New Crew Trainer Can't Be Worse Than Last Year's

The Crew issued a press release today that I found interesting...

CREW NAMES JASON MATHEWS HEAD ATHLETIC TRAINER

MLS veteran spent four years with Chicago Fire and was named 2003 MLS Athletic Trainer of the Year
For Immediate Release: Monday, Jan. 22, 2007
Contact: Dave Stephany , 614-447-4190

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Jason R. Mathews has been named the Crew’s new head athletic trainer, General Manager Mark McCullers announced today.

Mathews spent four seasons as head athletic trainer for the Chicago Fire (2002-05) and was recognized following the 2003 campaign as the MLS Athletic Trainer of the Year. He has been the athletic trainer of choice for several U.S. Soccer national team camps and is a founding member and current treasurer/secretary for the Professional Soccer Athletic Trainers’ Society (PSATS). Prior to MLS, Jason was the head athletic trainer for the Chicago Steel of the Junior A United States Hockey League.

“I am very excited to be joining one of the pioneering teams in Major League Soccer,” Mathews said. “I believe that Sigi is bringing a level of excellence to the team that will spread throughout the organization. I was honored that the Crew, Sigi and Dr. (Pete) Edwards contacted me and that they appreciated and respected the work I had previously done in MLS. I am not only excited about being a member of the Crew family, but also being a member of the Ohio Orthopedic Center of Excellence.”

Mathews earned his Master’s Degree in Exercise Science from California University of Pennsylvania in 2006, having received his undergraduate degree in Kinesiology at the University of Illinois-Chicago in 1999. He also holds an advanced certification as a performance enhancement specialist (PES) through the National Academy of Sports Medicine.

“We are very fortunate to have found a trainer of Jason's background and abilities to bring in,” said Crew Head Coach Sigi Schmid . “He has MLS and U.S. National Team experience and is a welcome addition to our staff.”

A native of Maryland , Mathews is a veteran of the US Army and has run the Chicago Marathon twice. He and his wife, Trang, have two children, Ethan and Emily.

The Columbus Crew is Ohio 's Major League Soccer club, anchoring a diverse sports and entertainment enterprise. One of the league's Charter Members, it will open its 12th season overall and ninth in first-of-its-kind Columbus Crew Stadium on Saturday, April 7, when it plays host to the Eastern Conference-rival New York Red Bulls.

– www.TheCrew.com –

My friend Brian once made a comment to me regarding the fitness level of Ken Griffey, Jr., saying that he wouldn't have been injured so often if he would do a little work on fitness in the offseason. Not being a Reds (or even a baseball fan), I wouldn't know the details there. But I do know how often the Crew was able to keep a stable lineup from game to game last season with all the injuries they suffered... about twice.

I think.

If that.

Now, the Crew has some holes that need fixing, that's for sure. Lack of a forward, as I've pointed out in the past (and hopefully dealt with properly with the signing of Andy Herron), the de facto "expansion team" status of the club, and the youth of the team all contributed to make last MLS season as painful to watch as any number of hooked-chain-flying-out-of-puzzle-box scenes in a Hellraiser movie.

I'm not trying to read too much into the hiring of a new trainer. Perhaps the old guy just moved on. But it just seems like a good move to have a team who suffered so much from the injury bug that they renamed that bug to "the injury dengue fever" to have made. Sure, not all sports injuries are fitness-based. But many of them most definitely are.

Later Addition: Just read in the Dispatch that the Crew's previous trainer did move on the Red Bulls**t of New York, but those were the only details given. Sigi did say that the trainer situation wasn't to blame for the two injury-plagued seasons of the past two years, but then again he wasn't about to sabotage anyone's career, probably.