Rayne native wins national service award

Rayne native Scott Arceneaux, long-time teacher and Director of Sports Medicine at St. Amant High School and current LATA president, has been chosen by the National Athletic Trainers Association to receive the prestigious service award.
The Athletic Trainer Service Award recognizes NATA members for their contributions to the athletic training profession as a volunteer at the local and state levels. ATSA recipients have been involved in professional associations, community organizations, grassroots public relations efforts and service as an  athletic trainer.
Arceneaux’s athletic training career spans over 20 years and is credited with several initiatives that have benefited his school, community, state and have had national signifigance.
Some of his more notable contributions are establishing sports medicine courses as locally initiated electives in 1996. The courses were a catalyst to the current state-wide BESE curriculum taught throughout the state. He has also served for a number of years as the athletic trainer coordinator for the LHSAA/LHSCA all star games hosted at LSU from 1996-2001, and was also part of the staff for the LHSCA Bayou Bowl staff 2011-12. This also included working on several Baton Rouge area Red Stick Bowl staffs. Through his efforts he was the only athletic trainer to be recognized in 2012 by the LHSAA with a Distinguished Service Award.
His participation in legislative efforts for sports safety legislation on the state level has also been noteworthy. He was an original member for the LHSAA Sports Medicine Advisory Committee from 2009-2014 that has been credited with institution of sports safety policies.
His work in Ascension Parish has lead to the creation of classes and a district with expansion of its program with additional athletic trainers. Currently, the Ascension Parish School Board employs 13 teacher/athletic trainers who service its four high schools and eight middle schools. Arceneaux’s School, St. Amant High School, is one of only five schools in the state that holds the distinction of a National Safe Sports School. It is one of only two that have been awarded the distinction twice. His efforts at his high school also garnered him recognition in 2013 as the NATA District 9 SEATA Secondary School Athletic Trainer of the Year. It was the first time the award was received by a Louisiana member.
Arceneaux is currently president of the Louisiana Athletic Trainers Association numbering over 450 members including all of Louisiana’s professional, university, college, industrial and secondary school athletic trainers. His service to the state organization and as a executive board member for the Southeastern Athletic Trainers Association (SEATA) includes Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, Tennessee, and Kentucky.  
Through his leadership in 2016, in the aftermath of the great flood which devastated several athletic trainers’ homes and schools, the LATA raised over $30,000 for the members affected. Replacement supplies for the high schools that lost everything were also arranged by LATA members. His efforts was recognized by the Devon Gales foundation with the first ever Courson CARES Award given to an athletic trainer who, even through insurmountable odds, still delivers care to his athletes and others.
Currently, Arceneaux  is working on a task force with the Collaborative Solution for Sport Safety. This group sponsored by the NFL, NATA and the Korey Stringer Institute, strives to institute policy change to improve the overall standard of care for high school athletes.
Arceneaux will be presented the award this summer at the NATA Convention to be held in June in New Orleans.
Arceneaux is a 1993 Graduate of Southeastern Louisiana University, 1990 Graduate of Neosho County Community College, and 1988 Graduate of Rayne High School.
The son of John “Piggy” Arceneaux and the late Linda P. Arceneaux of Rayne, he is married to Bridget Hayden Arceneaux and they are the parents of two children, Kyle and Sarah.