University of Mobile

Rob DeLong, a Fort Lauderdale, Fla. native, enters his third season as head athletic trainer for University of Mobile Athletics after joining UM during the 2022-23 season.

DeLong brings a vast knowledge of athletic training to the University of Mobile, having worked as an athletic trainer for high school, collegiate, and professional levels throughout his career. He received his Bachelor of Science in Sports Medicine/Athletic Training from Barry University in Miami, Fla. in 1995, while working as a student athletic trainer from 1991-1994 at Barry. Two years after graduation, DeLong received his Master of Education in Sports Administration from Northwestern State University in 1997. He has been a certified athletic trainer for more than 26 years, including being a licensed athletic trainer in the state of Alabama since 2008.

DeLong spent a total of seven seasons as an intern athletic trainer in the National Football League (NFL), spending three seasons with the Miami Dolphins and four seasons with the Arizona Cardinals. Following his stint with the NFL, he took his first head athletic training position with Hialeah-Miama Lakes Senior High School in 1997. In 1998, DeLong took an assistant athletic training role with Southwest Missouri State University and later became the head athletic trainer at Louisiana College in 2002, his first collegiate head athletic training role. 

Locally, DeLong spent 2008-2013 with Encore Rehabilitation in Mobile, Ala., while working as head athletic trainer at McGill-Toolen Catholic High School, one of the most successful high school athletic programs in the state. Most recently, DeLong has spent the last nine years as the industrial athletic trainer at Work Ready in Pascagoula, Miss. and has worked as an independent medical observer for the Sunbelt Athletic Conference, a NCAA D-I conference, since 2019. 

DeLong is married to Lori DeLong, who is currently on faculty at the University of Mobile as Dean of School of Health and Sport Science and Associate Professor of Kinesiology, and the two have two children, MacLynn and Braeden.