CORONAVIRUS (COVID-19) RESOURCE CENTER Read More
Add To Favorites

FSU’s new director of sports medicine Scott Trulock talks mental health, COVID challenges

Orlando Sentinel - 8/20/2021

Scott Trulock’s career in the sports medicine field has spanned close to two decades and taken him from the college ranks to the NFL where he most recently spent the past seven seasons with the Jacksonville Jaguars. But when an opportunity opened up at Florida State, the Orlando native couldn’t pass up the chance to work with the Seminoles.

Trulock took over as FSU’s new director of sports medicine in July and it was the familiarity with the school that drew him to the job.

“I grew up in Orlando so I’m kind of from these parts,” Trulock said. “I’m very familiar with the school, most of my family went to Florida State so I spent a lot of time here growing up.”

The Boone High graduate earned his undergraduate degree in sports medicine from Valdosta State and his master’s degree from North Carolina. Trulock began his career in the NFL with stops at Philadelphia, San Diego, Tampa Bay and Denver. He would later return to his alma mater to become the Tar Heels head athletic trainer before moving on the Jacksonville.

He found his way to Tallahassee after a meeting with FSU athletic director David Coburn and the rest of the Seminoles coaches including football coach Mike Norvell.

“I look forward to the continued evolution of taking sports medicine and blending in more at the performance team with the focus being, obviously, the experience of the student-athlete,” said Trulock. “Athletic trainers have always worked with physicians and strength coaches but kind of taking that group with the nutritionist and the mental health and how can we put that all together for the experience of the student-athletes so they see a seamless transition.”

Trulock spoke with reporters Thursday, here is an abbreviated version of his comments:

How big of a part is the mental health aspect of your job?

Trulock: “It’s a huge part. If you’d asked me to look in my years and almost 30 years of [being on the job]. If we look back at the points and what our focus was say 10-to-20 years ago, it was the concussion crisis. It was an area where we really felt like we didn’t have a means of managing it and we’ve come a long way and we’ve come a long way in managing that or nutrition whereas maybe 10 years ago that was the edge whereas right now I’d really say mental health is kind of the area where we see the biggest need and evolving our care. We’re doing that obviously both at the campus and in the athletics role but that’s a very big part of the integration into the total health and performance for the student-athlete.”

Is there much difference from professional athletes to college athletes?

Trulock: “Sure. Obviously, just from an age standpoint when you’re dealing with intercollegiate athletes you know you’re raising kids, You’re kind of finishing that job of raising individuals. So, it’s a lot of the basic personal care-type things of helping them understand that as an athlete, your body is your business. And how important it is for you to best invest your time and energy into your own personal care. We’re a resource and we can provide that so it’s teaching them that. In the professional ranks, it’s a little different. The challenge there is they have longer medical history so it can be a little bit more complicated from that standpoint whereas at this level, it’s a greater volume of athletes and you’re kind of starting more in the basics of teaching them personal health care.”

What’s your message to athletes about mental health and how to ask for help when they need it?

Trulock: “The biggest thing is understanding that their experiences are normal. We often think back to what our perspective was when we were their age and you think about some of the things that you were going through and that you’re the only one that has ever experienced that. So, probably the first thing is understanding and recognizing what their challenges and their stresses are and helping them understand that ‘Look what you’re going through is normal’ but also that you can reach a higher level by getting help. We all need help. We all can utilize our resources to become better. So, a lot of it’s just educating them on what they’re experiencing, there’s a normal capacity to that and then what your resources are and how to utilize them. We’ve clearly come a long way. I mean again 5-10 years ago, I think everybody would refrain from accepting that help whereas now, these kids recognize that they have resources and we’ve done a better job of communicating that.”

How big of a challenge has this past year been in terms of COVID in regards to sports medicine?

Trulock: “Obviously, I went through it from the NFL perspective which was a little bit different. It was a monumental challenge to try to put a season together and to make games happen. If you think back to this time last year, we didn’t know if games were going to be played and that was really our moment to say OK what can we do to help make this happen. It was a monumental task at that level, and in college, I would say it was even greater again just from the volume of athletes that they had to manage, of trying to put protocols in place to keep everybody safe, to keep them healthy and to put them on the field, especially at a time where protocols were changing, certainly by the week and by the day. We just had to be adaptive to the recommendations and follow what the science was telling us. And clearly, as I said, I don’t know if this year is going to be harder than last year but it may be more complicated because with the vaccine there’s differentiation for different groups and how we’re going to manage them. For us, for all of us, the challenge is going to be different but we still have challenges to face and students aren’t back on campus yet so we know, we might have to manage there.”

This article first appeared on OrlandoSentinel.com. Email Matt Murschel at mmurschel@orlandosentinel.com or follow him on Twitter at @osmattmurschel.

©2021 Orlando Sentinel. Visit orlandosentinel.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.