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Pushing Limits

Sue Falsone of the Los Angeles Dodgers has become the first female head athletic trainer in major professional sports

Brian W. Ferrie

Posted on: April 19, 2012

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Sue Falsone, PT, MS, SCS, ATC, CSCS, COMT, didn't dream of becoming the first female head athletic trainer in the history of major pro sports. To hear the amiable 37-year-old explain it, things just happened that way. But Falsone, the recently appointed head athletic trainer for Major League Baseball's Los Angeles Dodgers, is still thrilled about the opportunity.

Her path has been a fascinating one, winding from frigid upstate New York to sunny Southern California, with stops in North Carolina and Arizona on the way. In addition to her role with the Dodgers, Falsone is vice president, performance physical therapy and team sports for Athletes' Performance (AP), headquartered in Phoenix. Her story begins in Buffalo, NY, where Falsone actually didn't pay much attention to the National Pastime growing up.

"Buffalo was a hockey and football town because of the Sabres [NHL] and Bills [NFL], so those were the teams I followed," she told ADVANCE. "It really wasn't until college that I started getting exposed to other pro sports and became a baseball fan."

Falsone did play soccer for her high school team, though, which turned out to have an impact on the career she would choose. "I pulled a hamstring and actually discovered PT because of it," she related.

Thirst for Adventure
From high school, Falsone went to Daemen College in Buffalo, where she earned her PT degree in 1996. Falsone also showed an early thirst for adventure while at Daemen by taking an internship with ProActive Therapy in Rocky Mount, NC.

"I just really liked the company and wanted to venture away from Buffalo a little bit," she recalled. "When I graduated, they offered me a position in their Raleigh, NC, office and I accepted."

Falsone remained at ProActive for about two years, before her urge to open new doors struck again and she enrolled at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, to pursue a master's degree full-time.

" At UNC, I studied human movement with a concentration in sports medicine," Falsone said. "They had already converted to a curriculum program, so I needed to take some undergraduate classes in athletic training as well. Then I was able to sit for the exam."

Falsone earned both her MS degree and ATC certification in 2000, leading to the question -- what next?

"I picked up and moved out to Phoenix to start a whole different gig," she laughed. "I didn't have a job and hadn't actually spent any time in Phoenix. I just moved there for absolutely no reason other than it was sunny. So I started working for a PT company in Mesa, AZ."

Matter of Chance
Then by chance, Falsone experienced a turning point in her life. "While I was in Phoenix, I read a magazine article about Nomar Garciaparra, who had won a batting title at the time with the Boston Red Sox," she related. "The article mentioned that he was training at a place called Athletes' Performance in Arizona. So I decided to look into that facility more and basically just showed up at their door."

In her own words, Falsone started hanging out at AP during her spare time to get a feel for what the clinic was about. "I ended up volunteering there in 2001 from June to September, when they finally offered me a full-time job. I was their first PT. We had the office in Phoenix and then opened another in Los Angeles, followed by locations in Frisco, TX, and Pensacola, FL. So I helped develop the physical therapy aspect of the practice and obviously got to add more staff as we launched more facilities. Eventually I took on a director's role and then was promoted to vice president just over a year ago."

What made her so persistent about wanting to work at Athletes' Performance?

"I knew after I left grad school that I just wanted to do something different," she explained. "I guess I didn't know exactly what I wanted to do, but I knew what I didn't want to do, which was general outpatient orthopedics. So when I walked into AP and saw the performance aspect, I thought there was really going to be a need for physical therapy in that realm. Luckily it was just the right spot at the right time, the right point in my career and life. It just grew from there."

Trendsetting
Although this happened only about a decade ago, Falsone marveled to ADVANCE how few physical therapists were focused on athletic performance enhancement at that time. "So I really learned a lot on the fly about strength and conditioning, as well as performance training," she commented. "Working closely with Mark Verstegen, our owner, to develop a concept to bridge that gap from rehab to performance."

Then in 2007, the Dodgers' general manager, Ned Colletti, forged a partnership with Athletes' Performance. Through this association, Falsone became an official consultant to the Dodgers and thus the first female physical therapist in Major League Baseball.

