Original article by JON ROSEN, posted 9/5, 2019
http://lakingsinsider.com/2019/09/05/tsc-becomes-tspc-sports-medicine-athletic-rehabilitation-center-integrated-into-el-segundo-facility/
The extra P is for Toyota Sports Performance Center. There’s a new partnership, a new team physician in Dr. Frank Petrigliano, and after Wednesday’s public unveiling in El Segundo, a brand new sports medicine and athletic rehabilitation center under the same roof as the three ice sheets. Moving into the practice courts and open spaces vacated when the Lakers moved across the neighborhood, the Keck Medicine of USC and Meyer Institute of Sport will provide athletic training and rehabilitation resources to both the LA Kings and local communities. John Meyer, Director, Player Health and Performance, heads the team’s training, medical and conditioning department.
TSPC’s additions provide a sizable reinforcement to sports performance and rehabilitation centers in the South Bay and the Westside, from which they’ll draw the heavy majority of their clients.
“It is pretty unique that this is not going to be closed behind iron doors,” LA Kings COO Kelly Cheeseman said. “It is a facility first for our players and our teams – not just the Kings, but also the Galaxy and Ontario and Berlin – and that was really critical, to look at it as a collective for our ownership group. But also we wanted to create a partnership that had true benefit to the community, and that’s truly what we’ve always been about. It’s pretty unique, and it’s probably a bit inspiring to be treated at the same place the LA Kings are treated at.”
Plans didn’t call for a surgery center, and there’s no MRI at the new facilities, but all other athletic training and rehabilitation features will be available under the same roof, easing the logistics for those who use TSPC regularly, including the Kings.
“Everything else can pretty much be treated on site, and the recovery process can happen on site,” Cheeseman said. “There’s internal medicine here as well with Dr. Oberle, who has a background in sports medicine but also internal medicine. Then, obviously you have Dr. Frank Petrigliano on the orthopedic side, and they’ll be able to deal with a lot of different injuries from youth all the way up to adults. That’s the beauty of it.”
Such an arrangement was the result of an extended and multidimensional process that ultimately saw the Kings transition from the Kerlan-Jobe Clinic and Dr. Ronald Kvitne, who had three decades of experience as team physician through which he developed intricately close relationships with players, coaches and club figures. More on the team’s diversifying practice facility is below:
LA Kings COO Kelly Cheeseman, on a centralized performance facility being of use to the team:
That’s exactly it – it’s a one-stop shop for our athletes from the time they’re training on a day-to-day basis to the time of a potential injury, recovery, rehab, everything’s in one stop for them. We’re able to probably focus in a little bit more in terms of the way they’re going through that process and now here today, we brought in two of the best partners in the world to operate the facility for us.
Cheeseman, on how TSPC benefits local communities:
I think it really benefits the entire westside. With the bio-mechanics lab that’ll be here and the Meyer Institute of Sport as well as the orthopedic center with Keck, there’s really no other facility like this in Los Angeles. We wanted to focus on being open to the public so that all the residents of this facility – this facility’s traffic is over 1.3-million visitors a year – can be serviced and treated by the best in the world. The best in the world are treating the LA Kings and all the AEG teams, but it also allows us to be open to learning other treatments for different types of sports and athletes and that was a big focus of our decision.
Cheeseman, on the integration of Dr. Frank Petrigliano as Team Physician:
There was nothing in terms of a decision as it relates to a lack of performance for Dr. Kvitne and Kerlan-Jobe, who were outstanding partners for a really long period of time, and we owe them all the gratitude in the world. It’s just when we made the choice to partner with Keck Medicine-USC and Keck Orthopedic, it was time to turn the page. With the partnership with them, they wanted to go and recruit the absolute best here to come and be our team doctor and the lead doctor at this facility. I think they landed a really good one, a fantastic doctor with great experience. But at the end of the day, just for us, this was always about John Meyer and the Meyer Institute of Sport leading that process for us and overseeing the health and performance for our team.
Cheeseman, on building the relationship between the team and Dr. Petrigliano and his staff:
That started from the moment he was hired. John Meyer and Chris Kingsley and Matt Price really started integrating him into the process of what his responsibilities are with the organization. Chris has been outstanding in getting to know him and introducing him to the players and the staff. And it’ll take time to establish the same relationships – but again, it’s really about the medical staffs on a day-to-day basis, the collective group, the talent that’s assembled there. It’s not necessarily about one person, it’s about the collective group, and this facility and everybody that’s going to be here – I mean, there are dozens of people that’ll be involved in the process moving forward here for the health and performance of our teams, and that’s what’s really exciting, and they’re going to be exposed to all different athletes at the collegiate level, the professional level, and that’s really exciting. The youth here and the parents here will all benefit from it, and I think Keck is already extremely happy with the amount of traffic they’ve had in the facility independent of anything else that’s gone on.
The Toyota Sports Performance Center is operated by American Sports Entertainment Company (ASEC). Founded in 2006, ASEC is the largest owner/operator of ice skating and indoor sports facilities in the United States.
ASEC owns and/or operates 21 facilities in New York, North Carolina, Texas, Arizona, and California, including the Toyota Sports Performance Center, the Los Angeles Lakers’ practice facility in El Segundo and the LA Galaxy Soccer Center in Torrance.
— Lead photo via Andrew D. Bernstein/LA Kings