Chrissy Rickert, DPT
Director of Sports Medicine and Team Physical Therapist
Email: crickert@my-fca.com
Hello! I am Dr. Rickert, aka Coach Rickert, and I have been FCA’s Sports PT since 2021. I am here today for one reason and that is because it is God’s will! This is a very unconventional circumstance that we have a PT versus an Athletic Trainer here at FCA and it is exciting to be a part of paving the way for this opportunity!
I grew up in a rural part of northeastern PA called Sugarloaf. My family was faith centered and we were all very involved in our church family growing up. I was always involved in sports my whole life and played basketball and softball for Hazleton Area High School. I then continued on to the collegiate level at Arcadia University for both sports through my undergraduate years.
I knew from a young age that I wanted to become a physical therapist after my own injury warranted rehab. Learning and understanding how the body works and functions was always a passion of mine and it became clear to me that becoming a physical therapist was where I was called. I pursued Arcadia University for college, where I met my soon to be husband, Tim, my senior year through my good friend and teammate (who is his sister!), and earned my BA in Psychobiology in 2001. I continued my graduate studies and graduated with my Doctorate in Physical Therapy from Arcadia University in 2004 and married Tim later that year. For the next 17 years, I continued to practice outpatient PT with experience in specialties of neuro, ortho, post operative, vestibular, balance, concussion and sports rehabilitation. It was around this time that God started nudging me to follow a very different path. I have two boys, Cole and Lucas who started at FCA in their 7th and 4th grade years respectively. We loved it so much that I started wondering how to become more involved. In conversations with Mr. Clymer, the need for assistance in our sports program was revealed and that is when God’s will took over. Soon after, I left the hospital based outpatient environment and made the transition to working with all of our FCA athletes!
My primary role is both sideline emergency management for all of our home games and for injury assessment, evaluation, treatment and rehabilitation. My love for sports and working with athletes has come full circle to be able to stay connected to the sports arena. To be able to help our athletes physically and return them to play their sport safely after injury is truly rewarding. But to be able to guide them spiritually through some of their most challenging times, as well as share the excitement of their successes throughout their middle school and high school years, has been more of a blessing to me than them. I also teach a sports medicine elective where I can help introduce the sports medicine career path to our high school students.
In addition to sports medicine, I have been directly involved in providing sports performance training to our teams to help focus on injury prevention as well as high level
training. I love that I can be an integral part of Cole and Lucas’s school and athletic life here and have the best sideline seat in the stadium to all of their games! Some of my favorite verses are “Be Still and Know that I am God” Psalm 46:10, and “So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you. I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.” Isaiah 41:10. Both of these verses encourage us that no matter what we face, God will always be with us and comfort us knowing he is sovereign and with something to learn in the process.