Name: Keith D'Amelio
Year of Graduation: 2001
Degree/Major: B.S.
 
Keith D’Amelio says his job with the National Basketball Association is working out so well, he’d like to get other ASU students involved.

As the assistant athletic trainer/strength and conditioning coach for the Toronto Raptors, an NBA team known for physical play, Keith, 29, designs personalized workout programs to keep each squad member in shape. And that can be a challenge, considering how the Raptors hustled and banged their way into the playoffs in 2008 for the second straight year.

“My job, first and foremost, is to keep players from getting injured,” he says, keeping an eye on several Raptors hefting weights at a recent training session. When a hard foul sends someone to the injury list, he says, “we’ll get together and formulate a rehab program to rebuild strength.”

Keith says he would like to do something to thank ASU and professors like Brent Alvar who helped prepare him for his career. His goal is to create an internship for ASU exercise majors with the Raptors.

“As a project in Dr. Alvar’s exercise science class, I sent internship applications to the Phoenix Suns and the Boston Celtics.” The Celtics, who play near Keith’s hometown of Andover, Massachusetts, hired him. “That really started me going, and I’d love to set up a program that could help others,” he said.

After interning with the Celtics, Keith interned with the Suns, then became strength and conditioning coach for the Asheville Altitude, a team in the NBA Development League. In 2004, he joined the Raptors.

Though his college buddies say they are awed by what he does, Keith asserts, “My job is just like any other job – except on game nights, when over 18,000 people pay to see the people I work with,” he says with a smile.

During the off-season, Keith maintains contact with most Raptors. He also a consultant for several area high school sports teams, and his company, Strength to the Future, offers personal training and Internet-based coaching to individuals and student athletes.

By Benjamin Gleisser, a Toronto-based freelance writer.