Anthony Bruzzichesi, director of Sports Medicine for Physical Therapy Specialists Clinic, knows the value of athletic training. While in high school, the Arkansas native injured his shoulder while playing basketball and ultimately had to manage most of his recovery efforts on his own.
“I was at a small school; we didn’t have an athletic trainer,” says Bruzzichesi, who goes by Tony. “I kind of had to do rehab myself. I looked up some things and figured out some stuff to help my shoulder a little bit.”
The experience showed him that he wanted to be there for students, especially in moments when seconds count.
“With different injuries, you just never know what’s going to happen,” he says. “If an athletic trainer is on-site, the likelihood of a scenario going from bad to worse significantly decreases.”
Bruzzichesi graduated from the University of Arkansas-Fayetteville in 2015 with a master’s degree in Athletic Training. He brought this knowledge, passion and education to PTSC in 2021, when he joined the team to manage Sports Medicine for PTSC’s Mountain Grove location. In 2022, he was promoted to director of Sports Medicine for all of PTSC. In this role, he is working to increase the presence of athletic trainers at schools throughout the region.
What I’ve always found is that when an athlete goes down and an athletic trainer is s available the coach can maintain their focus on their team and ongoing game, while the ATC attends the needs of the injured athlete. “Sometimes those moments aren’t the easiest ones, depending on what you’ve got going on. There’s even a value in giving the coaches peace of mind – that there is a health care professional on site and available if anything is to happen.”
In addition to his certifications in athletic training, Bruzzichesi is a physical therapy assistant,a certified vestibular and concussion therapist, and certified in functional movement systems (FMS).. These individual skill sets allow him to make a significant impact for the patients and students he serves.
“There’s just so many different benefits from having that spectrum of knowledge,” he says.
Anthony Bruzzichesi has certifications in MAT, LAT, ATC, PTA and CVT.