Sheri Walters | Coordinating Injury Prevention

Sheri Walters’ journey to Director of Sports Medicine at Texas A&M University reflects a career defined by innovation, collaboration, and comprehensive integration. Walters discusses the "arms race" in collegiate athletics and how Texas A&M shatters silos through unit alignment and being intentionally present. Drawing from her EXOS experience, she highlights the impact of integrating sports medicine with strength and conditioning. Walters employs research-based cross-body training to maintain strength, prioritizing long-term rehabilitation over limb symmetry index testing. She explains how her Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist® (CSCS®) and Certified Performance and Sport Scientist® (CPSS®) credentials enable her to elevate rehabilitation and speak the language of sport performance professionals. Walters underscores the importance of getting student-athletes back to team strength and conditioning as soon as tissues can tolerate it to promote physiological and psychological healing. She also shares how strength and conditioning coaches can optimize return to performance and reduce reinjury risk.

Email Sheri at swalters@athletics.tamu.edu | Find Eric on Instagram: @ericmcmahoncscs and LinkedIn: @ericmcmahoncscs

Catch Sheri’s session on bridging the gap in the collegiate setting LIVE at the 2025 NSCA Coaches Conference! Register to watch online at NSCA.com/Coaches.

Fascinated by the intersection between strength and conditioning and sports medicine? Join other professionals in the Sports Medicine/Rehabilitation Specialist Interest Group (SIG) to discover more resources and engage in discussion.

“The goal is to keep them as strong as possible on the uninvolved side, and then likewise, upper body. I don't want to be rehabbing a lower body injury and then turn around next season having to rehab an upper because we didn't maintain that strength. Those are all things that very early on, the strength coach can take. It helps from a physiological healing standpoint. It also helps from a psychological standpoint to be back with their team and doing a lot of their normal activities. By maintaining my CSCS, by getting my CPSS, it's helped me to be able to speak the same language as those professionals, and then ultimately, get the best outcome for our student athletes.” 8:25
“We can make sure the tissue can tolerate the load, and then as soon as possible, integrate it back in. So for us, it's very critical that we're working very early on with the strength and conditioning coach to make that transition.” 17:00
“I always encourage students pursuing strength and conditioning coaching careers to do is to get into a training room, connect with members of the sports medicine team and profession. They may do that as athletes before they become a strength coach, but especially for those who maybe don't have a high-level athletic experience, connecting with sports medicine professionals is extremely valuable.” 20:20

[00:00:02.65] Welcome to the NSCA Coaching Podcast, Season 8, Episode 17.

[00:00:07.90] And so the goal is to keep them as strong as possible on the uninvolved side, and then likewise, upper body. So I don't want to be rehabbing a lower body injury and then turn around next season having to rehab an upper because we didn't maintain that strength.

[00:00:21.83] So those are all things that very early on, the strength coach can take. It helps from a physiological healing standpoint. It also helps from a psychological standpoint to be back with their team and doing a lot of their normal activities. And so by maintaining my CSCS, by getting my CPSS, it's helped me to be able to speak the same language as those professionals and then, ultimately, get the best outcome for our student athletes.

[00:00:49.33] This is the NSCA's Coaching Podcast, where we talk to strength and conditioning coaches about what you really need to, but probably didn't learn in school. There's strength and conditioning, and then there's everything else.

[00:01:00.13] This is the NSCA Coaching Podcast. I'm Eric McMahon, NSCA's coaching and sports science program manager. And today, we have a different kind of episode for you. 99% of the guests we have on the podcast are active strength and conditioning coaches working at various levels throughout the industry.

[00:01:18.68] This episode focuses on sports medicine and the impact of sports medicine on strength and conditioning. Let's call it coordinating injury prevention. We're joined today by Sherri Walters, the director of Sports Medicine at Texas A&M University. Sherri, welcome.

[00:01:36.30] Thanks for having me.

[00:01:37.56] Yeah, we got to connect a few times at the University of Texas clinic. And then a little while after down on campus, we were snowed in, actually, on Martin Luther King Day in the weight room. Got to see your physical therapy and athletic training room set up there, and we can talk about that a little bit. But just wanted to give you the opportunity to share how you ended up at Texas A&M.

