UTPA Assistant Athletic Director for Sports Medicine is licensed as an athletic trainer by the Texas Department of Health and is a certified member of the National Athletic Trainers' Association.
Lancaster is married to the former Tencha Orta, a teacher at The BETA Academy in Edinburg. The couple and their 15-year-old daughter, Lisa Leigh, live in Edinburg.
