AUBURN, Ala. – Like a lot of athletes whose careers conclude after high school, David Walsh looked for a way to stay close to the game.
"I was always trying to figure out what would be my niche," Walsh said.
A high school coach mentioned athletic training, which Walsh began to pursue as a freshman at East Tennessee State.
Attending a conference with ETSU's head trainer, Walsh heard from Tab Blackburn, a legend in the industry.
"I told our head trainer, 'I want to know more than he does,' Walsh recalled. "He said, 'You're going to have to go to PT school to do that.' So, I went to physical therapy school, and lo and behold, my first job was with Tab, he was my boss."
Auburn's director of physical therapy, Walsh came to the Plains for grad school, earning his master's in education in 1985.
"I told my wife when I got married at some point in time I'd like to end up back at Auburn," he said. "The opportunity presented itself and here I am."
Walsh's workday begins before sunrise, when he and Auburn's athletic training staff start working with student-athletes rehabilitating from injuries.
"You want to affect what they do on the field, but my role, my passion is I want to affect their life outside of athletics," Walsh said. "I want them to be a better person. I want them to have a better education. I want them to realize there's more to life than what goes on on the court, on the field, whatever they're doing in athletics."
During Thursday's Tiger Giving Day, Tigers Unlimited will be raising funds for Auburn Athletics to purchase the BTE Eccentron, an eccentric leg press that will help Walsh help student-athletes.
Using eccentric (negative) resistance, Eccentron makes rehabilitation from lower extremity injuries more effective and efficient.
"It's instantaneous what you see," Walsh said. "There's no doubt it would be a game-changer because we can accelerate the rehab faster. It's something I know that we can use in here every day."
Eccentron provides a baseline to be able to track improvements and outcomes earlier in the rehab process while programming and recording every rep.
"It carries it forward every day, so you have something that, you can actually go by and see progression," he said.
"We do a great job. Don't get me wrong. But I would rather know quantitatively, this is where we're at. That's going to give us another tool."
For David Walsh, the payoff for all of those pre-dawn rehab sessions comes when he sees student-athletes return to their sport at full strength.
Another rich reward occurs on special occasions like birthdays and holidays when former Auburn student-athletes reach out. It's not uncommon for him to receive "Happy Father's Day" texts from former Tigers.
"I tell my wife," Walsh said, 'This is why I do what I do.'"
Jeff Shearer is a Senior Writer at AuburnTigers.com. Follow him on Twitter: @jeff_shearer