Taking care of the medical needs of 200 Division II Athletes is a tremendous and never ending challenge. The athletic training staff at New York Institute of Technology is dedicated to providing injury management, treatment, and rehabilitation of athletic injuries for all NYIT student-athletes.

The NYIT athletic training staff, under the direction of Dean Kamvakis, Head Athletic Trainer, and John Smillie, Assistant to the Athletic Trainer, is committed to ensuring the safe participation of NYIT's student-athletes and providing optimal care to return injured athletes to play rapidly and safely.

 

Athletic Trainers

Dean Kamvakis got his start in athletic training while attending St. Lawrence University. He became a student trainer under the supervision of SLU Head Athletic Trainer Ron Waske, the trainer for the New York Islanders when they won several Stanley Cup titles during the 1980s. Kamvakis worked with most of the sports at St. Lawrence, including football, hockey, lacrosse, basketball, and soccer, while earning a bachelors degree in Biology.

Dean Kamvakis
Head Athletic Trainer

After graduating, Kamvakis served as a graduate assistant trainer at Ithaca College for two 'years, and earned a master's degree in Physical Education. He then accepted a position at the Onondaga Sports Medicine Clinic in Syracuse, NY.

In 1993, Kamvakis joined the staff at NYIT as the Head Athletic Trainer. Kamvakis is a certified member of the National Athletic Trainers' Association, and is licensed New York State athletic trainer. He is an avid bass fisherman. Kamvakis' wife, Heidi, teaches health at Jericho High School. They have a son, Daniel, age six and a daughter, Grace, age 3.

John Smillie
Assistant to the Head Athletic Trainer

John Smillie got his start in athletic training with the United States Air Force in 1968 at the Vandenburg Air Force base, California. He received a BA in Physical Education from Queens College in 1973 and was their first athletic trainer. After serving as the head athletic trainer at John Jay College and an assistant athletic director and trainer at Hunter College, he was hired at NYIT in 1997 as an assistant to the head athletic trainer. Smillie has two children, Jody and John and six grandchildren, Anthony, Michael, John, Jamess, Mark and June Marie.