Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Knights leader limps off

"London captain Stephen Sanza left early in the second period and linemate Colin Martin was issued a match penalty for a slew foot on Attack star Joey Hishon in the Knights' 5-3, Game 3 loss Tuesday night in Owen Sound.

"I'm not commenting on the injury," London GM Mark Hunter said. "We have our doctor here and he'll get looked at (Wednesday). That's all we know. 

Sanza was shaken up by a hit late in the first period. He returned after the intermission, but quickly went back to the dressing room with athletic therapist Andy Scott in tow."

Monday, March 28, 2011

Job Opportunity: Hamilton Tiger-Cats Head Therapist

The Hamilton Tiger-Cats are a member of the Canadian Football League (CFL) with a rich 142-year history, which includes 15 Grey Cup Championships.  Currently, the team is seeking an enthusiastic, self-motivated, organized individual to fill the role of Head Athletic Therapist. 

RESPONSIBILITIES:
  • Responsible for the care of Tiger-Cats players, including injury prevention, recognition, treatment, and rehabilitation
  • Primary liaison between physicians, athletes, coaches and Football Operations staff
  • Provides supervision of assistant athletic trainers and graduate assistant athletic trainer(s)
  • Purchasing of athletic training room supplies and equipment
  • Administration of athletic training room and department policies
  • Administration of athlete medical records and physicals

QUALIFICATIONS/OTHER: 

The Tiger-Cats are seeking an individual with experience with contact sports who has demonstrated a capacity to implement pre-participatory and rehabilitative programs to aid in the ongoing development of the team. This person should possess a Bachelor degree in athletic therapy or equivalent and a understanding of athletic performance. 

Application deadline:  April 4, 2011

Starting date:  April 2011 

Reports to:  Director of Football Operations 

Salary: Full-time, commensurate with knowledge and experience

Interested candidates should submit their resume and cover letter to Shawn Burke, Director of Football Operations, via e-mail at sburke@ticats.ca

Official Job Posting

Sunday, March 27, 2011

Spits rest and refuel for Monday's Game 3

"With the Spitfires not getting back to Windsor until after 4 a.m. Sunday, the team was more concerned with making sure they were rested.

“You take your rest when you can get it,” Spitfires athletic therapist Joey Garland said. “Because of the (playoff) runs they’ve had here the last couple of years, the coaches know when to push and when to lay off.

“It’s exhausting pressure, both physically and mentally, to play in a game like that and know every shift can cost you.”
...
Garland had a litre of chocolate milk ready for players after Saturday’s game and between the first and second overtime, the Spitfires had pizza available for players in the dressing room.

“It’s not ideal, but the guys need the calories and the energy, especially the ones playing high minutes,” Garland said."

Friday, March 25, 2011

Markov's agent steers clear of contract rumour

"Markov has been back on skates this week at the team’s training facility in Brossard, working out lightly under the guidance of the team’s head athletic therapist, Graham Rynbend.

It’s the latest step in the defenceman’s second rehabilitation stint from major surgery to the anterior cruciate ligament of his right knee.

Markov was knocked out of last season’s playoffs in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference semifinals in Pittsburgh, falling awkwardly into the boards when checked by the Penguins’ Matt Cooke. Surgery by orthopedist Tony Miniaci followed on May 5 in Cleveland, which led to summer-long rehab.

Then, freakishly, Markov wrecked the knee again on Nov. 13, just 11 games into the season and only seven games after he’d returned to action, catching his skate in a Bell Centre rut while jostling for the puck with Carolina’s Eric Staal.

Markov was operated on Dec. 8, this time by James Andrews in Birmingham, Ala., and has been working his way back toward the ice the past three months.

“Of course I’m not going to be the same. I’m going to be better,” Markov told reporters on Jan. 14, meeting reporters in the Canadiens’ Brossard dressing room for the first and only time since his second surgery.""

Thursday, March 24, 2011

Oilers' Foster day-to-day

""I remember Legwand giving me a push and slamming my head off the boards pretty good,” Foster said. “I sort of realized what was going on when (athletic therapist) T.D. (Forss) was beside me and telling me to open my eyes. He asked me if I knew where I was and I knew where I was and what the score was. 

