BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – Dr. James N. Robinson is living his dream.

“Since I was a kid, I’ve always wanted to be a doctor,” said Robinson, who recently completed a three-year Family Medicine Residency Program at Saint Joseph Regional Medical Center in South Bend, Ind., the home of the University of Notre Dame.

While he has always been involved in sports, the world of sports medicine is something that Robinson, in his words, “kind of stumbled into.”

Robinson, 29, spent most of his youth in Baldwin County, the son of James C. and Valerie Robinson of Gulf Shores and the grandson of Dorothy Robinson of Robertsdale. His sister, Jackie Turner, has also worked in the medical field as an administrator, and younger brother Josh is a college professor in the Atlanta area.

He graduated from Foley High School in 2000 and completed his undergraduate studies at Huntingdon College in Montgomery.

He had grown up around sports, playing soccer, volleyball and baseball in his youth and helped out with his high school volleyball team. At Huntingdon, he was a member of his college tennis team and served as an assistant coach for a local high school volleyball team in Montgomery.

When he entered medical school at the University of Alabama in Birmingham, however, he was on a much different path.

“My original plan was to be a forensic pathologist,” he said. He had interned with both the Federal Bureau of Investigations in Virginia and with the Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences.

It was on a medical rotation that Robinson decided to join his lifelong love of sports with his calling to become a doctor.

“I was on an orthopedic rotation,” he said, “and while I didn’t enjoy the surgery part, someone suggested I try sports medicine and I really enjoyed what they did. That’s how it started.”

Robinson got a taste of sports medicine, serving under Dr. Stephen Simons at St. Joseph High School in 2008 and with John Glenn High School, doing sideline football coverage and training room coverage from 2009 to 2011.

This season, Robinson begins his first post-residency assignment with a Primary Care Sports Medicine Fellowship with the American Sports Medicine Institute, serving with Dr. Tracy Ray and Dr. James R. Andrews of Andrews Sports Medicine and Orthopaedic Center in Birmingham.

In addition to serving as a team physician doing sideline coverage for Gardendale High School, Robinson serves as a team physician under team orthopaedist and medical director Dr. E. Lyle Cain at the University of West Alabama.

Robinson and team orthopaedist Dr. Brandon Seifert, work with the training staff at West Alabama, evaluating players and consulting on various injuries.

“We come in once a week and work with the staff to evaluate players,” he said. “It’s really nice being able to work with athletes. They are usually really in tune with their bodies and they are very motivated to get better. Most of the time, it’s the exact opposite. They want to do too much and we have to hold them back.”

Robinson also helps out with a clinic in Birmingham, but his favorite part of the job is sideline coverage.

“Definitely for me this is an ideal situation,” he said. “I really love being on the sideline for games and my job is basically to step in if the training staff needs help evaluating and treating an injury, but really we have such an amazing training staff, they do most of the work.”

It seems fitting that his first assignment as a sideline doctor for UWA was a homecoming of sorts, covering Thursday night’s contest against the University of South Alabama at Ladd-Peebles Stadium in Mobile.

“I really love being close to home,” he said.

And Robinson was not the only local connection when the Tigers came to town Thursday night. Both teams have four players from Baldwin County on their rosters. For West Alabama, starting quarterback Gary Johnston is a graduate of Gulf Shores High School. Also on the roster for the Tigers is sophomore linebacker Antonio Curry of Bay Minette, freshman offensive lineman Joshua Monte of Silverhill and sophomore offensive lineman Taylor Burnett of Spanish Fort. For the Jaguars, freshman Ameriol Finley of Spanish Fort is listed on the depth chart as a backup at safety. Other roster spots include junior quarterback Logan Rogers of Spanish Fort, freshman linebacker Dylan Hutto of Robertsdale and freshman tight end Corey McCarron of Spanish Fort.