[00:02:02.66] Yeah. Well, students often ask me that, and I kind of joke a little bit that it was a little bit of a torturous path. It was very roundabout, about getting to this destination, but definitely, not the straightest path, but wouldn't really change it for any reason, just because of the people that I met along the way and some of the experiences that I've had and the things that I've learned.

[00:02:24.11] I started out undergrad degree at East Central University. And it was one of the old school hyper degrees, so health, physical education, and recreation. Had a concentration in athletic training, so it was the old school internship route to getting that certification.

[00:02:40.80] At the time, it was kind of considered more like a subpar way to do it because of the new entry level athletic training programs being accredited through Katie. But now, I'm super grateful that that's the route that I had because I learned a lot through that process about teaching and coaching movement. So appropriately, teaching lifts and movement integration, return to running, teaching kids how to run correctly, change direction, which I've found very useful in my career. And it's not something that most traditional now athletic training students get in their curriculum.

[00:03:16.80] But coming from that program, knowing that I wanted to work at a higher level of sport, I ended up going to the University of Florida that had a master's level curriculum program. And then, obviously, there, the ability to work at a higher level of sport with the football program. Before that kind of in-between for a gap season. I'd spent some time with the WNBA in Detroit and the NBA team up there.

[00:03:41.55] Got my master's in athletic training, but knew already before entering that program that I wanted to specialize in rehab and so already had the intentions of going to PT school. Did that there at Florida, spent time at University of Georgia and an internship. And then my last rotation was with Dr. Keith Meister, who's the head team physician for the Texas Rangers.

[00:04:02.70] So spent some time there with those guys, kind of looked around now and knew that probably not a lot of opportunity for advancement, because the folks that were with him had been with him for a while. In fact, when they won the World Series last year, it was still the same crew.

[00:04:16.32] So left there, went to Indiana State, was the rehab coordinator at Indiana State, eventually, the head athletic trainer there. Actually, was diagnosed with cancer while I was up there. So I was looking to get a little bit closer to home and had the opportunity with athletes performance now called Exos opening up a facility in Frisco, Texas. It was about an hour and a half from home. And so I got the opportunity to work very closely with Mark Verstegen, Sue Falsone, Brent Callaway, that whole group of guys, Nick Winkelman.

[00:04:46.08] And so took that opportunity to go out to Exos. I was there for eight years and eventually, was overseeing all of the legacy facility rehab facilities and then had the opportunity to work with USA Women's Ice Hockey, live with them in residency for eight months before the Olympic games and then a month in Pyeongchang. Got to be with them when they won the gold medal, beat Canada for the first time in the games in 20 years.

[00:05:12.72] And then after that, finished my PhD. I just had my dissertation that was all that was left and was trying to figure out what was next. And the position at Texas A&M came available, and here I am.

[00:05:24.33] Cool. You have tons of experience. You've been a lot of places. I know Exos is a name that jumps out to a lot of members of the strength and conditioning profession and being there on the sports medicine physical therapy side, I think it's actually really innovative the approach Exos has taken of integrating sports medicine and strength and conditioning in that private sector environment for athletes.

[00:05:49.87] I think of all the athletes that train there on the baseball side and the offseason in Frisco, but also, just all the combine prep programs they have. And that's really been a huge growth space in our field. And I think it's challenged our thinking quite a bit. So it's really cool that you've had that experience.

[00:06:07.90] One thing I say, you're an AT, you're a PT, but you have always been well connected to the NSCA. How has the NSCA helped you professionally?

[00:06:17.37] Yeah, and just even going back to the Exos piece too, a little bit, I often tell my athletic training students, my PT students, that when I got to Exos, I thought I knew how to train, return to run, return to change of direction, how to train jumping, how to train the lifts. I was already CSCS, but honestly, I didn't really know.

[00:06:41.83] And so what I learned from the strength coaches at those facilities completely changed how I approached rehab. I learned so much from that group of performance coaches that it's things that I integrate into every single rehab that I do now. And so that piece of it was transformational in my career in the same way that the NSCA has been kind of transformational.

[00:07:07.55] I have to be able to communicate effectively with the strength coach, because ultimately, the goal for anybody that I work with is not a return to play or a return to competition. It's a return to a high level of performance. And so to get there, they're going to have to get back to the weight room and strength and conditioning coach.