“Lucky enough I didn’t forget any of that stuff. But it was pretty scary and I wasn’t feeling very well that night.” 

It’ll depend on Foster’s progress as when he’ll be able to suit up again. The Oilers host the Calgary Flames on Saturday and the Los Angeles Kings Tuesday. 

“It’s not really up to me,” Foster said. “It’s kind of a day-by-day thing. They kind of tell me what to do. I just deal with the hour in front of me and go from there.”"

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Canadiens training staff a well-oiled machine

"It was two weeks ago Tuesday night that Canadiens forward Max Pacioretty was laying face down in front of his team’s bench, unconscious.

Unknown at that moment was that the 22-year-old had suffered a non-displaced fracture of his C4 vertebra and a severe concussion, the result of being driven into a thinly padded, glass-supporting stanchion at the end of the visitors’ bench by Boston Bruins captain Zdeno Chara.

The sickening check had happened a few strides from Graham Rynbend, who as usual was behind the Canadiens’ bench as the team’s veteran head athletic therapist.

And before Pacioretty’s body had even slid to a stop along the boards, Rynbend was in motion.

In just a few minutes that night, the Canadiens showed why they’re considered to have one of the finest medical units in the NHL."
...
"Rynbend was joined by Dr. David Mulder, the Canadiens’ chief surgeon and head team physician; Drs. Tarek Razek and Kosar Khwaja, trauma specialists at the Montreal General Hospital and assistants to Mulder; Nick Addey-Jibb, Rynbend’s veteran assistant therapist; Dave Campbell and Donald Balmforth, respectively the team’s osteopathy and physiotherapy consultants; Jon Geller, hired a few months ago as a game-night athletic therapist; and Don DelNegro, the Bruins’ longtime athletic trainer who left his bench, without being asked, to offer assistance.

The Canadiens’ diverse medical team responded as though someone had simply thrown a switch, and that wasn’t by accident.

The club has a working arrangement with John Boulay, an athletic therapist/osteopath who teaches a sports first-responder course nationwide, and Gary McHugh, a Quebec paramedic."

Read More...

Canadiens athletic therapist Rynbend reaches milestone

"It’s seldom the happy stories that define the career of an athletic therapist, whose most obvious work is done when disaster strikes.

So it is that four catastrophic injuries are the benchmarks for Graham Rynbend, who on Tuesday night at the Bell Centre worked his 1,000th NHL game – all for the Canadiens.

Chronologically: 

• Nov. 20, 1999: Brian Savage is crushed by the Kings’ Ian Laperrière, the open-ice check in Los Angeles fracturing three vertebrae in the forward’s spine. 

• Jan. 29, 2000: Trent McCleary takes a slapshot in the throat during a Bell Centre game, which fractures his larynx and collapses a lung. 

• April 26, 2002: Richard Zednik is destroyed on Montreal ice by an elbow from the Bruins’ Kyle McLaren, resulting in a fractured cheekbone, broken nose and concussion. 

• March 8, 2011: Max Pacioretty is knocked out, severely concussed and suffers a fractured vertebra when slammed into a Bell Centre stanchion by the Bruins’ Zdeno Chara."
...
"So Dave Campbell, currently the Canadiens’ osteopathy consultant under whom Rynbend had done clinic work, got him in with Lefebvre for the Habs’ 1994 training camp."
...
"But he’s quick to laud his medical team – assistant Nick Addey-Jibb, his supervisor from a long-ago clinic internship who last week marked his 1,500th game in minor-pro and NHL hockey; osteopath Campbell; physiotherapy consultant Donald Balmforth; and game-night therapist Jon Geller, a newcomer to the staff."

Read More...

Argonauts ink Cory Boyd to contract extension

"Boyd has slimmed down over the winter, also with help from new Argonauts head athletic therapist Dave Wright. He said he’s close to 215 pounds again and has changed his diet, opting for fruit, yogurt, protein shakes – food he rarely ate before. He has a hard time staying away from McDonald’s, “but only for the chicken wraps” now, he laughed."

