Athlete Highlight: Jessica Kelly
Jessica (15), from Mansfield, has been training at The Micheli Center since July 2015 as suggested by Boston Children’s Hospital Sports Medicine physicians, Dr. Andrea Stracciolini and Dr. Lyle Micheli.
After having surgery on both knees, which included lateral releases and plica removal procedures, Jessica came to The Micheli Center to find out why she continued to have pain with sports and activities. Analysis of her flexibility, strength, and running form revealed a multitude of strength imbalances and biomechanical inefficiencies that warranted her taking part in the gait retraining program. While gaining a significant amount of strength during her training, she notes she’s “learned that your muscles need to be strong, but they also need to be flexible. Running is something that most people take for granted but after two knee surgeries and being a dancer for 10 years, I couldn’t run 10 steps without intense pain. The Micheli Center taught me how to hit my strides with good form and pain free!”
As Jessica started to enjoy her success in The Micheli Center and outside running, she suffered her second lifetime concussion which kept her out of softball, her favorite sport, for the fourth year in a row. Not to be derailed from staying active, she followed the return to play guidelines prescribed by Dr. Michael O’Brien from Boston Children’s Hospital Sports Medicine and took part in summer training once symptom free. Now Jessica is essentially symptom-free while pushing her workouts to the limit and is looking forward to getting back to playing softball. She loves to play first base and looks up to Jade Rhodes, the 1st baseman for the Auburn University softball team, the very same position Jessica loves to play!