Red Bulls Gameday Feature
BEHIND THE SCENES, GUTER KEEPS TEAM HEALTHY TO PLAY
A player goes down during a match after a hard foul. The trainer runs out onto the field to tend to him. The player might be able to continue in the match, or he might have to come off. The trainer has to be able to asses the injury in a few moments, to know the player well enough to know if he can continue, and to have the best interests of the player's health on his mind at all times.
During the course of an MLS season, there are bound to be player injuries. Some injuries are minor sprains, cuts, and bruises that the player can shrug off and does not cause him to miss any time. But other injuries are more serious, and the player needs to seek treatment before he can return to action. The man that the Red Bulls turn to in these times of need is Rick Guter, the team's head athletic trainer.
This season has seen several injuries that have caused Guter to call upon his skills to get a player back to game readiness in the quickest time possible, as every point has been crucial in the crowded Eastern Conference this year. To provide head coach Juan Carlos Osorio with his full complement of players, Guter has treated every member of the team, serving not only as a trainer, but sometime as a confidant, sometimes as a psychiatrist, and sometimes as a friend.
Rick Guter is in his second season with the Red Bulls, but is a veteran MLS athletic trainer. Guter joined the club in 2007 after having served with DC United from 1996-2002, and with the Columbus Crew in 2006, having won MLS Athletic Trainer of the Year award in 1996, 1997, and 2006.
Guter began his athletic training career as an undergraduate at Arizona State University, where he graduated Magna Cum Laude in 1987. However, there were a few bumps in the road along the way.
"It's a funny thing, because originally I applied for the (athletic training) program out there, thinking that was what I wanted to do, but didn't get in," noted Guter. "But I continued to take the classes and after a semester or two, some of the people didn't pan out and they ask me if I would like to come in. I said 'sure, I would like to see what it's all about'."
Once he was fully enrolled in the program, Guter began to learn the craft from people that he still considers his mentors to this day in Troy Young, Joanne Dunnok and Terry Cummings.
"They all took me under their wing, I suppose," recalls Guter. "I have had so many people that have had a positive influence on my life. I went to grad school at University of North Carolina, which is one of the preeminent programs for graduate athletic training in the country, and two of the guys there, Bill Prentice and Dan Hooker were instrumental (in his development), and continue to be guys now that I will rely upon on if I have questions about anything, whether it be athletic training or physical therapy or whatever. Those are guys that I can still lean heavily on. There were only nine people in my class, so there was a lot of one on one so a lot of those people remain my professional confidants. Once I got out of grad school I went to work for John Spiker at the University of West Virginia, and he was one of those guys that is #1 a great person and #2 a phenomenal professional."
All of those people tried to instill in me that if you are a good person first and foremost, that the professionalism will come after that," Guter stated. "At the end of the day that outweighs everything else. If you try to be a good person and live your life the right way, then everything will work out for you."
That credo has helped shape Guter's professional philosophy, and it has translated into success in keeping the Red Bull players healthy, or at least in getting them back to the field in an efficient manner.
As supporters of the team have seen, it is near impossible to go through a season without some players having to miss time due to injury, and though New York has had its fair share of players go down this season, it is how Guter and the injured player have approached the recovery that has made all the difference.
"When you do have a guy that is injured, the first thing to do is try and instill some confidence in them that everything is going to be fine and that we are going to work together to get you back out on the field," explained Guter. "With each individual guy we will set timelines that we would like to follow to get him back and certain goals. When all you do is focus on the long-term goal of getting back out and playing, that is a hard thing to achieve, so if you try and set little intermediate goals along the way, I think the guys become more successful at getting back. 'Today we want to accomplish this.' You make it a partnership between yourself and the player."
And for Guter, the rewards are not getting recognition or praise, but in seeing the player return to the field, as not only do they return to health, but they oftentimes gain something as well.
"I take great pride when they do make it back and they are successful," stated Guter. "You also see these guys change as individuals. One of the things that often happens with long term injuries, one of the things that (the players) learn, especially if its one of the first times they have ever been hurt, is how much they truly love playing this game. They learn almost as much about themselves on the field as well as off the field, through the injury. That's the good part about it. This year with Dane Richards having the unfortunate circumstances that have come about, I think he has learned about himself and how hard he has to work. Mike Magee is another example of a guy that has overcome an unfortunate circumstance. Even at the beginning of the year, he was still struggling to overcome some stuff and you can see, over the last six or eight weeks, that he is finally healthy and he is finally showing the player that he is. As I have said before, I take as much pleasure out of seeing these guys return to the field and be successful and acquire the goals that they have set forth for themselves as any amount of money could ever provide. Those are the things that you can take with you, and that is how I get repaid oftentimes."
Another way that Guter has been getting repaid recently is something that is rather spontaneous, but speaks volumes about the amount of respect that the team has for its athletic trainer. Early in the season, when Mike Magee scored his first goal of the season and his first goal in almost two years, on a penalty kick against the San Jose Earthquakes at Giants Stadium, he performed a rather unique goal celebration. He did not do a cartwheel, or a flip, or an airplane like move, but ran over the Guter to give him a hug. Almost four months to the day later, after scoring against the Houston Dynamo at Giants Stadium, Dane Richards repeated the celebration, embracing Guter before any of his teammates after scoring his first goal of the season.
When asked about that sort of reception, Guter is characteristically humble.
"That is something that is completely unnecessary, but that does make me feel good," stated Guter. "I remember, I think it was in 1998, Tony Sennah had abdominal surgery and it took him literally three months to come back from it and he finally started getting fit right about the time that D.C. was playing in the InterAmerican Cup against Vasco de Gama, and that DC team won the series, and he came off the field and said to me "I couldn't have gotten back without your help." That is the stuff that you will remember for the rest of your life. That was 10 years ago, but that memory is still vivid in my head at Lockhart Stadium. That's phenomenal to think about that sort of stuff."
At the end of the day, the Red Bulls appreciate much more than the yeoman's work he does on a day in and day out basis. Though celebratory hugs are just one way of showing their appreciation, any success that the club achieves this season can, in one form or another, be traced back to Rick Guter. But for Guter himself, the hug is more than enough.
