Photos: Philadelphia Eagles
When Tom Hunkele was hired by the Philadelphia Eagles to be the team’s head athletic trainer in February 2020, one of his first phone calls was to Shaniece Jackson, who worked with Hunkele at the Minnesota Vikings as a Training Camp intern in 2017. His message to her was to be ready for a potential opening.
“She was excellent in her ability to adapt to the way that we had run the program out of Minnesota,” Hunkele says. “She did excellent in the way of fitting into our processes and kind of making them her own. I could trust her to anticipate doing things that needed to be done on that basic level. That’s really what you look for.
“I always knew she had the right demeanor. I knew she had the right abilities. She had the right base education. She had all of that. Now, it was time to get the experience. You can’t replace experience. Experience is key for all of us.”
Jackson was the head athletic trainer at Doral Academy Preparatory School in Florida, not too far from Florida International University where she earned her master’s degree and a doctorate in athletic training. At Doral, Jackson oversaw the care of nearly 50 sports teams ranging from middle school through high school and close to 1,000 student-athletes.
Jackson also started a Sports Medicine Club at Doral to help champion students who are interested in becoming the next generation of athletic trainers. She also served as a preceptor for students from FIU earning their master’s, supervising them in their clinical rotations. Jackson continued to volunteer for the FIU football and men’s and women’s basketball teams to gain that experience while waiting for that very call from Hunkele.
The job offered by Hunkele was a season-long internship – the next step on the road to earning a full-time spot. Jackson wasn’t going to waste the opportunity.
“She was someone that I thought was going to be very successful in the NFL. She was my first choice,” Hunkele says. Read more.
