John Ceglia has a great job.
In a city like Hollister, where sports and the athletes who play
are held in such high regard, being a skilled physical therapist
with nearly 30 years of experience is an important piece of the
collective athletic puzzle.
John Ceglia has a great job.
In a city like Hollister, where sports and the athletes who play are held in such high regard, being a skilled physical therapist with nearly 30 years of experience is an important piece of the collective athletic puzzle.
And athletes here can consider themselves fortunate not only to have athletic programs staffed with intelligent and caring coaches and medical personnel but to have available to them the services of a professional therapist like Ceglia.
Ceglia has fun on the job. The facilities at Focus Sports Therapy resemble a casual gym atmosphere more than they do anything one would immediately associate with medicine. He gets to chew the fat with a lot of Hollister’s top athletes as they nurse their pulls, sprains and tears back to health.
But the best part of Ceglia’s job is knowing that he plays a big role in getting Hollister’s athletes back to the sports they love as quickly and as safely as possible.
“Nothing is more fun than getting a kid, who’s been devastated because he can’t play, and then getting him back to what he was doing,” Ceglia said. “It’s awesome. I mean, I own my own business and it does well financially and that’s gratifying. But to help make someone better again, you just can’t beat that. You can’t put it into words, you just know that it feels good”
In the spring of 2003, Hollister’s Hillary Williams was finishing off her junior year with the San Benito High softball team and at the same time, looking forward to her senior season as the school’s top golfer. But one fateful run to first base following a single to right field almost snuffed out Williams’ senior season as far as athletics go.
Nearing first base, Williams went to break down and take the bag but there was a small divot in her path. Her foot hit the hole and her body moved but her knee didn’t.
The result was a complete tear of her ACL, an injury that is not only extremely painful but career threatening in the sports world.
The injury occurred in March and Williams had surgery in April.
Under the watchful eye of Ceglia, Williams rehabbed her knee all summer long and by the time August rolled around and the girls’ golf season started to get going, she was ready to go, the knee back to full form.
“I didn’t have any worries,” said Williams when asked if her knee felt solid upon her return to golf. “(Ceglia) was awesome. I had a really expensive brace for my knee but I didn’t feel like I even needed it. Even when my senior softball season came and I started running hard again, it felt totally fine.”
Ceglia knows that his job wouldn’t be quite as rewarding if it wasn’t for the community he lives and works in. On every level, at every school here in Hollister, you’ll find quality people working with young athletes. For all of the championships and far-reaching playoff teams that Hollister’s athletic programs have produced, the well-being of the young men and women involved is priority one.
If a kid gets hurt and his or her health is even possibly at risk should they continue to play, they don’t. It’s that simple, coaches and trainers here won’t risk an athlete’s well being no matter what’s on the line.
“They understand that they’re dealing with young athletes. They also understand that there is a process that needs to occur with rehabilitation for them to continue,” Ceglia said. “The importance of having someone like Dave Tari (former SBHS athletic director and current trainer) on the sidelines is enormous.”
Before coming to Hollister, Ceglia had been in situations where coaches might have rushed a player back from an injury before it was safe to do so for no good reason other than for the benefit of the team. Ceglia always ended up cutting ties when those kinds of problems came up, but here, it’s not an issue and that means a lot to him.
“We’ve never had any problems with that. To some coaches, their careers are more important to them than their athletes. You don’t want to deal with those coaches,” Ceglia said. “Coach (Chris) Cameron and all of the other coaches here, they don’t have that mentality at all, they understand that a kid’s well being is much more important than anything that goes on on the field.”
Of course, even computer geeks get neck and shoulder problems. And Ceglia takes just as much pride in getting them back up to speed as he does in Hollister’s star athletes. So, next time you tweak your body out doing whatever, give him a call, you’ll be in good hands.
