By C.D. DESALVO
Hays Post
As a kid growing up in southwest Kansas, Troy Herrman loved being involved in extracurricular activities. He particularly loved athletics. So when he tore his anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee his junior year of high school during the triple-jump track event, Herrman was determined to recover just in time to play summer basketball.
“I was a young kid with a lot of focus in sports, and I thought sports were everything to me,” said Herrman.
After six months of therapy, Herrman was released to play in a basketball tournament in Minneola the following weekend. Just five days after getting released to play sports again, Herrman tore the same ACL doing a simple side-step on the basketball court.
“I remember asking God why this happened to me,” Herrman said. “I came to realize that (physical therapy) is my calling and it gave me a career and it has worked out pretty good for me so far.”
After high school, Herrman attended Fort Hays State University and graduated with a B.S. in biology in 1997. He then attended Kansas University Medical School in Kansas City, graduating with an M.S. in physical therapy in 1999.
Herrman’s first job out of college was doing physical therapy in St. Francis at the hospital and nursing home for three years.
“It was a great community — just a little further from home than we wanted to be,” said Herrman.
Herrman then moved to Scott City for five years where he also did therapy at the hospital and nursing home.
In 2007, a position opened up at the Center for Health Improvement at Hays Medical Center and Herrman made his way back to his former college town.
“At that time, I felt like I was going to be where I was going to be in Scott City and I just felt the need to try and grow and expand as far as what I had done over the years, so I took a position there in 2007,” he said.
After just two years as a staff P.T., Herrman was promoted to the manager for outpatient rehab at Hays Medical Center.
After two more years at Hays Med, Herrman joined Dr. Joey Koerner at Koerner Chiropractic in December 2011. Herrman worked with Dr. Koerner for six years before Herrman again got the itch to grow and expand.
“I am just one of those guys that always feels like I need to grow and I need to challenge myself, and I was to the point where I didn’t feel like I was doing that too much there anymore and so we left on really good terms,” Herrman said. “I was ready to just take a huge leap of faith and try it on my own and see how it goes.”
In April, Herrman opened the doors to Herrman Physical Therapy & Wellness on 2707 Broadway in Hays. Herrman immediately noticed the benefits of opening up a private practice.
“One thing that is neat about moving to a more private practice is you get to see patients earlier now because we have ‘direct access,’ which means someone can come in off the street and see me for a shoulder issue without needing a doctor’s referral, imagery or anything like that,” he said. “You can start with me if you want. I do an assessment and consultation (both of which are free of charge) and if it’s something I can help you with, I will tell you. If there’s something that needs a doctor, we can set that up as well.”
In addition to being a physical therapist and helping people recover from injuries and surgeries, Herrman hopes to use his new facility to create opportunities to teach people how to have better health overall and focus more on things like muscle strength, flexibility, muscle tension and movement.
“My immediate goal was to get the physical therapy side up and running first. As soon as that’s all said and done, then my next phase is to start creating the wellness side,” Herrman said. “My focus is more on the people that want a place to go get a little bit of activity. I want to do a lot of things for the seniors that focus on balance to help prevent some of their falls and injuries. The longer that I’m in the profession, the more that I see it’s just about people being active.”
Herrman Physical Therapy & Wellness is located at 2707 Broadway and will have its grand opening at 4 p.m. Thursday.
Check out their website at http://herrmanpt.com/ or visit their Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/herrmanpt/.