Sunday, March 20, 2011

Bulldogs woes worsen with weekend losses

"Sebastien Bisaillon, who was just called up last week from Wheeling of the ECHL because Nigel Dawes and Aaron Palushaj had gone up to the Montreal Canadiens, suffered a ruptured spleen in Friday night’s 3-2 loss. Bisaillon spent Saturday in hospital and it’s not known if he returned with the team Sunday.

Hamilton coach Randy Cunneyworth praised the actions of Bulldogs Athletic Therapist Luc Leblanc for recognizing the severity of Bisaillon’s injury and getting him to hospital. He confirmed that Bisaillon is done for the year."

Read More...

Saturday, March 19, 2011

Athletic Therapist Nick Addey-Jibb marks his 1,500th game in pro hockey

"Tuesday, Montreal Canadiens athletic therapist Nick Addey-Jibb marked his 1,500th game in pro hockey. Addey-Jibb got his start in pro hockey with the Maple Leafs, spending a number of years in St. John’s as the AHL Leafs’ head trainer. One of hockey’s good guys."

Read More...

"On Tuesday, Habs athletic therapist Nick Addey-Jibb marked his 1,500th game in pro hockey. He’ll earn his wages Wednesday, and until further notice, in a clinic that’s bursting at the seams."

Read More... 

Montreal Canadiens Profile

Friday, March 18, 2011

Canada announces roster for U-20 camp

"Canada has announced a 24-player roster for its upcoming men’s U-20 camp in Sunrise, FL, USA. This camp will serve as the final preparatory camp before the upcoming 2011 CONCACAF Men’s Under-20 Championship in Ciudad Guatemala, Guatemala from 28 March to 10 April. Coach Valerio Gazzola will use this final camp to select his official 20-player roster for the CONCACAF tournament."

Athletic Therapist / Thérapeute du sport : Al Ezaki

Read More...

Thursday, March 17, 2011

Kevin Elliott talks about the PEI Rockets and concussions

"PEI Rocket athletic therapist Kevin Elliott discusses the rash of concussions in the game and return to game protocol."

See the video...

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Fitness: Pinpointing what is out of sync

"Scott Livingston, athletic therapist and strength and conditioning specialist for many of Canada’s high performance athletes, is a fan of the functional movement screen. He used it extensively when he worked with the Montreal Canadiens, testing every player and red-flagging those who scored poorly."

Read More...

Flames hopeful Langkow can return soon

"Also on the injury front, first-line centre Brendan Morrison is scheduled to meet with the doctor next week to determine the next step for his wounded knee.

“He’s been cleared to skate, but it’s what (athletic therapist) Morris Boyer calls public skating,” Feaster said. “Free to do laps, but no starting and stopping. No pivoting. No turns.”

If Morrison is fitted with a brace, there’s no guarantee he’ll be able to play any time soon."

Read More...

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Insider: The Fan Forum

"Q: What is the status of Jesse Lumsden?

Coach Huff:
At this time, it’s all hearsay because I have not personally seen Jesse but the conversation that his therapist is having with our athletic therapist, Pat Clayton, is that things are going well. Right now, the forecast is sometime around September, he may be ready to play. Obviously, he won’t be here in training camp as far as an active participant. I believe Jesse is coming into town by the end of the month and we’ll visit and we’ll see what future he may have with football. I know he wants to play and I’d like him to play for the Stampeders.
"

Read More...

The man known as Cheesy around the Oil Kings

"The Edmonton Oil Kings are going to the playoffs.
Head Therapist Brian Cheeseman will be following their every move."

Read More...

Monday, March 14, 2011

David Moss goes down at practice

"Moss teetered to the bench, put an arm around the shoulder of assistant athletic therapist Schad Richea, and hobbled to the dressing room.

He couldn't put any weight on his right leg."

Bettman introduces plan to curb concussions at GM meetings

What are your thoughts?