[00:07:27.66] That's one of our early, early goals, is to be able to get them back to that point. The quicker I can do that, the more successful we're all going to be, the better for the athlete. But I have to know what that entails as a rehab professional. I have to know what those lifts look like. I have to be able to communicate with the strength coach what I'm needing from them. I need to know, from my end, can the tissue handle it or not. If it can't handle it, can the strength coach do some cross body training?

[00:07:56.69] Research tells us that if I've got a right knee injury, if the strength coach can work the left side, the right one is going to get better. A lot of rehab professionals think, well, I don't want the strength coach to work the left-hand side because I've got to catch it. I have to get them symmetrical for them to be able to return back to sport because of all the limb symmetry index testing that we do.

[00:08:19.52] What I know is if we don't work that left-hand side, then next season, I'm going to be rehabbing in. And so the goal is to keep them as strong as possible on the uninvolved side, and then likewise, upper body. So I don't want to be rehabbing a lower body injury and then turn around next season having to rehab an upper because we didn't maintain that strength.

[00:08:39.99] So those are all things that very early on, the strength coach can take. It helps from a physiological healing standpoint. It also helps from a psychological standpoint to be back with their team and doing a lot of their normal activities. And so by maintaining my CSCS, by getting my CPSS, it's helped me to be able to speak the same language as those professionals, and then ultimately, get the best outcome for our student athletes.

[00:09:05.41] So when I visited A&M, you had a really unique training room, we'll call it, at the time. I think there was a renovation about to go on or something in the works. But you can tell us about that. It was right in the weight room. You were there. There was a ton of collaboration going on with you, your staff, the strength and conditioning staff.

[00:09:27.10] It was a unique day. I remember we were snowed in Martin Luther King Day. I mean, that doesn't happen too much down in College Station.

[00:09:35.29] In Texas.

[00:09:36.47] So yeah, driving around that day was interesting. Fortunately, the students weren't all back on campus yet, so it wasn't too wild down there. But I was having a great time just seeing how things operated. In your department and obviously with Bo and the entire strength and conditioning staff there, how are things structured at A&M so that it promotes this collaboration that you're talking about?

[00:10:01.96] Yeah, I think there's several levels to that at Texas A&M. One is just the organizational structure, in general. All of our performance and wellness units report up through the same person. And so we have regular performance and wellness directors, meetings where we discuss some of the bigger ideas of how we want our units to best integrate and the direction we want to move as a whole.

[00:10:26.01] And then on a sport level, each of those departments will meet on a regular basis to strategize more at the sport level. So for example, if your basketball coach wants to run more half-court sets like what that looks like from a performance and wellness standpoint, how do they best strategize to maximize that versus if they want a full-court press on defense and run a more up tempo. How does that sport help to manage that at that sport level? But underneath that big, more global kind of umbrella.

[00:10:56.93] Another level of the structure, I think has been more intentional from a sports medicine standpoint. And then specifically, when I got here with that background from Exos, we want sports medicine to try to make a more intentional effort for the athletic trainers, the physical therapists to be in the weight room during the training sessions.

[00:11:18.39] We're very fortunate with football, baseball, the basketballs that their weight room is in, their facilities. But for all of the Olympic sports, it's in a centralized location. And so they might do all of their tennis training out at the tennis complex, but they're doing their strength and conditioning maybe in the weight room. And so we try to be very intentional for the athletic trainer to be in the weight room during those lifts for a lot of reasons, including helping with any sort of modifications that an athlete may need.

[00:11:45.27] So if you've got a 32-person soccer team and there's only one strict conditioning professional, that athletic trainer can help make those modifications for the kids that need it. It might be just an extra set of eyes and hands. If you've got 10 freshmen and they don't know how to do the lift, the athletic trainer can assist with that. It helps to build rapport with the strict conditioning coach so that those two professionals have a stronger relationship.

[00:12:09.45] And then, quite frankly, sometimes it's helped to just be present when the athletes try to play mom against dad. Well, go tell the strength coach, hey, the athletic trainer said I can't do that, and I have trainers sitting right there, like, no, that's not what I said. Because we're all trying to, ultimately, get the athlete back into the weight room and doing what they should be with the strength coach as soon as possible.

