Apr 11, 2018Play Ball
When Plymouth High School (Canton, Mich.) quarterback Zach Beadle first shattered his tibia and fibula during a football game last fall, one of his first thoughts was whether he’d be able to play baseball come spring. But Beadle is back on the diamond and thriving, thanks to a dedicated rehab plan.
As reported by Hometown Life, at the time of the initial injury, Joe Durocher, ATC, Plymouth’s Athletic Trainer, acted quickly to hold Beadle’s leg in place. Soon after, the football team’s assistant coach and others were on the field to help out, as well. Their action was crucial in getting Beadle the care he needed quickly. Due to the risk of infection he faced from being injured on turf, the doctors decided to perform an emergency operation to insert a metal rod and two screws between his right knee and ankle.
That happened in September, late enough in the year to cause anxiety surrounding whether Beadle would make it back for the spring season. The first step toward that goal was starting physical therapy after his cast was removed.
“When he was finally cleared in January to come into physical therapy, he was ahead of the curve,” Greg Moore, DPT, HSSCS, PES, Physical Therapist at ATI Physical Therapy in Plymouth, Mich., said. “It’s nice to work with a Zach Beadle. I kind of was his tour guide or mountain guide and just kind of helped him through the process – was there to push him. I didn’t have as much work to do as I would have expected to do, so it’s really nice when someone is healing well and dealing with pain well.”
Beadle’s physical therapy facility is adjacent to a training facility, so he was able to work under a high load in the weightroom to get his body used to that kind of intensity again. In addition, his physical therapy was augmented by baseball workouts. Through it all, Beadle still had doubts about making it back on the diamond for the spring.
“There were some ups and downs in physical therapy,” he said. “As soon as I got there, Greg wanted to see where I was. He made me run – four or five days out of a cast, I thought, ‘This is going to be a long road.’
Beadle also put some time in on the Alter-G
