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July 27, 2010
by Corey Gehrold
Latest News
As published in Insight Magazine, August 2010.
There’s hundreds of kids cheering and screaming. Parents anxiously watching on the sidelines. Every action is critiqued. Judged. Evaluated. The moves made in the gymnasium right now – the vision, the reflexes, the history – can determine the future of a young student-athlete. And this is only their pre-participation physicals.
 Each year, thousands of student-athletes across Orange and Seminole County public schools are required to complete a pre-participation physical before they are eligible to play any sport. The physicals examine and evaluate an athlete’s height, weight, medical history, vision and flexibility – among other things. Typically, the physicals are done in a doctor’s office, and may cost the uninsured student more than a few weeks allowance will allow.
But, over the past decade, one Central Florida practice has been quietly doing their part to help students get the physicals they need and even raise money for the participating schools, which include Lake Howell, Oviedo, Lake Brantley, Lyman, East River, Hagerty, Trinity Prep, Oak Ridge, Boone, Winter Springs, University, Timber Creek and The First Academy.
Orlando Orthopaedic Center, which has five locations in Orange and Seminole County, has stepped up and offered their sports medicine program team, along with dozens of volunteers, to deliver the physicals for free to six of the eight high schools in Seminole. In total, the team of specialists this year alone will donate approximately 250 hours of their time, which equates to more than $50,000, at events leading up to the 2010-11 school year.
That’s right. The doctors are doing it for free. Why? Because it’s something that matters to them. “We all live in this community, we all raise families in this community and we all work with student-athletes already – this is one way that we can help out and give back,” says Dr. Lawrence Halperin of Orlando Orthopaedic Center, a board certified orthopaedic surgeon who specializes in hand and upper extremity surgery. “Everyone here is the best at what they do, we work with athletes every day, all year round; so, donating some time to make sure these kids are ready to go and helping the schools fundraise a bit is something we all look forward to.”
The participating schools are charging a nominal fee for the exams and placing 100 percent of the proceeds toward next year’s athletic programs, respectively. Last year alone, between Orange and Seminole Counties, the initiative raised more than $35,000 for schools.
“In many of the participating schools we are the team physicians so it’s only a natural extension for us to offer our services to them and to the community to help them in whatever way we can,” says Bob Hammons, sports medicine outreach coordinator at Orlando Orthopaedic Center. As more parents and students find out about the program, its popularity continues to rise. “We’ve been doing this program to fundraise for the schools for about seven years and this, by far, has been our most popular year,” says Hammons. “I don’t know for certain if that’s attributed to the economy or just more people finding out about it, but either way, we’re here to help and take this small burden off the plates of busy parents.”
Throughout the summer, the physicals have helped thousands of area youth get one step closer to the field. For the doctors, many of which are also fathers and sports fans, the program is about more than helping the schools. “It’s about getting these athletes out there and giving them the opportunity to play,” says Dr. Randy Schwartzberg, a board certified orthopaedic surgeon that’s also board certified in sports medicine. “It’s great because it’s not only a fundraiser for the school, but it’s also important because these physicals may not be covered by insurance and here athletes can get a quality exam by sports medicine doctors and we can get them ready to play.”
Schwartzberg started these events over a decade ago before joining Orlando Orthopaedic Center in 2002. “For so many of these kids, athletics are their life so it’s an honor for all of us to be here and to help however we can,” he says.
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