Todd Botto
Episode 313
27 JAN 2025
He is a Professor of Athletic Training & Sports Medicine at Quinnipiac University. Over the last 30+ years he has worked in higher education teaching the next generation of athletic training and physical therapy students. He has also practiced clinically in a variety of athletic settings providing medical and rehabilitative services, including having worked as an athletic trainer in professional baseball here in the U.S. and professional soccer in Costa Rica. He was also the Rehabilitation Coordinator, Head Basketball and Assistant Football Athletic Trainer at the University of Southern Mississippi. He worked as a private consultant in the industrial athletic training setting and has provided medical coverage for numerous high school and private athletic events. Over his three-plus decades of professional service he has provided medical coverage for an estimated 7500 athletic events.
Notable guest quotes:
“I was about six years old when I started competitive swimming, and I played baseball and basketball. I did that all the way up through about 14 years old and then I eventually got a part-time job at 14 and I stopped playing sports at that area, but I always had interest in sports and later on I got involved in sports medicine.”
“At (age) 21 I had an accident in the summer … I fell 27 feet on the concrete and broke six bones, herniated two cervical disks, ended up in a wheelchair for a little while and it really changed my career path… During my rehab … the athletic trainers … did my rehabilitation and that’s why I first learned about the field of athletic training and became interested in that.”
“I wanted to go into communications because ESPN just kind of started up some years earlier and I was thinking about going to work at ESPN because I wanted to be around sports in some fashion. I didn’t know sports medicine existed.”
“On my drive home, I decided I had to change career paths just because I thought I wasn’t leading the life that God wanted me to live.”
“My career became everything; it really became my God. Where you spend your time is where your God is, where you spend your attention is.”
“God was really like Santa Claus to me in a way; I wanted to believe in them, but I never really felt Him in my life.”
“When we think of practicing like in a sports sense, you’re thinking about somebody giving their all to get better. And as a practicing Catholic I wasn’t doing that. I was basically kind of going through whatever motions I thought at the time would check the box.”
“I prayed asking the Blessed Mother – and I still do it to this day – to bring the people into my life that are gonna help me and redirect me towards God.”
“The big thing is – in Medjugorje – is that you could feel that God’s really there. I really truly believe the Blessed Mother’s there. It’s something that I cannot explain. We saw the statue of the risen Christ weep at the top of Cross Mountain.”
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