Purdue hires AJ Van Valkenburgh to be football athletic trainer

AJ Van Valkenburgh has been appointed head athletic trainer for football at Purdue. He takes over for Alyse King, who came from Wake Forest and served in that capacity for one season.

Van Valkenburgh was the Associate Athletic Director for Sports Medicine and Student Athlete Welfare at Stephen F. Austin before coming to Purdue. He began working as an athletic trainer for Stephen F. Austin in February 2017 and was elevated to head athletic trainer for the Lumberjacks in May of the same year.

Van Valkenburgh worked as the recovery manager and sports trainer at Active Recovery and Cryotherapy in Houston for a year. Before that, he worked for the Houston Texans for six years as an athletic trainer. He started as an intern in 2010 and worked full-time from 2012 to 2016.

Other football support staff-related news:

• In place of Semi Bowden, Purdue has appointed Minnesotan Jenna Thompson as director of on-campus recruitment.

Jonathan Harrison has been appointed by Purdue as the deputy director of football operations, serving as Pete Roley’s assistant director of operations. It is a recently established role. Harrison was St. Francis (Pa.)’s director of football operations.