April 24, 2007

Bruce Suchland - OSU Student Athletic Trainer

Bruce Suchland ATC who currently works for the Community Sports and Therapy Center in Mercer County, addressed the club and shared about his experiences as a student athletic trainer for the Ohio State University.

His education at OSU in Athletic Training required various internship/co-op experiences with the teams at the University and the sports selected for the students are done randomly and include 3 sports per year in the second, third and fourth years of study.  His first experience was working with synchronized swimming and then baseball for 2 quarters.  The team came within one game of the championship that year.

His next year he was fortunate enough to be chosen for football in what turned out to be a very good year for the team.  After a memorable victory against rival Michigan in what he described as the best rivalry in college football, the team went on to a 24-0 season and won the National Championship against Miami in the Fiesta Bowl in Tempe AZ.  The team and support staff spent 10 days in Tempe and the win was the icing on the cake.  The training staff spent about 24 hours from the setup on game day to when the equipment truck left for Columbus the next morning.  They saw little of the actual game but would not have traded the experience.

He went on to work with the Men's Volleyball team which also won a championship and he got more experience since he was the only student trainer working with the team.

Bruce shared that he enjoyed getting to know the coaches and the team members and explained how Coach Tressel worked to get to know everyone and constantly instilled positive characteristics in his team members to keep them grounded.  Examples include 'give thanks and remember who you are, find a place to worship, call your loved ones who are able to be here, and celebrate like a champion.' 

Club members had the opportunity to see some of his credentials from the championship game and the rings that were awarded to the teams.

Hosting Rotarian: Michelle Thieman