Ex-Canucks rehab director laments therapy staff layoffs
Now with Golden State Warriors, he says fitness trainers need stability for success
Rick Celebrini made the leap from the Vancouver Canucks to the Golden State Warriors nearly four years ago to continue his passion for prevention and rehabilitation of soft-tissue injuries.
Not only was the Burnaby native enticed by the opportunity to join an elite National Basketball Association team as director of sports medicine and performance, the renowned physiotherapist had peace of mind in leaving the Canucks in a good place.
Before the 2015-16 National Hockey League season, Celebrini joined the Canucks as director of rehabilitation and promoted Jon Sanderson to director of medical services and head athletic therapist. He also worked closely with strength and conditioning director Roger Takahashi.
They developed a co-ordinated and integrated approach to player relationships to separate themselves from the “us-versus-them” attitude that's common in professional sports.
That all changed on Friday. Sanderson and Takahashi were fired by the new hockey operations department as part of a continued reshaping of the franchise. Also gone are assistant athletic therapist Dave Zarn, athletic therapist Nick Abbey-Jibb and assistant strength and conditioning coach Ken Hetzel. Only the director of applied sports science, Bryan Marshall, and Graeme Poole in human performance remain.
“I reached out to all of them and told them how bad I felt for them — it sucks,” Celebrini said Sunday following a Warriors practice in preparation for the Western Conference final series. “Those kind of changes are tough, but obviously the organization wanted to go in a different direction.
“It can be common, but not typical. In European soccer, it's much more common. An Italian coach will come into one of the Premier (League) teams and bring in his whole medical staff, performance staff and fitness coach. I just don't think that's a good model. You should have stability in certain parts of the organization with the philosophy and approach.
“That should be stable and withstand the changes with coaches or players. I came in with Trevor (president of hockey operations Linden) and we wanted to build something special there and it's too bad. It's an organization that's trying to figure itself out in a lot of different areas.”
As for Celebrini, advances in his specialty include introduction of broader analytics to understand movements of each player. If you know the mechanics of how a player pivots, posts up or drives to the net, then there's a path to injury prevention.
“I can speak to Golden State where it's probably the most integrated environment that I've been in,” said Celebrini, a former soccer player, who worked in a similar capacity with the Vancouver Whitecaps and Canadian alpine ski team for three Winter Olympics.
“It's working with coaches and skills and conditioning, but also marrying it to the explosion of analytics and really looking at how the sports science can support analytics. And that's the exciting part and where a lot of the growth is happening.
“We work to needs of the player and go from there. Is it the first three-step acceleration and maybe not closing out quickly enough on shots? We first look at what the limitations are — acceleration or power — and work on that.
“Another player may not need that because he's a post player and has really good strength and balance. We start to define what we do and how we do it as opposed to working backward. You can strengthen a player, but it might be irrelevant in how you play him.”
Stephen Curry plays hard and fast. The superlative Warriors' point guard sat out the last 12 games of the regular season with a foot ligament strain and it was actually a blessing, according to Celebrini.
“He has actually been really resilient, except of this last two events,” he said. “On one, he landed on his ass on a step-out (shot) and somebody then landed on his leg. But these are almost like welcomed breaks. He runs so hot and for so long and plays big, tough minutes.
“He's fresh, but we need to be conservative and cautious because that (ligament) is a tricky injury. You can lose stability in the foot very quickly. And that can be catastrophic if not managed properly or if the player is rushed at any point.”
On Friday, Curry had 29 points, including six three-pointers, as the Warriors defeated the Memphis Grizzlies 110-96 to win the bestof-seven semifinal series 4-2.
One continuous challenge for Celebrini is dealing with COVID -19. Players are often slow to recover from the virus — Canucks captain Bo Horvat had just three points (12) in his first eight games back after a January diagnosis sidelined the centre for five games — and no two cases are alike.
Long-haul symptoms also sidelined Canucks centre Brandon Sutter for the entire season.
“Scientific papers have been written on the proper protocols,” said Celebrini, who returned to work Sunday after contracting COVID-19. “We've mapped out a specific plan with some of the complications that can happen — especially anything that's linked to the cardiorespiratory system.”
■ OVERTIME: One name that could pop up on the Canucks' hiring radar is Pittsburgh Penguins' skating, skills and development coach Ty Hennes. With new ownership, there could be changes in the human performance department.