Sports activities has presented additional than a passion for the final three generations of Griesmers — it is been their source of livelihood.
Leonard E. Griesemer worked his way into the Palm Beach County Sports activities Hall of Fame immediately after decades of coaching football and basketball, and his son, Larry Griesemer, used years at the helm of the Wellington High girls basketball program.
So it is only fitting that Brett Griesemer, Larry’s son, fell in appreciate with medicine standing on a West Palm Beach baseball diamond about 20 many years ago.
Brett assumed the head football coach situation at Virginia Tech in Could, a substantial-profile advertising eight decades in the creating. But ahead of his get the job done with future Pro Bowlers or nationally-accredited scientists, Griesemer was a higher-faculty sophomore worried about an uncommon hand personal injury.
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Griesemer recognized a sturdy agony in his wrist immediately after an at-bat, and the younger athlete began to study his condition independently as his damage baffled several doctors.
“I obtained actually into attempting to resolve my own problem,” Griesemer stated. I commenced seeking issues up on the web and learning about anatomy, accidents, the injuries procedure, imaging and all these issues.”
Immediately after months of analysis, Griesemer concluded that he’d suffered a hook of hamate fracture: an harm to a carpal bone in the palm normally sustained soon after a checked swing. Medical doctors corroborated his investigate and executed a thriving course of action on his hand.
As Griesemer’s harm light, his enthusiasm for drugs blossomed.
“I believe that’s what sparked my really like for drugs in the beginning, and taking anatomy courses in superior college actually intrigued me more,” the Wellington grad mentioned.
Griesemer enrolled at the University of Florida in 2006 and opted for an athletic coaching major, which he termed “a superior mix” of his passions for drugs and sporting activities.
Florida’s major-down athletic achievement, especially its national championship basketball and football teams, immersed Griesemer into a best-tier athletic office with star-studded rosters.
“I experienced a excellent time at Florida and the groups have been really effective,” Griesemer claimed. “That’s kind of what obtained me into it (athletic training) and kept me in it.”
Griesemer left Gainesville with a Bachelor’s degree in athletic education and headed to Virginia Tech for professional medical faculty.
The Hokies provided Griesemer a graduate assistant position with the soccer staff, and the Royal Palm Seashore native turned enamored with the town and the system. He accepted an offer you to turn out to be the head baseball trainer and has been with the college ever due to the fact.
Virginia Tech’s standout attraction, for Griesemer at minimum, lies hidden away from the brilliant lights and deafening Metallica renditions of Lane Stadium. The school’s sports research division boasts a potent record of modern concussion analysis and breakthroughs in gear safety.
“I’m quite happy of Virginia Tech as a full,” Griesemer mentioned. “We’ve always been at the forefront of concussions, and concussion analysis trying to make the match safer.”
The university manufactured the Virginia Tech Helmet Scores, which rank common helmet brands on their concussion protection. Griesemer has because coordinated analysis on head accelerations in scholar-athletes, practical imaging and brain biomarker analysis.
This breakthrough investigate caught the eye of the NCAA’s Division of Defense, who ranked Virginia Tech as a top-four investigation office in concussion scientific tests and coordinated with the college for a 5-yr research.
In 2018, Griesemer was promoted to senior director of investigation and relished a larger purpose with the soccer group. But his most latest advertising locations a better degree of strain on the head football coach.
“There’s definitely force to get men back and get them again as speedily and safely as attainable,” Griesemer reported. “I consider the biggest stress is the athletes them selves trying to get again. Often you have to drive athletes to get back out there. Occasionally you have to sort of pull them again and say you’re not rather prepared, and which is difficult.”
Griesemer jumped straight into off-season conditioning following accepting the function, scheduling workouts throughout the working day to get his team fit in advance of a grueling ACC routine. He also provides submit-observe recovery for summer sessions and functions in opposition to the clock to get hurt Hokies back onto the subject ahead of the year starts.
Regardless of the 5 a.m. alarms and intense scrutiny of the Virginia Tech fanbase, Griesemer enjoys each next at his new placement.
“Virginia Tech’s a great area,” Griesemer claimed. I achieved my wife below, I had children listed here, and I could not be happier to be here.”