Zach Foster joined the athletics staff at West Virginia as an assistant athletics trainer in 2019 and was promoted to the associate director of sports medicine in 2020.
Foster assists with the day-to-day care, rehabilitation and prevention of athletic injuries for the football and golf programs. He also has duties as an instructor in the WVU athletics training education program.
Foster spent the 2019 season as a seasonal athletic trainer with the NFl’s New England Patriots. He performed orthopedic and general medical evaluations, provided medical coverage for practices, games and free-agent workouts, assisted with concussion testing, collaborated with team physical therapists on rehabilitation programming and on-field progressions, managed injury tracking, patient documentation and athlete participation with NFL Electronic Medical Records, assisted with hiring summer and seasonal athletic training interns, administered and analyzed Functional Movement Screening to develop corrective exercise programs, managed rehabilitation supply inventory among other duties. Additionally, he accompanied the team to Super Bowl LIII.
Prior to his stint in New England, Foster spent a year as part of the post-professional residency program at The Steadman Clinic in Vail, Colorado. In this role, he worked with orthopedic surgeons in a clinical and surgical practice with specialties that include Sports Medicine, Foot and Ankle, Spine, Wrist and Hand, Total Joint Replacement and Pain Management and assisted with on-site athletic training services for the U.S. Ski Team, Vail Mountain School Athletics, Vail Recreation District and Maverick Sports Promotions.
A native of Roanoke, Virginia, Foster served as an athletic training intern for the Florida State football program (2016-17) and was a graduate assistant with the Pitt football program (2014-16).Â
He earned his bachelor of science degree in athletics training from Alabama in 2014, before completing his master of science degree in health and rehabilitation sciences with a concentration in sports medicine from Pitt in 2016. He married Dr. Lauren Mayle in June 2023.
