Welcome Dr. Stackpole

He sounds like a great hire!

Trail Blazers hiring of Chris Stackpole viewed as 'ahead of the curve' in sports medicine circles

The Trail Blazers on Monday hired 26-year-old Chris Stackpole to replace longtime medical director Jay Jensen, a move that some in the sports medicine industry tout as a cutting-edge hire.

“I don’t think there is any question the Blazers are ahead of the curve with this hire; they’ve got a rising star, a guy who would be doing this for another professional team somewhere very quickly if they didn’t hire him,’’ said Mike Boyle, strength-and-conditioning consultant for the Boston Red Sox, with whom Stackpole served an internship. “I’m not familiar with what has gone on there in the past, but what you will see is what is widely viewed as as much more modern - even futuristic - to some people.’’

Stackpole, who at Boston University earned a doctorate degree in physical therapy and a bachelor of science degree in athletic training, gained recognition while serving a 2011 internship with the Oklahoma City Thunder, during which center Kendrick Perkins lost 32 pounds and more than 10 percent body fat while working with Stackpole for six months during the lockout.

Stackpole said he will adopt a similar philosophy with the Blazers as he did with Perkins, using a “holistic approach to nutrition, rehabilitation, sport training and recovery methods.’’
“The first thing I will do is identify what players - whether they were drafted or undrafted - are at the highest risk of injury,’’ Stackpole said. “We will do that by movement screens, baseline tests. We will look at how they function, then design programs for the athlete so we can decrease their risk.’’

Stackpole replaces Jensen, who last month was fired after 19 years as the team’s head athletic trainer and medical director. Jensen came under fire after the team had one of the league’s most injury-plagued stretches over a three year period, most notably knee injuries suffered by Greg Oden and Brandon Roy. Although some players considered Jensen a friend, others questioned his acceptance of new technology and techniques.

“You have a guy in Chris who has a strong background in all the current injury prevention strategies,’’ said Steve Smith, who is the minor league medical and rehabilitation coordindator for the Los Angeles Dodgers. “He is rare in that he is a jack-of-all-trades. He’s trained in strength and conditioning, physical therapy, and athletic training, so you are getting a lot of different skillsets within one person.’’

With the Blazers, Stackpole will be the Director of Player Health and Performance, in which he leads all the team’s preventative and rehabilitative care. Stackpole said he will report to Portland in the coming weeks and plans to evaluate the staff before deciding if he will make any moves.

“I’m going to embrace the opportunity to pick people’s minds and let time be the test to see how we work together as a unit,’’ Stackpole said. “I want us to be the standard throughout the league and all of professional sports, and we need to be a cohesive unit for that to work, and for the team to win.’’

Stackpole twice interned with Smith in Gulf Breeze, Fla., who in addition to the Dodgers also works at Athletes’ Performance, which provides physical therapy and training for professional athletes. Stackpole worked with more than 30 professional and college football and baseball athletes, both in treating and preventing injuries.

“There’s been a huge push in the last decade of concentrating on pre-habilitation, or prevention,’’ Smith said. “You can’t prevent everything, but what we are learning about the body and injuries is that there are ways to train and prevent injuries. It doesn’t always happen that way, but in Chris, you have a guy who has a strong background in all the current injury prevention strategies.’’

Some of the many tools and technique Stackpole uses include bands, TRX suspension training (which leverages gravity and the user’s body weight) and Gua Sha instrument-assisted soft tissue mobilization. But he said each player might be under a different program.

“You have to match it specifically to each player,’’ Stackpole said. “Some may need bands, some may need therapy, some may need rest. It’s finding what fits for each player.’’
Boyle, who from 1991-1999 was the strength and conditioning coach for the Boston Bruins of the National Hockey League, said Stackpole’s breadth of knowledge and expertise is unique.

“Guys like him don’t come along very often,’’ Boyle said. “The profession is changing in the sense that people are getting better grasp of the science, and Chris is one of those kids who if they didn’t get him now, they would be trying to pry him from another team. He just has that ‘it’ factor.’’

--Jason Quick

http://www.oregonlive.com/blazers/i...zers_hiring_of_chris_stackpole_viewed_as.html

 

So the Blazers got an upgrade in the trainer department and some of you guys are complaining.

So who did you want to see hired?