By R.J. Anderson
R.J. Anderson is an Assistant Editor at Training & Conditioning.
Training & Conditioning, 14.4, May/June 2004, http://www.momentummedia.com/articles/tc/tc1404/joneses.htm
Three brothers, three wrestlers, three state titles. And three surgeries—on the same spot, for the same condition.
The third and youngest brother would go on to win yet another state high school title with a piece of his right elbow bolted together, and his spirit strengthened during his rehab by the knowledge that his big brothers made it through the same challenge.
Just five months before earning his first state title, Donnie Jones went under the knife to have a screw inserted in his elbow to bolt his olecranon physis (growth plate) to the ulna bone. Like his older brothers Vertus and Greg, Donnie Jones had failures of fusion of the olecranon physis during wrestling season. "The doctors are pretty sure it is a genetic condition," says Jones. "But there aren’t any studies, so they can’t really prove it."
As a 130-pound freshman, Jones complained of right posterior elbow pain after pushing off of another wrestler during a tournament. "My initial assessment was a strain of the triceps tendon at the insertion onto the olecranon," says Jesse Townsend, MS, ATC, Athletic Trainer for Greensburg Salem (Pa.) High School. "He was only in moderate pain and was still wrestling effectively, so I taped his elbow to assist with elbow extension, and to keep it from fully extending—which was where he felt the most pain. But knowing the history of his brothers’ injuries [though Townsend never treated Vertus or Greg], I knew that this condition was certainly a differential diagnosis."
Jones’s injury was familiar to Randy Parsley, Head Wrestling Coach at Greensburg Salem. "When Donnie first told me his elbow was hurting, I said, ‘Not again!’" he says. "With Donnie having it as a freshman, and not being as physically mature, we really didn’t know how he was going to react."
Since the pain was tolerable and he was winning, Jones did not want to see a doctor during wrestling season. Jones went on to run hurdles as a member of the track team in the spring and held off having the surgery until the first day of the next school year. On Aug. 28, 2002, Patrick McMahon, MD, an Orthopedic Surgeon at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC), treated Jones with an open reduction and internal fixation. Twelve days after the surgery, Jones began working with Townsend in the athletic training room. His goal was to be ready for the first day of wrestling practice, which was 11 weeks away.
A defensive end on the football team, Jones was forced to sit out his entire sophomore season while he rehabbed his surgically repaired elbow. That season proved especially difficult.
"Walking into the weightroom and seeing all my teammates hanging out and joking around was tough," says Jones. "There I was rehabbing off to the side—not able to participate in any of the fun. But, I have to say, wanting to be back around my teammates really pushed me to attack my rehab."
Jones was encouraged by family history. Eight years earlier during his senior season, Jones’s oldest brother, Vertus, had sustained the same elbow injury. He, too, finished out the season before undergoing surgery. Vertus went on to become a three-time NCAA All-American at West Virginia University.
Greg, the middle brother, was diagnosed with the same condition midway through his junior season. He also finished out the season, by the end of which he sustained a shoulder injury. Surgery was planned for both, but pre-op X-rays showed that his olecranon physis had re-fused on its own, so only his shoulder was operated on. Greg went on to win a state championship his senior season and later claimed two NCAA National Championships for West Virginia, the most recent in 2004.
Donnie figured that if his brothers could make it back to top form, he could, too. He would also have them in his corner when he needed encouragement. "They were definitely there to support me," says Jones. "They told me not to slack off, because hard work would pay off down the line."
Jones says that Vertus, now an Assistant Wrestling Coach at North Hills (Pa.) High School, frequently shared exercises and advice. Jones took some of those exercises and advice to Townsend, who integrated them into the rehab program.
"At the beginning, the big barrier was his range of motion," says Townsend, who worked with Jones at the school’s facilities an hour and a half each day, five days a week. "He was lacking 20 degrees of extension—he couldn’t straighten his elbow out. My goals were to eliminate his pain and return his strength and range of motion in time for wrestling season."
