Head Athletic Trainer Dennis Petrucci has some awfully big shoes to fill replacing Hall of Famer Jim “Bones” Hammond, but he seems to be lacing them up just fine. It helps that Hammond helped to show him the ropes. He also seems to be guided by the hand of providence.
“I played football in high school and pulled a hamstring, so I had to go see a physical therapist,” said Petrucci. “That was when the light bulb went off and I thought ‘Wow this would be a neat career to get into, helping athletes’.”
Petrucci was a football player at San Diego State University, but an ACL injury forced him into rehabilitation. He took an interest in the healing nature of the training room and its staff.
“I spent so much time in the athletic training room over at SDSU that I just fell into it that way,” he said.
After graduating from SDSU with a bachelor’s in exercise and nutritional sciences, Petrucci earned a master’s in physical activity and exercise sciences at Ohio State. Since then he has worked with professional teams such as the San Diego Sockers, San Diego Stingrays and the San Diego Gulls hockey team. He was also an athletic trainer at Pepperdine University, SDSU and Ohio State.
Petrucci is well respected by SWC athletes because he provides a lot of attention to them.
“I think Dennis is very knowledgeable and very helpful,” said Juan Denny, a football and baseball player. “He’s played sports so it’s easy for him to relate to the athletes here. When you’re trying to rehab and get back healthy, he knows what it takes and he’s truthful.”
Petrucci said he makes sure the athletes fully understand their injuries and how to rehab.
“He makes everything easy to understand,” said football player Oscar Gomez. “When my ankle got hurt, he told me what was wrong with it right away. He helped me throughout the season and told me what I needed to do to make it better.”
Petrucci said he prefers community college sports to high-pressure Division I athletics.
“I’m really happy where I am at right now,” he said. “I have done a lot of things in my career like working at the Division I level and the professional level, but Southwestern is a different kind of atmosphere. It’s not high-profile like Division I, so there are no reporters or press coming around here and putting constant pressure on us to get the athletes back on the field. It may not be as great for the coaches, but from our standpoint we always want to get kids back in as soon as we can and when it is safely possible.”
Athletes have said Petrucci is very accurate at diagnoses.
“He’s looked at my injuries and evaluated them,” said Gabby Robledo, a women’s basketball player. “I’ve had a hip flexor injury, I tweaked my ankle a couple of times and I’ve hurt my elbow. Dennis tells me what to do to get back on the court and get the injuries better. He’s really helpful.”
Petrucci said he feels great responsibility and sometimes stress, but he finds his job fulfilling. He said he likes the fact that SWC sports, other than football, do not require traveling to away games.
“I have two daughters at home so it is nice to not have to stay the night in a hotel somewhere across the country,” he said. “When I was with the Gulls, we’d do a two-week East Coast trip and be gone the whole time. So having not only a wife, but also two kids who you want to be around with, they don’t always understand the traveling and why you have to be gone. It’s nice that we get to play host at this level and don’t have much traveling to do. For where I’m at in my life it’s actually a huge benefit to my job in this profession.”
Petrucci is very family oriented and sees them as his first priority.
“I love to be involved with my kid’s lives,” he said. “They’re only three and 10 months, so they’re young and there’s a lot of development going on in this stage. I’m very happy that I can be around them, help teach them and be there for them. I really like where I am right now in my life.”
