From courtside to classroom, MUSC Health has the Cougars covered on and off the fields of play

November 17, 2020
Doctor spinning basketball on his finger on basketball court
Dr. Harris Slone is part of the new team at MUSC Health that will look after all the College of Charleston Cougars. Photo by Sarah Pack

If Clyde the Cougar stubs a paw, MUSC Health now has the College of Charleston mascot covered.

The two institutions recently inked a deal putting MUSC Health on the front lines of sports medicine for the 250-year-old college. From men’s basketball to women’s volleyball, if there’s an injury to any student athlete on or off the court, they will get the best care available in the state. 

“It’s a tremendous honor. Exciting is the right word. Our team looks forward to being able to deliver and elevate the level of care that their student body and student athletes can realize,” said Lee Leddy, M.D., MUSC Department of Orthopaedics and Physical Medicine chair and chief of the Musculoskeletal Integrated Center of Clinical Excellence. “It’s a real privilege and one that MUSC is uniquely well positioned to provide.” 

For the better part of a year and a half, Leddy said, MUSC Health’s Sports Medicine Team has been providing training room service to the Cougars. But an opportunity came along to expand that relationship and that’s exactly what they’ve done.

“It’s a tremendous honor. Exciting is the right word. Our team looks forward to being able to deliver and elevate the level of care that their student body and student athletes can realize."

 

Dr. Lee Leddy

The deal adds to an already impressive portfolio of MUSC Health partnerships, which includes providing care for the Charleston Battery, Charleston RiverDogs, S.C. Stingrays, tennis players at the Volvo Car Open; as well as many area high schools and during special events throughout the Lowcountry.

“I really think the College was impressed with the level of care provided in the training room,” Leddy said. “They have an outstanding group of trainers and a deep commitment to their athletes and we are truly honored that MUSC will have the opportunity to have an even greater impact.”

This relationship will be comprehensive and multi-disciplinary, Leddy said, not just focused on sprained ankles and torn ligaments, but concussion management, mental health, nutrition and even primary care. 

Leddy, a former collegiate basketball player at Emory University, will be joined by three fellowship trained orthopedic surgeons, Shane Woolf, M.D., Harris Slone, M.D., and Josef Eichinger, M.D., who will provide orthopedic coverage. Program support will be handled by MUSC Health physical therapist and Sports Medicine Manager Mike Barr. Primary care coverage will continue to be provided to student athletes by MUSC Health fellowship-trained primary care sports medicine physicians Alec DeCastro, M.D., Libby Winton, M.D., and Louis Gerena, M.D.

“This collaboration is really about the comprehensive nature of the program that MUSC has developed and will provide the College of Charleston students and student-athletes convenient access to nationally recognized experts,” Leddy said.