[00:12:29.40] So we've been pretty intentional with that piece of it to help with that integration. And I think the third piece of that is the geography. I think in this arms race within collegiate athletics, for people to be more and more siloed by sport so that everything is in one building for the convenience of the student athlete, you do have more of these weight rooms that are in their own building, which is great from a recruiting standpoint, but maybe not so much from an integration standpoint. And so we're just trying to be very intentional about trying to remove some of those barriers to that process.

[00:13:08.80] In terms of the physical therapy athletic training room being in the center of the weight room, that happened, as you said, just because of some remodeling construction. They tore down my old building to build the new indoor track facility, which is phenomenal. But a sport administrator who didn't know a whole lot about performance and wellness was going to try to put me in a very small athletic training room. I panicked because that's not how I'm used to functioning just off of a table.

[00:13:38.49] It typically spent a lot of time no matter what in bigger spaces doing different movement integration drills with heavier weights and equipment. So Bo Sandoval, he took mercy on me, a little bit. He invited me into his space. He cleared out a nice space for me, because he, obviously, has a strong value, a strong opinion of that integration as well. And so like I said, he had a little pity for me and took me under his wing into that facility, which, obviously, helps with that integration piece.

[00:14:12.03] I think that's really cool. I'd never really seen anything quite like that, where I mean, coming up through professional baseball, we have a lot of small facilities where we're sharing a lot of space. But when you go to A&M, you're thinking everybody has their own building. Everybody is going to have their own space. And to go in there and just see everybody working together like that and just getting past the fact that, OK, we're working through this renovation and making the most of it, it was a really positive and encouraging environment for the athletes that I saw training in there.

[00:14:46.48] And I just was really impressed by that environment and that integration. It was really impressive. So kudos to your team and your staff, and I think it's just really great what you guys are doing for the profession.

[00:15:02.25] So you mentioned how a strength and conditioning coach can be involved in the return to play a return to performance process. Can you give an example of where a strength coach was crucial to the success of a rehab program with some of your athletes?

[00:15:25.57] Yeah, it's hard just to give one just because here, we try to make them integral to that process as quickly as possible. But a common scenario would just be any post-op knee situation, so even post op ACL. And just very specific examples, as soon as a kid can do a bilateral squat and/or RDL pattern and its symmetrical.

[00:15:52.07] So research tells us that often, even two years after an ACL reconstruction, that if you put them on a force plate, they're going to be asymmetrical. So we work from the beginning to get that symmetrical with bodyweight. As soon as they are, then we start to load it. As soon as we get to that point, that's when I kick that to the strict conditioning coach.

[00:16:12.37] Because they may not be lifting the same amount of weight as a teammate, but they can now do that with their teammate, and they're not reinforcing a bad pattern because we've got it symmetrical. And that's typically very early on in the rehab process here.

[00:16:27.92] Once the strength coach takes that portion on, I'm going to focus more on maybe the single leg patterns or adding in some light impact or some of the movement integration drills. Once they master that, then I take that to the strength of their performance coach. So even when we get to the point where we're doing marches and skips, then the kid can do that as part of their team workout with the strength and conditioning coach or the performance coach.

[00:16:51.86] And so we try to transition those movements as quickly as possible. So again, they're integrated back in with their team, but then that allows me to focus on things that they have not yet done. We can make sure the tissue can tolerate the load, and then as soon as possible, integrate it back in. So for us, it's very critical that we're working very early on with the strict conditioning coach to make that transition.

[00:17:15.98] Sherry, let's take that process forward a little bit to when athletes get back from injury. They've returned to play. What sort of collaboration continues once the athletes fully back with their teams?

[00:17:29.72] Yeah. So once they hit certain milestones or certain criteria and they get progressively closer back to return to play, they're doing more and more things with the strength conditioning coach and less with us just from the thought process, the idea, David Joyce, he talks about it in his textbook, once an ACL, always an ACL, the compromised athlete.

[00:17:56.31] So once someone hurts their knee, we know that the retail rate is incredibly high, especially, for example, like women's soccer. So 50% of all collegiate soccer players, if they tear their ACL, they're going to tear one or the other before they finish their collegiate career. So to try to prevent that or minimize that risk, there are things that we try to do for the first full year as a collective unit, and some of that is maintaining some of those rehab exercises that we've done along the way to help prevent that.

[00:18:28.50] The street coach is the one that helps to coordinate that, so they'll add those in at the end of their session two to three times a week based on what's going on. So yeah, we know the greatest predictor of injury is previous injury. And so the strength coach is critical for us to help minimize that risk with certain things that we're already aware of.

