March 15, 2020

World Renown Surgeon Bert Mandelbaum is the Guest this Week on SSDL

90045 -  Prior to launching Sports Stories with Denny Lennon (SSDL), I was the Athletic Director at The Archer School for Girls in Brentwood, a private all girls school on the Westside of Los Angeles.  While we definitely had our share of “high profile” parents, it didn’t really affect our sports program. An athlete didn’t get extra points in a game for having a famous parent.  However, there was one parent, a superstar in his area of expertise, who gave Archer, and by extension, any other schools looking to protect their athletes, a huge assist.

Dr. Bert Mandelbaum, who sent three daughters through Archer, was that parent who came to the rescue of the athletic program.  Bert Mandelbaum, author of the 2014 book “The Win Within, Capturing Your Victorious Spirit”, has the kind of resume you marvel at, and then cherry pick when you’re writing about him.  He is among the foremost experts in prevention, diagnosis and treatment of orthopedic conditions.  He served and continues to serve as the medical director of the Federation of International Football Association Medical Center of Excellence, team physician for Major League Soccer Teams and the United States Soccer National Team; he is the director of research for Major League Baseball and serves on the United States Olympic Committee Advisory Group.  I really did only throw in a few of his posts, the man is a virtual database of successful sports medicine innovation and practices.

Bert and I struck up a relationship when his third daughter, Ava, played on the same Archer volleyball team as my daughter, Ciena.  In one school year alone, 2013-14, five girls at Archer tore their Anterior Cruciate Ligaments.  We were not the only schools witnessing a rise in female athletes tearing their ACL.  Bert called me to say we needed to do something, and so we did.  We started by having Archer coaches redesign their pre-practice and pre-game warm ups, using specific exercises that Bert and his team developed, ones particularly helped female athletes protect themselves.

The results were spectacular. We went to zero ACL tears that next year for Archer teams.  Our next step was to co-host an open seminar at Santa Monica College for any schools or sports programmers that wanted to attend. We rallied different medical groups to provide information, as well as pro athletes to provide testimony to the process.  With Bert’s guidance, we were able to make a difference in the lives of multiple Westside athletes. That is how Bert handles things.  He is indeed a superstar.

Now, with the coronavirus shutting down virtually all athletic events, including threatening the 2020 Olympic Games scheduled for this summer in Tokyo, I reached out to Bert for an interview, and he quickly agreed. That is how Bert handles things.  He is that kind of a person.  The Sports Stories crew will head to the Santa Monica Orthopedic & Sports Medicine Group building this coming Wednesday where Bert will provide his unique insight into this new challenge facing all of us.  

Episode 24 of Sports Stories with Denny Lennon with Dr. Bert Mandelbaum will be available to watch or listen on Thursday, March 19th.

2014 Sports Injury Prevention Seminar Video Report:  https://www.facebook.com/sportsstoriespodcast

SSDL Website: https://www.sportsstoriespodcast.com/  

Associated link:  https://www.amazon.com/Win-Within-Capturing-Victorious-Spirit/dp/1626341311

• Denny Lennon is the Host of the Video Podcast, “Sports Stories with Denny Lennon”