"The second step would be to revise the current concussion protocol. If a player is suspected of being concussed during a game, that player must then be removed from the bench and taken to a quiet area where the player can be assessed by a medical doctor, who is not the team's athletic therapist. The player will then be given a SCAT test before he is cleared to return to play. Bettman said that this will be in place by the end of the week."

Read More...

Don't expect punishment for latest vicious hit

"I have zero faith in the QMJHL's ability to deal with ugly incidents that threaten player safety. This league repeatedly fails to show a backbone and help promote player safety by dishing out harsh punishment when needless violence occurs."
...

""He was motionless for a few seconds," said Wildcats athletic therapist Guy Savoie. "I started thinking the worst, but when I got to him his eyes were wide open. He had the stunned look of a deer in the headlights. I started asking him questions and he was responsive.

"Initially, he had no memory of the hit or anything prior to that. His memory has come back and he's recovering nicely. We'll go through the proper protocol for concussions and make sure he's ready before he plays again."

Savoie has noticed an increase in checks from behind and hits to the head since he started working in the QMJHL in 2005-06.

"I would say the respect among players seems to have gone down," he said. "There's a lot more liberties taken now with dangerous hits.""

Read More...

Saturday, March 12, 2011

Handicap? What handicap?

"His son, Jeff (Kelly), once dreamed of playing in the National Hockey League but used his father's "dream adjustment" approach and plans to get to hockey's grandest stage by taking a different path."

Read More...

Friday, March 11, 2011

Barrie Colts hockey school starts Monday in Innisfil

"Participants will also receive strength and conditioning training from Colts athletic therapist Richard Rotenberg."

Read More...

Thursday, March 10, 2011

Pacioretty a few millimetres from potential paralysis

""Any time there's a fracture in any of the vertebra you're toying with the spinal cord," said one athletic therapist in Montreal

"I've seen many views of how he went into that post. There was a distinct possibility of a catastrophic injury. We're all breathing a sigh of relief.

"When you're dealing with an injury like that you have to approach it with the worse case scenario in mind.""

Read More...

Job Opportunity: Banff Hockey Academy

Banff Hockey Academy

Application Deadline: March 15, 2011   Starting Date: April 11, 2011  

Position: Athletic Therapist 

Job Description:  The Athletic Therapist of the Banff Hockey Academy will assist the Athletic Director and Head Coaches with the operations of the BHA hockey teams. The operation of the team, its values, policies, and guidelines will strictly adhere to the policies already established by the academy. The Athletic Therapist must be an inspiring individual with high ethical and moral standards. The Athletic Therapist must have the best interest of the BHA students as a top priority at all times. In addition, the Athletic Therapist will assist from time to time with the roles of the Strength and Conditioning Coach and Equipment Manager.

Responsibilities as Athletic Therapist
1) Provide Emergency care at practices and games.
2) Assessment of injuries.
3) Provide rehabilitation when required.
4) Maintain record of injuries.
5) Establish and maintain an adequate Emergency Care Kit.
6) Apply pre-game and post game procedures.

Other General Responsibilities
1) Provide progress reports
2) Assist with the operation of outside Hockey Development Programs, including but not limited to Christmas and Summer Programs.
3) Report directly to Athletic Director and coaching staff.
4) Assist with evening supervision.
5) Assist with Equipment Manager responsibilities on an as needed basis. (See Equipment Manager roles below)
6) Provide tutorial support for BHA study halls.

Read More...

Wednesday, March 9, 2011

No suspension for Chara for hit on Habs’ Pacioretty

What are your thoughts?


"“After a thorough review of the video, I can find no basis to impose supplemental discipline,” NHL senior vice-president of hockey operations Mike Murphy said in a news release.

“This hit resulted from a play that evolved and then happened very quickly — with both players skating in the same direction and with Chara attempting to angle his opponent into the boards. I could not find any evidence to suggest that, beyond this being a correct call for interference, that Chara targeted the head of his opponent, left his feet or delivered the check in any other manner that could be deemed to be dangerous,” the release said.