[00:18:47.58] So there's a lot of moving parts in college athletics. Do you see a lot of challenges with the relationship side, between sport coaches, strength coaches, and medical staff, or do you just have such a dream team there that it's not an issue?

[00:19:01.71] People are messy. I think there are always issues. I think probably the biggest one comes from a lack of proper communication. It's hard when geography is a factor, and so that's what I love about our setup. And so I previously given the example of soccer, but our soccer strength and conditioning coach, I can literally reach through the doorway and grab a hold of her if I need to. Same thing, the sports scientist.

[00:19:26.26] And so if there's any information that I need about what an athlete is doing out on the field, those two professionals are within shouting distance of me. The music-- I gotta get my coach's voice going. I'm not a full-time strength coach, so I to work on my coach's voice. So I just holler down the hallway, and they're able to get that information back to me.

[00:19:46.80] But I think that's probably the greatest barrier that a lot of people have in the collegiate setting is that they don't have that proximity to have that very frequent interaction. And so Ashley's office, being right outside the rehab area, she sees and hears those kids come through the door to do their rehab on Monday, Wednesday, Friday. And so part of that integration, it's not one way me just going to hers. She makes a concerted effort to come out and interact with those student athletes too to know where they are and to help encourage them and help with that process too.

[00:20:18.73] One thing, I always encourage students pursuing strength and conditioning coaching careers to do is to get into a training room, connect with members of the sports medicine team and profession. They may do that as athletes before they become a strength coach, but especially for those who maybe don't have a high-level athletic experience, connecting with sports medicine professionals is extremely valuable.

[00:20:48.68] One, we have shared knowledge across a lot of the main disciplines that we operate in, but I hope this episode comes across as really encouraging and that a truly collaborative environment can come from just the immense knowledge that we have across rehabilitation from when an athlete first gets hurt, bringing them back into the fold with their teams.

[00:21:17.56] And I love that you bring it to performance. Maybe I don't hear that enough from the medical community is, it's not just getting back. You can be really healthy and not perform, and I love that that's the message from your sports medicine staff at A&M. And I think it puts your strength and conditioning staff in a position for success to keep pushing those athletes forward, especially when they're coming back from injury. So I really appreciate you sharing all that.

[00:21:52.25] One thing I want to bring up, you're speaking at the 2025 NCAA Coaches Conference this January. We're going to have a good time down in New Orleans. And I'd love for you to share a little sneak preview of what your session is going to be about.

[00:22:08.06] Well, kind of already alluded to a lot of it. We're talking about bridging the gap between that rehab and performance, so kind of stealing a little bit from Exos' methodology in terms of the talks that they give about that. Sue Falsone wrote a book on the topic, but it's going to be more specific to the barriers that we often face in the collegiate setting to being really effective at that. So we talked about a few of them now, and we'll elaborate on some of that a little bit more in New Orleans, along with some ideas for solutions for that.

[00:22:38.91] It'll be a good time. And for anyone listening in, wants to get a little more information, what's the best way for them to reach out?

[00:22:49.84] Probably my email, especially if they've got a direct question. It's SWalters@athletics.tamu.edu. I would just recommend folks be patient. Here, we always say that our student athletes come first, and so they're at the center of everything that we do. And I also manage 24 full-time athletic trainers. And so if they have questions or needs, they're going to be my priority. But be patient, and I will get back to you.

[00:23:21.86] Hope everyone enjoyed that episode of The NSCA Coaching Podcast, focusing on coordinating injury prevention from sports medicine to strength and conditioning and sports science. That was Sherri Walters from Texas A&M University. We appreciate everyone tuning in, and thank you to Sorinex exercise equipment. We appreciate their support.

[00:23:42.18] My name is Autumn Lockwood, and you just listened to an episode of The NSCA Coaching Podcast. And if you'd like to get involved in any sort of way for volunteer opportunity, make sure you head to ncaa.com, and you'll be able to find a list of them to get involved.

[00:23:59.74] This was the NSCA's Coaching Podcast. The National Strength and Conditioning Association was founded in 1978 by strength and conditioning coaches to share information, resources, and help advance the profession. Serving coaches for over 40 years, the NSCA is the trusted source for strength and conditioning professionals. Be sure to join us next time.

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