随时待命

在COVID-19大流行期间, the first and last calls that Carolina Athletic Director Bubba Cunningham made each day were to Dr. 马里奥Ciocca. 作为运动医学主任, Ciocca put in long hours to make sure Carolina’s 800+ student-athletes stayed healthy and continued to play sports safely.

“经历了这么多的压力和不确定性, 他平静地处理了一切, patience and care — never turning down a Zoom meeting with a team or text from a coach. 他一直孜孜不倦地努力,坎宁安写道 in his letter nominating Ciocca for the Massey Award. “His medical care has helped thousands of students fulfill their dreams of competing at the college and professional levels. 通过这次大流行, 他的奉献精神, 同情, 指导, 恩典和服务激励着我们所有人.”

这是他职业生涯中最大的挑战, 2020年春季，美国田径运动面临全面停摆, followed by an uncertain fall 2020 semester and the full-blown return of 27 sports for spring 2021. 在那混乱的一年半里，柏油脚跟队的学生运动员 它们不仅在大流行中幸存下来，而且茁壮成长， capturing a national title in field hockey and making it to the national semifinals in five other sports: men’s and women’s lacrosse, 男子、女子足球和女子网球.

工程与锻炼

Ciocca knows what it’s like to be a young college athlete with your dreams put on hold by forces outside your control. 在他的案例中, 在哥伦比亚大学读大二之后, he had to work his way back to the pitcher’s mound from an elbow injury requiring surgery.

他曾在哥伦比亚大学学习电气工程. 他的父母, who had come to America from Italy in the 1950s for “opportunity and a better life,乔卡说, 总是鼓励我努力工作，接受教育.”

However, electrical engineering turned out to be a subject Ciocca didn’t really like. 他想在大联盟打棒球, 虽然他很优秀，可以为他的大学球队投球, 他知道自己永远不会成为职业球员. After surgery for his baseball injury and working with an athletic trainer for rehabilitation, 他开始考虑运动医学, 这是一份结合了他对运动的兴趣的职业, 健康和体育与科学. He changed his major to biochemical engineering to fulfill pre-med requirements and, 从哥伦比亚大学毕业后, 被新泽西医学院录取.

许多从事运动医学工作的医生专攻矫形外科, 但乔卡走了一条略有不同的道路. “我有一位从事初级保健运动医学的导师, and I like the interaction with the patients that you have with that and the ability to take care of a multitude of conditions,他说.

在医学院的时候, 他还结识了一位同学并与之结婚, 辛西娅Denu, and the two new doctors began the 太阳城娱乐城 for a medical school program that would match both for residencies in internal medicine. 他们选择了卡罗莱纳, 他在那里完成了运动医学的研究, and she completed a fellowship in nephrology (which deals with kidneys).

“我们对北卡罗来纳州了解不多, 但我们还是来面试了, 我们俩都爱上了这里的一切,乔卡说. “我们以为我们会在这里待上三年.” That was in 1993 and both doctors, Ciocca and Denu-Ciocca, are still practicing medicine here. 他们还有四个孩子，年龄在15岁到25岁之间.

运动医学的变化

Carolina was an early adopter of the “independent medical model” of sports medicine, in which athletic trainers report to Student Affairs and Campus 健康, 不是去体育部, 在20世纪70年代实施这种模式. 对中暑等严重医疗问题的担忧, concussions and potential long-term disabilities take priority over any particular game.

“当你能挽救别人的生命时，这一切都是值得的. And I think that has happened a lot of times here with everyone that works here,乔卡说. “You are altering situations where they would have had some serious consequences, 无论是长期残疾还是死亡.”

The sports medicine staff has grown to include 15 athletic trainers, 四个医生, 一个护士, two nutritionists and three sports psychologists plus other Campus 健康 employees and interns.

“It’s become not just taking care of injuries but caring for the whole athlete including injury prevention, 提高性能, 身体恢复的, 一般健康, 心理健康和身体健康,乔卡说.

健康安全

大流行期间, Ciocca and his staff maintained the delicate balance of protecting student-athletes from a highly contagious disease and helping them continue to compete in their sports. Each sport had its own challenges; there was no one-mask-fits-all solution.

团队在室外开会，而不是在室内. 他们乘坐更多的公共汽车，这样球员们可以坐得更远. Student-athletes picked up box lunches instead of eating together in a dining hall. 排球队队员在比赛时戴着面具. 摔跤手不戴面具, but they were tested three times a week 也 as within 48-hours before and after each match. Basketball players used wearable technology that tracked when they came within 6 feet of each other.

“He helped put together best practices when we had to shut down sports last spring, oversaw the drafting of policies and procedures when student-athletes and coaches were allowed to return in the fall and has continuously guided us through everything from testing to contact tracing to travel best practices to isolation lengths,坎宁安写道. “他一直是大西洋海岸会议的领导者, 也, serving as Carolina’s representative on the ACC’s Medical Advisory Group, 为所有15所联盟学校制定与COVID-19相关的规则.”

For his leadership and service throughout the pandemic, Ciocca received the 2021 Massey Award.

“从大流行一开始, he has been a rock and helped us provide a roadmap that has afforded our athletes the opportunity to compete in their sports safely and successfully,德怀特·霍利尔写道, senior associate athletics director for student-athlete health and well-being, 谁支持提名. “Dr. Ciocca never wavered, and our athletics department has benefited significantly.”

这个故事是油井对C的报道的一部分. 诺克斯·梅西杰出服务奖, 它承认“不寻常”, 大学员工的“有功或卓越贡献”. 在接下来的几周或阅读中寻找新的收件人简介 其他你可能错过的.