Chuck Barta

The 2025 season will be Barta’s 19th season with the Minnesota Lynx as the Head Athletic Trainer and second as the Director of Player Performance. Barta brings more than three decades of experience as an athletic trainer to the Lynx, helping the team to all four of its WNBA Championship titles and seven WNBA Finals appearances. He plays an integral part of Minnesota’s staff, leading training, rehabilitation care and player performance for the Lynx.

Barta spent four seasons as a student athletic trainer for the Vikings during training camp and became the team’s full-time assistant athletic trainer after his college graduation. In 1996, he was a member of the Vikings medical staff that was honored as the NFL Athletic Training Staff of the Year. In 1999, Barta was named the Vikings head athletic trainer, making him only the second person in franchise history to hold that title. In 2004, Barta was instrumental in developing the Safety Committee for the Vikings and worked to make the organization OSHA compliant, while at the same time serving as a member of the NFL’s cardiovascular health subcommittee. In 18 NFL seasons, seven as the team’s head athletic trainer, Barta revolutionized the care and treatment of one of the NFL’s most successful franchises.

A native of Columbia Heights, Minn., Barta earned a bachelor’s degree in athletic training from the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse. He is a member of the National Athletic Trainers Association and Minnesota Athletic Trainers Association (MATA) and served as Vice President of MATA from 1990-1992, and on the MATA Golf Tournament Committee from 1993-2002. In 2019, Barta and three other WNBA athletic trainers organized the inaugural WNBA athletic trainers meeting in Tampa, Fla. In 2024, Barta and the same three WNBA athletic trainers formalized the annual meetings and cofounded the Women’s Professional Basketball Athletic Trainers Association (WPBATA). Also in 2024, Barta became a member of the NBA/WNBA Emergency Preparedness Committee.