Richie Prestegaard

Nothing was more important to me than playing football in high school. I had prepared for it since I was five. During pre-season of my junior year, I noticed consistent pain in my right shoulder when tackling and often times my shoulder would pop out. After much research, my parents made an appointment with Dr. Rose. They assured me that he would understand how important playing was, as he himself was a collegiate athlete. Dr. Rose informed me that I had a tear in my labrum but could continue playing as long as I went to physical therapy, iced and did not mind playing through the pain. Thrilled, I played through until the end of the season. But the pain got worse..in BOTH shoulders. We met with Dr. Rose again. The new MRIs showed the tear got worse in my right shoulder and there was a bad tear in my left shoulder, too. I now had to make "the" decision. Have surgery now and forgo my lacrosse season, so that my shoulders can be 100% for my senior football season. I opted for surgery...on both shoulders, within 6 weeks of each other. Dr. Rose said he had never done back-to-back surgeries with such little time between them. I really wanted to do this because I needed both shoulders ready for August. Not only was I back by August, but as Captain, I led the Braves to a State Championship!!!! On top of all this, while I thought football was more important than anything, I found something even more important: the United States Army. I was awarded a 4 year ROTC (Reserve Officers' Training Corp) scholarship to Boston College. One criteria for this scholarship was to pass a rigorous physical test...I could not have scored so well on this test, without strong shoulders, thanks to Dr. Rose and HSS.