Far left, West Campus Professor and Sports Council Clinician
Dr. Mehdi Moossavi, performs athletic taping. In back, Sports
Council intern Dakota Montgomery, left, conducts a preliminary
report of findings on another patient during the Sea Otter Classic. |
The West Campus Sports Council
served as the primary sports healthcare
provider at the 2009 Sea Otter Classic,
April 16-19, a four-day “celebration of
sport.” It has grown to become the
world’s largest cycling festival, drawing
nearly 10,000 professional and amateur
athletes and more than 50,000 fans to
courses within and around Laguna Seca
Raceway in Monterey, Calif.
More than 75 Sports Council members
played a part in the delivery of care to
athletes who competed in road, slalom,
downhill and other cycling events,
under the leadership of Sports Council
President Michael Lord. Overseeing the
Sports Council is faculty adviser Ed
Feinberg, D.C., West ’83, who has
been in this role since the program’s
inception in 1994.
“The Sea Otter Classic is my favorite
Sports Council event for a variety
of reasons,” said Dr. Feinberg. “Our
students get to evaluate and treat a
wide variety of injuries. Lower-quarter
students are paired with more experienced
interns, so everyone gets a
learning opportunity.”
In addition to Dr. Feinberg, Richard
Robinson, D.C., West ’96, and Mehdi
Moossavi, D.C., West ’92, supervised
intern care as Sports Council clinicians.
Dr. Robinson has been a chiropractor
for Canadian Olympic teams and will
provide care at the 2010 Vancouver
Games. In the six years the Council
has provided care at the Classic,
Dr. Moossavi has worked all 24 days
of the event.
“Palmer has become part of the
Sea Otter tradition,” said Jeannie
Pruitt-Retamoso, Sea Otter director
of festival and media/marketing
operations. “Our administrative
team, and especially our athletes,
greatly appreciate everything that the
Palmer team of students and doctors
brings to the Sea Otter experience,
not only for the scope of services
they provide, from the chiropractic
care to ‘first responder’ duties, but for
the professionalism and dedication
they demonstrate from start to finish.”