Townsend says that because of the rarity of the injury, he couldn’t find any athletic trainers who had heard of it, let alone treated it. After researching on the Internet and corresponding with McMahon, Townsend was able to design a rehab program for Jones.
The first week mainly consisted of applying heat and ultrasound, along with stretching exercises such as wrist flexion/extension and elbow extension/flexion/supination/pronation. Townsend also prescribed progressive-resistance exercises using dumbbells of two to five pounds. After the first week, low-resistance Thera-band exercises designed to work on shoulder and elbow flexion/extension were incorporated into the program.
By week four, Jones graduated to more strength-building exercises such as wall push-ups, push-ups on knees, and broom handle wrist flexion/extension drills. But he still lacked 13 degrees of extension and continued to have weakness with elbow flexion/extension.
Townsend says by week five, Jones felt good, and noticed mild pain only with changes of weather. By then, he lacked only nine degrees of extension in his elbow. He began running and hand-walking on a stepper machine, and did some non-contact, non-weight bearing functional wrestling drills. He also progressed to standard push-ups in place of knee push-ups.
Jones went back to see McMahon during the sixth week. X-rays showed that the screw was in place and that the bone had fused properly—the surgery had worked.
"I was so relieved," says Townsend. "With the bone healed, we knew we could move forward into heavy lifting and get aggressive with strengthening the triceps and getting his range of motion back."
For the next three weeks, Jones stepped up the intensity and began Plyoball exercises, along with heavy weightlifting. With an emphasis on strengthening the triceps, Townsend had Jones perform triceps pull-downs, butterflies, bench/incline presses, military presses, dips, progressive resistive exercises with dumbbells, pull-ups, and exercises on the tackle and pullover machines. Jones also jumped rope, did box push-ups, and timed "wheelbarrow" exercises.
"For me, the most difficult part of Donnie’s rehab was when it came time to really strengthen his elbow and to regain range of motion," says Townsend. "The hardest part was riding that fine line between being as aggressive as possible and being careful not to do any damage."
Eleven weeks after the surgery—and coinciding with the first day of wrestling practice—Jones was cleared to resume full participation in athletics. There was no swelling in the elbow but the joint continued to lack about nine degrees of extension. Within a month, however, Jones’s elbow was at full strength and he had full range of motion and full extension.
A protective pad on his right elbow was the only indicator that Jones was still concerned about the joint. Midway through the season the pad came off. For Townsend, that was a sign that Jones was all the way back.
Once the season was under way, Townsend’s work with Jones was pretty much over. "Wrestling is so demanding that just going to practice and competing in matches was therapy enough," says Townsend. "He was constantly training his muscles, so I wasn’t too worried about him losing any strength in his elbow."
When the 2002-03 season ended, Jones had a 38-2 record, and wrestled his way to a state championship at 130 pounds. Both the title and the comeback put him on par with his brothers. But Jones may have surpassed them a bit in 2003-04, when he capped off an undefeated junior season by winning a second-straight state championship—this time at 140 pounds.
"Donnie was one of the most compliant and hard-working patients I’ve ever dealt with," says Townsend. "He put a lot of trust in me and was willing to do whatever I wanted him to."
Parsley gives a lot of credit to Townsend for Jones’s successful return. "The work that Jesse does with our athletes is unbelievable," says Parsley. "I tell people all the time that Jesse’s the most important guy in our athletic department. I have all the faith in the world in his ability.
"He tells all the kids straight up what it’s going to take for them to return from an injury," Parsley adds. "Then he makes it enjoyable for them to do the workouts."
Next year Jones will be a senior, and besides running track and playing football, he will be gunning for his third state wrestling championship. As to where he’s planning to go to college, Jones hasn’t made any commitments yet.
"People think that because both my brothers went to West Virginia, that’s where I’m going," says Jones. "But I’m keeping my options open—I want to see what’s out there."