Athletes' Training Center

Colton's Comeback

Colton Fruhling describes the feeling of watching something he loves passing by, like his senior year of athletics, as sickening. This is because Colton sustained a serious knee injury during the football soap scrimmage this past fall, his senior year. He had read the run and was trying to turn the run back inside, but did not see the 300-pound lineman coming his way. Next thing he knew, he was on the ground in pain.

Emergency room doctors had led him to expect a positive outcome, but four days later he received the not so good news from Dr. Michael Walsh at Orthowest that he had definitely torn some ligaments and it would potentially be a nine month recovery. Colton describes the next few weeks as, “the worst in my life”. He would not only miss out on his senior year of football and probably the last time he would play competitive football, but also on his soccer season.

He went through physical therapy and was able to return to normal daily activities, but Colton needed more. He needed to be able to return to his full athletic potential. Together, Travis Manners, PT and Colton set goals and worked together to develop a program to meet those goals. Colton describes the hard work, “Every day I would get done with my workout and my legs would be so tired they would twitch, but after three months without doing something physical like that it was the best feeling in the world.”

How is Colton doing now, three weeks after completing his therapy at Athletes’ Training Center? He earned his starting position back in soccer and played his first full game less than two games into the season. As Colton describes it, “the cherry on top of it all was that I never expected to play this year."

~ Colton Fruhling

Colton Fruhling

Our son had a severe knee injury that occurred at the season opening football scrimmage of his senior year. This required extensive surgery to repair his knee. He then followed the usual route of physical therapy and was rehabilitated to normal daily activities. However, the goal for our son was to play the sport he loves....varsity soccer. I asked the surgeon how we could take Colton to the next level of physical therapy for high performance athletes. We were referred to Athletes’ Training Center.

We were impressed with the process and client attention from the very beginning. Travis Manners thoroughly tested our son's current performance level and determined he had a 40% deficit in his injured leg. This was six weeks before the beginning of soccer season. Colton and Travis set goals to help Colton work towards playing competitive soccer. Through the program that Travis designed for Colton he made amazing progress. The last time he was evaluated the deficit was below 10%.

When we met with the surgeon to determine if Colton was fit for competitive soccer, we were informed that Travis had made a comprehensive presentation to the surgeon showing video and reporting various strength, agility, and speed indicators and measurements. Because of the excellent physical therapy program at Athletes’ Training Center, Colton was able to achieve his goal of playing varsity soccer his senior year. This was almost a miracle as he was back on the field 6 months after surgery!!

We are so thankful to have access to the high caliber of knowledge and physical therapy programs at Athletes’ Training Center. It made a dream come true for one young man.

~ Ann Fruhling