WINONA
STATE
WHIiVERSITY
AL
UMNI
NEWS
Alumnus Profile: Wally Blase ’92
From WSU to the NBA Training with the Atlanta Hawks For Wally Blase 92 business travel means
hopping on chartered flights in custom-built planes, staying at first-class hotels, and crisscrossing the country with famous colleagues. Sound like a dream job? Wally thinks so he is —
head athletic trainer for the Atlanta Hawks. His
path to the NBA was not a straight shot by any means. It began back in his high school days at a boys’ prep school in his hometown of Niles, Illinois. “A trainer came to our PE class and showed us what an athletic trainer does. We learned how to
tape
ankles for the wrestling and basketball teams,”
Wally recalls. At Winona, after briefly flirting with an Art major, Wally majored in Exercise Science, with an emphasis in Sports Medicine. He cites Professor and Head Athletic Trainer, Shelly Nelson, for whom he worked as a student trainer, as his
biggest influence. “She is an incredible teacher with a terrific knowledge-base who showed us every aspect of athletic training.” Finding that first-job-out-of-college in a field which typically has few openings did not come easy for the young WSU grad. But by March, he was a head trainer in the Arena Football League, working for the Cincinnati Rockers. “At age 22, the job was trial by fire, but Shelly prepared me well. At a big university, I would have worked under graduate students, but at WSU, I was getting hands-on experience traveling with the women’s gymnastics team for three years as well as working
experience working for the Rockers I videotaped games, was in charge of equipment and travel,” he says. “And, the position gave me my first exposure to professional sports, a field I knew I wanted to stay in.” Back in Chicago, Wally took a part-time job as an assistant trainer in a high school. “While
with the football team.” When the Rockers folded a
and help out. They told me ‘that they didn’t offer
year later, Wally did what many 20-something
internships or assistant trainer jobs.’ I’m sure they
—
—
_
college grads do when losing a job
—
—
the kids were in class, I called every pro team in
Chicago: the Bears, Bulls, Cubs, Sox
—
you
name it.”
Finally, Wally “got lucky” with the Bulls, but not until after a good deal of persistence. “I called the Bulls
—
it was just after they had won their third
NBA championship
—
and asked ifI could come in
he moved
back in with Mom and Dad. “I gained broad
continued on page 20
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