Joe Hoffer Position: Athletic Trainer

Joe Hoffer is in his sixth season as an Athletic Trainer at the University of Alabama, all with the Crimson Tide baseball team. During the summer of 2010, Hoffer's involvement with USA Baseball continued, as he worked as the Head Athletic Trainer for the under-18 squad that advanced to the World Championships in Thunder Bay, Canada.

Hoffer joined the UA staff following a two-year stint at the University of Wisconsin-Stout and four years of experience with USA Baseball. He worked the 2006 and 2007 seasons at UW-Stout in Menomonie, Wis., where he served as the athletic trainer and pitching coach for the Division III school.

He has also been involved with USA Baseball during his athletic career, when he served as the Junior Olympic Athletic Training Site Coordinator in Peoria, Ariz., in 2004, 2005 and 2007. In 2006, he was the Head Athletic Trainer for USA Baseball's 16-and-under team that captured the gold medal at the Pan American Games in Barquisimeto, Venezuela.

Hoffer earned his master's of science degree in Sports Administration and Health Promotion from Northwestern (La.) State University in 2005. During his two years at NSU, Hoffer worked with football, track and field and baseball. In 2005, he was the athletic trainer for the Demons baseball team that won the Southland Conference Championship under then-head coach Mitch Gaspard and earned an at-large bid to the NCAA Regionals in Baton Rouge, La.

He earned his bachelor's of arts degree in Exercise Physiology with an emphasis in Athletic Training from the College of St. Scholastica in Duluth, Minn., in 2003. Hoffer was a four-year letterman on the men's tennis team that advanced to the Region Finals all four years (2000-03) and earned the Region Championship in 2001. He also worked as a student athletic trainer for the Division III institution.

A native of Minneapolis, Minn., Hoffer attended The Academy of Holy Angels in Richfield, Minn. He is married to the former Steph Miettunen, who holds a doctoral degree in pharmacy from the University of Minnesota and is a pharmacist in Tuscaloosa. The couple was married July 26, 2008, and welcomed their first child, a daughter named Charleigh, on July 3, 2012.