Miguel Rueda is in his sixth year as the head athletic trainer at Colorado, as he was named to the position on August 1, 2006, just ahead of the start of football camp.

Rueda, 39, came to CU from Fresno State University, where he has been the Director of Sports Medicine since February 2001.  At FSU, his primary responsibilities were the care and prevention of injuries for the football program and overseeing all areas of the Fresno State Sports Medicine Program.   He has similar duties at Colorado, as he coordinates the needs and staffing for CU’s 16 intercollegiate varsity programs.

With CU’s move to the Pac-12 Conference, he was named the Education Director for the Pac-12 annual sports medicine meeting, a role he will serve in for at least the next two years.

Ironically, his first football game as Fresno State’s head trainer was in Boulder, as the Bulldogs played the Buffaloes in the Jim Thorpe Association Classic on August 26, 2001; FSU won the game, 24-22, and went on to climb into the nation’s top 10, until getting knocked off by Boise State, then coached by CU’s eventual new man, Dan Hawkins.  

Rueda previously had worked two years (1995-97) as a graduate assistant trainer for the Bulldogs while earning his master’s degree in exercise physiology.

He had rejoined the Fresno State staff from Towson University, where he served as an assistant athletic trainer from 1998 to 2001; he was the head trainer for football.  Prior to Towson, Rueda spent time with the Miami Dolphins of the National Football League in 1997-98 and with Holy Cross in 1994-95.  He also has extensive teaching experience, instructing classes ranging from sports medicine administration to basic athletic training courses over the past 10 years.

He received his undergraduate degree in athletic training from Boston University in 1994, and his master’s degree from Fresno State in 1997.  Rueda is a member of the National Athletic Trainers Association, the College Athletic Trainers Society and has American Red Cross CPR and First Aid certification.

He was born November 17, 1971 in San Francisco, graduating from the city’s Jay Eugene McAteer High School where he lettered in cross country and track.  He and his wife, Andrea, have two sons, Gabriel and Christopher, and a daughter, Isabella.