Eric Waters begins his fifth season as head athletic trainer for the Washington Wizards after serving as assistant athletic trainer for the Chicago Bulls for four seasons. Waters has a well-rounded athletic training background, including athletic healthcare experience with Olympic athletes, professional football and various collegiate teams.

Waters was assistant athletic trainer for Northwestern University’s football, wrestling and field hockey teams from 1999-2000. He provided athletic healthcare coverage to several sports team athletes at the United States Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colo., in 1999. Waters worked with the National Football League’s developmental summer league (NFL Europe) as head athletic trainer for the London Monarchs in 1998 and assistant athletic trainer for the Rhein Fire in 1997. He was assistant athletic trainer for the University of Iowa football team from 1998-99. Eric also served as an intern athletic trainer for the NFL’s Carolina Panthers during summer training camp in 1997. Recently, he has travelled internationally to Bejing, China as part of the NBA's Basketball without Borders. In 2001, he travelled to Moscow, Russia with an NBPA retired players goodwill tour.

The native of Belle Plaine, Iowa, received undergraduate degrees in athletic training/exercise science and psychology from the University of Iowa in 1995, and a master’s degree in exercise science from Boise State University in 1998.

A certified athletic trainer, Eric is a member of the National Athletic Trainers’ Association, National Strength and Conditioning Association and the National Academy of Sports Medicine

He’s played an active role in Big Brothers Big Sisters of Metropolitan Chicago since 2000. Eric currently resides in Washington, D.C., and enjoys reading, travel, running and bicycling.

Koichi Sato is in his second season as Rehabilitation Coordinator/Assistant Athletic Trainer for the Washington Wizards.

Prior to joining Wizards, Sato worked as athletic trainer/performance specialist for Levi Jones of Cincinnati Bengals in 2007-08. Sato was athletic trainer/performance specialist at Athletes’ Performance in Los Angeles from 2006-07. From 1997 to 2006, Sato provided medical cares to Sun Devil athletes at Arizona State University for nine years as a graduate assistant then assistant athletic trainer. His primary coverage were cross country, football, track & field, wrestling, women’s gymnastics and spent last four seasons with Sun Devil men’s basketball program. Sato worked for Chicago White Sox organization as a head athletic trainer for Bristol White Sox in the summer of 1999 and for Chicago Bears as an intern athletic trainer in the summer of 2002. Sato also were medical support staff for Olympic medalist such as Dwight Phillips (Long Jump World Champions and Olympic gold medalist in Athens) and Tim Harden (60m World Champion and 4x100m relay Olympic silver medalist in Atlanta).

Born in Koriyama, Japan, Sato graduated from Tokyo International University in 1993 with a B.A. in International Study/Russia & Eastern European Studies. He then graduated from Eastern Illinois University in 1997 with a B.S. in Physical Education/Athletic Training and graduated Arizona State University with a M.S. in Exercise Science/Biomechanics.

Sato is active speaking in sports medicine conferences and workshops both in Japan and the U.S. Sato has spoken in various topics while his primary interest is in movement based systematic approach to management of athletic injuries. Sato also was a faculty associate at Kinesiology Department at Arizona State University and taught advanced athletic training courses.

Sato is member of National Athletic Trainers’ Association, Japan Athletic Trainers’ Organization (JATO) and National Academy of Sports Medicine. Sato received President’s Challenge Award by JATO in 2007.

Corey Bennett is in his second season as Assistant Athletic Trainer for the Washington Wizards. Prior to joining the Wizards, Bennett served as Assistant Athletic Trainer for the University of Miami football team from 2004-05, and was an instructor in the Hurricanes Athletic Training Program. He also spent five seasons as Assistant Athletic Trainer for the NFL’s Buffalo Bills from 1999-2004.

Certified as an Athletic Trainer and member of the American Heart Association (CPR & AED), Bennett received a Bachelor of Science in Exercise and Sports Science from the University of Florida in 1996 and a Master of Science in Sports Health Science from Life University in 1999. Upon his graduation from Florida, Bennett spent two years as a graduate assistant athletic trainer at Georgia Tech where he served as Assistant Trainer with the football team and was the Head Athletic Trainer for the softball program. While a graduate assistant he worked as a training camp intern with the Buffalo Bills during the summer of 1997 and 1998. A native of West Palm Beach, FL, Bennett and his wife, Lizette, have two children, Jalen and Joslyn, and reside in Centreville, VA.