My Journey to DPT

Good Morning! Happy Monday, ALMOST SATURDAY! Now that I am standing ten toes down in Tallahassee working with Florida State’s football team as a physical therapist, I wanted to talk about my journey. Especially for those interested in a life in sports physical therapy.

*The injuries discussed in this newsletter are for general education purposes only. I am not affiliated with the athlete’s medical team, and the information shared does not reflect any insider or team medical details. Specifics about the injury are often unavailable, which can significantly influence the estimated timeline for return to play.

Back in 2016, my junior year of high school, I knew I wanted to go into physical therapy. My older brother, Jelani, took the physical therapy route, and I decided to follow in his foot steps. However, I specifically wanted to work in sports because I ran track and played football and basketball in high school.

I looked for universities that had either biology, pre PT or exercise science majors. My brother told me he felt exercise science majors came in the most prepared for grad school so I leaned towards that major. If I could do it over, I would probably major in finance, entreprenuership, psychology, or business, than take the prerequisite courses required by PT schools. That way, I could have a deeper dive into money and business or how the mind works. However I decided to go to John Carroll to play football and major in exercise science. One of the best decisions I’ve ever made.

At John Carroll, I did a lot of extracurriculars to build my application for grad school. I cofounded the OT/PT Club at John Carroll, worked as an aide at the cleveland clinic rehabilitation hospital, volunteered as an athletic trainer aide to help with spring sports and much more. Ultimately, I applied to 7 schools that matched what classes I wanted, had strong clinical rotations to take and where I wanted to spend the next three years of my life. With these 7 schools, I reached out prior to sending in my application to meet for a zoom call to ask questions about the program. I think this was a huge step in the application process because this allowed them to put an application to a face. I ended up getting accepted to all the schools I applied to, however, I knew there were three specific schools I wanted to go to: NYU, Columbia, or Long Island University.

These three schools were my top three because they had the courses I wanted to take but also because they were all located in NYC. I wanted to live in Manhattan. Experience the city in my 20s. And although this involved a lot of fun and activities outside of school, this also matured me significantly over those three years. I chose NYU over the other two because they offered me a scholarship making it the most affordable school of the three.

NYU is a generalist program. Meaning, they teach all areas of PT. I had to work in pediactric clinics to sports, to doing internal pelvic exams. Overall I am happy with the decision I made due to the clinician I have become as well as the man the city has made me.

While there, I knew I wanted to work in sports. I decided to do my orthopedic rotation at champion in Boston working under the Mike Rienold team, a well known PT in the field. There, I learned a tremendous amount about the shoulder, specifically the throwing shoulder for baseball players. My last elective rotation, I originally wanted to go to EXOS, a strong sports clinical rotation. However, my application was denied. I decided to pivot to attempting to get a clinical rotation with a football team. Because this was my dream job anyways.

I reached out to physical therapist working for power 4 teams and the NFL via linkedIn. I had no prior connection to any of them. I just sent them a DM stating my goals of getting a clinical rotation with a team. Although some of them didn’t respond, most of them did. They either said they don’t accept student, or told me how to apply. I quickly realized the opportunities are out there, you just have to go get them, don’t wait for it to happen and don’t be scared of rejection. The worse thing they could do is say no.

Throughout this process, my college coach connected me with the Atlanta Falcons sports medicine team after he invited me to come to their game in New York against the Jets. And luckily enough, they invited me to be an intern for their pre season camp for my last clinical rotation. I spent 8 weeks there, working with their players under their director of rehabilitation.

That was a great expierence. I got a deep dive into sports rehab as well as all the modalities NFL teams can afford. If you want more information about this clinical rotation, can you check out one of my previous newsletters about my time there.

While I was there, the head athletic trainer for Florida State came to visit the head athletic trainer for the Falcons. They worked many years at Florida State together. Luckily, I was in the right place at the right time, because they were looking for another seasonal intern last minute. And thats how I ended up in Tallahassee working with the seminoles! If you have any more questions about my journey, please ask!! I’m happy to answer.

*Due to my professional association with the Atlanta Falcons during preseason and my current role with the Florida State Seminoles, I will not provide educational content or commentary on any injuries within these programs during or after the season.