A Conversation With ... Jason Pyrah

My job is (working) in the clinic with rehabilitation injuries, and (also) basically being at athletic events, covering those in case of injury … mainly I work with Ash Grove High School. I go out to high school events, such as baseball games, track meets, basketball games. The other (aspect) is CoxHealth’s Athletic Advantage strength-conditioning program.

Who are the patients or clients that you serve?

On the rehab side of things, they’re considered patients. On the Athletic Advantage side of things, they’re clients … working from the personal training aspect (and) subsidizing their training. Not really working on injuries as such, but working to prevent the injuries. With sports medicine, we’re dealing with anyone who’s doing athletic events – anything from your recreational runner who’s 45 years old to a 10-year-old athlete who’s wanting to condition themselves for junior high or whatever they might be getting ready for.

What key issues do you help your athlete-clients address?

Stretching becomes the biggest issue, whether it be tendonitis in the knees or hamstring issues. A lot of what we end up seeing is the result of a lack of stretching, which sometimes is an education thing for young kids. For older kids, it’s just that they’re a little bit lazy. A lot of that becomes a time issue for adults (who think) “I only have a half-hour to run … and I don’t have another half-hour to stretch.”

What should people consider before starting a new workout or athletic program?

If you’re starting a new program and you haven’t done stuff for a long time, it needs to be a gradual process. Most of the time, what we see in people who just start running … is shin splints, because they start running and try to run too much at one time. Or they try to run three miles every day and they haven’t ever run before.

Speaking of running, can we talk about your competitive background?

I was an Olympic runner. I competed in the ’92 Olympic trials down in New Orleans, and that was kind of my first taste of that national experience. I stopped in 2004, as far as actually competing at that elite level. And I really haven’t done much since then, even on the recreational side of things. I ran a few races … in the fall of ’04 and maybe in ’05.

Why did you stop competing?

I ended up with kind of a weird injury myself. I had a foot problem. Basically, I believe it was a nerve problem … and we never could really get to the bottom of it. It just didn’t allow me to continue to compete, and then there were other things. I’d done it for a long time and it was time to move on.

Did your injury inspire you to get involved with athletic training and rehab?

No, when I was competing in college, my major at Brigham Young University was athletic training, and that’s what I got my four-year degree in. I finished (school) but I continued to compete, all the way until ’04, and it wasn’t really until then that I started to fall back on that degree. I worked toward a master’s degree in dietetics – food science and nutrition – (which) I finished up in December of 2002.

You’re a Willard native – what brought you back to the Ozarks?

My wife and I both went to Willard High School. Once I finished my master’s degree at BYU … we wanted to be close to family and we both liked it here. At the time, I was working with Home Depot, with their Olympic job program as one of their athletes, so I was able to transfer to the Home Depot store here, and from there, a few years later, I got my job with Cox.

What’s next for you, professionally?

I’m not sure on that – that’s a tough question for where I’m at right now. There are a lot of avenues – the teaching side of things, the administration side of things – but I want to stay involved with the high school athletes.

I think it’s great to see … the purity of the talent that you see out there, kids who are out there doing it for fun, and you can really tell who wants to be out there and who doesn’t.

Tell us more about your family.

My wife’s name is Angie. We have a daughter, Sydney, who’s 5 and a half. She’ll be starting kindergarten this year.

Interview by Features Editor Maria Hoover. You can e-mail her with suggestions for future installments of this feature at mhoover@sbj.net.