Pacioretty, 22, suffered a severe concussion and a fracture of the 4th cervical vertebrae, according to Montreal coach Jacques Martin, when his head was run into the end of the glass that divides the players’ benches by Chara late in the second period at Montreal’s Bell Centre."

Day in the life: Traci Vander Byl

"A day in the life of Traci Vander Byl typically involves manual therapy treatments, a little taping, some blood, and, sometimes, broken bones. Vander Byl is in her fourth year as the head athletic therapist with Vikes Athletics and spends most of her time at work tending to sports injuries in one of two sports injury clinics on campus."

Read More...

Spitfires Cullen, Robertson wait on further tests

"That’s the same game Cullen had to leave after warmups when he felt pain in his left knee.

“I still can’t really bend (the knee),” said Cullen, who was still on crutches Tuesday.

“I was able to put some weight on it today and hopefully I’ll be walking in a couple of days.”

While his team returned to practice after an off day Monday, Cullen was with athletic therapist Joey Garland having the knee treated.

“They’re using a muscle stimulator,” Cullen said.

“It puts electrical pulses through your knee and gets the blood flowing.”"

Read More...

Cirque du Soleil’s Quidam: A surreal fantasy in Vancouver

"Anna Vicente and Jérôme Le Baut, who perform the “Statue” body-balancing act, are a couple both on stage and off.

Vicente has been doing gymnastics and Filipino folk dancing since she was a child.

She was initially hired by the Cirque du Soleil as an athletic therapist. She met her husband while they were both on tour with Saltimbanco. After she gave birth to their two children (ages eight and five), she became a “mother on tour with the kids.” Later she began to train for “Statue.” Le Baut, who has been with the Cirque for 12 years, coached her, as he had already performed it with another acrobat.

“We have to really work together and move at the same time to balance,” Le Baut explained. “It’s something that’s not natural.”"

Read More...

Monday, March 7, 2011

Forde: Observations from day two at CFL's e-camp

"I'm always amused when people do things a certain way for no real reason except that it's the way they've always done it. The events used in football testing provide a classic example of this.

Seriously, who cares how fast an offensive lineman can sprint forty yards in a straight line? Are you really going to adjust an O-Lineman's ranking on your draft board based on his ability to run down DBs after interceptions or his capacity to get downfield to cover missed field goals? As my friend and former Tiger-Cat athletic therapist Chris Puskas remarked, "If an O-Lineman is sprinting forty yards, then clearly something bad has happened.""

Read More...

Cats' Ted Stephens a victim of vicious cheap shot

"Wildcats athletic therapist Guy Savoie rushed onto the ice to attend to Stephens. I would've interviewed Stephens for this column, but he was too spaced out for that.

"When I got to him, he already had a severe headache," said Savoie. "He was dizzy. He was groggy. He felt like throwing up. At one point, he slipped out of consciousness. That's when I called for the doctor and the other team's therapist.

"We asked him questions about the past, the present and the future. He had no recollection of how he got hit. He didn't remember scoring a goal in the game. He didn't remember who we played against the day before. He didn't remember which city he was in.

"It's his second concussion this season. He's a great kid, a great student and a bright person. I want all our players to do well when they move on from hockey. With hits like that, you hope it doesn't have a long-term effect.""

Read More...

Thursday, March 3, 2011

1000th NHL game for Flames athletic therapist

"Flames athletic therapist Morris Boyer worked his 1,000th NHL game on Wednesday night. He has spent 14 years with the organization."

Read More...

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Sarich expects Modin will fit right in with Flames

"Because Monday’s acquisition by the Calgary Flames will create immediate confusion in the dressing room, according to Cory Sarich, who’d previously worked with Modin in Tampa.

“We used to call him Mo, but now we have three of them in the dressing room,” said Sarich, with a chuckle, referring to centre Brendan Morrison and athletic therapist Morris Boyer. “I don’t know — we might have to come up with something else. It’s starting to get pretty congested in that department.”"

Read More...  (Edmonton Journal)

Read More...  (Calgary Herald)