"Stan Conte, PT, DPT, ATC, was hired as the Dodgers' new head athletic trainer around the same time, so my role with the team grew as Stan had an opportunity to evaluate the system in place and implement changes. I remained a consultant through the 2010 season. Those last couple years, I would travel a good 100 games with the team, including spring training and the playoffs. So it wasn't necessarily full-time but it was a whole lot of time."

Due to the extensive time commitment, Falsone actually stepped down from her consultant role prior to the 2011 season. "I just wanted to focus more on AP last year," she explained. "It reached a point where the company really needed me there all the time and the Dodgers had basically come to want me full-time, so it was important to center my attention on one aspect. I decided to stay with AP and really dedicate myself to that for 2011."

Wheels in Motion
But this past offseason, a sequence of events occurred that would lead Falsone back to the Dodgers. It began when the team's assistant athletic trainer took the head athletic trainer position with the Pittsburgh Pirates.

"So Stan and I were talking about how I could get more involved with the Dodgers again. One thing led to another, and before I knew it, I was going to become the head athletic trainer," she said with a laugh. "I'm not exactly sure how we came to that conclusion. We were just trying to come up with different scenarios about staffing and the involvement of AP with the Dodgers and we thought it could work."

As part of that October staff restructuring, Dr. Conte himself was promoted to senior director, medical services for the Dodgers.

"Athletes' Performance brings a huge support system to the organization from many standpoints," Falsone stated. "We have been able to bring some of our employees over and mix with the Dodgers employees to create what we think will be an incredible program for our players. AP is really backing those of us here on the ground in that effort to try some different things and create change in the game of baseball when it comes to strength and conditioning, injury management, performance, regeneration, recovery, nutrition and how all that is done in season."

Falsone is certainly proud to be the first female head athletic trainer in major pro sports but admitted it wasn't a specific goal. "I never thought about it. People always ask me, 'How did you get to that spot?' But it really wasn't part of my ultimate plan. I knew I wanted to do something different and always push myself to be a great clinician. I just like to be challenged. But this position didn't really cross my mind. And the concept of being the first female -- that's definitely not why I accepted. It just felt right. A lot of things were aligned from a personal and professional level. It so happens I'm the first but that's actually surprising to me since it's 2012. If it hadn't lined up with the rest of my life, I wouldn't be doing this."

Inspiring Others
Nevertheless, what she is doing has inspired other women across the country. "I honestly wasn't prepared for all the attention that has come with me taking the position," Falsone shared. "I thought it would be a story for a little while, but not to this extent. I just received a letter from a 17-year-old girl who has always wanted to work in sports and now feels like she can. I've gotten hundreds of messages like that between Facebook, Twitter, handwritten letters and emails. I just didn't expect so much response and it's been really amazing."

Does the high level of attention place any extra pressure on Falsone to succeed?

"I don't think so," she said. "Anytime you're in the spotlight with a team, no matter what the capacity, there's always pressure. Because everybody gets to watch just about every single thing we do. But I want to succeed for plenty of reasons other than being a woman."

Falsone also doesn't believe that players look at her any differently because of gender. "To me, that has been a non-issue. I respect the players' space and I think they respect me. Maybe I feel that way because I've been practicing for 15 years and I've always been female. So how people interact with me or how I interact with players is no different now that I'm dealing with professional athletes. It's just a continuation of what I've been doing."

That interaction has also been Falsone's favorite part of the job so far. "I like working daily to keep the players healthy so they can get on the field," she concluded. "That's also my biggest challenge. We know athletes don't feel 100 percent all the time, but it's my job to make them feel as close to that as possible so they can go out and perform. I have a lot of other responsibilities but at the end of the day, I'm a clinician and that's what I really enjoy doing."

Brian W. Ferrie is managing editor of ADVANCE and can be reached at bferrie@advanceweb.com

Congratulations, Sue! I became a PT in 1990. Back in the early 1990's I trained a professional soccer team in MD. When I took a travel job in Florida - I contacted the Pittsburgh Pirates to volunteer to help train their team in spring training. I was told - basically - that they did not want or need me... because I was female. It was very disappointing! I wish I would have fought it more, but I didn't. I still regret it. If I only knew then what I know now....

I am happy for your success!!!

Sue	May 13, 2012

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