“You hear stories about people changing their career path in the final semester and I always thought they were crazy, but that ended up being me.”
Chase Gibson spent his whole life wanting to be a doctor and go to medical school, but when the time came, he wasn’t so sure.
“I started to come to terms with what it meant to go to medical school and wasn’t sure I really wanted to do it,” Chase said. “So, I went a different route.”
A collegiate baseball player at both William Woods University in Fulton, Missouri and Carthage College in Kenosha, Wisconsin, the O’Fallon, Missouri native decided to go down the sports science path after a suggestion from a friend working for the Milwaukee Brewers.
“I had no experience in the professional world of baseball, just experience playing, and I had no advanced degree. That made it tough to find an internship, let alone a full-time job in the field,” Chase said. “But I knew I could get involved and began applying for a job with every major league baseball team.”
Chase’s dedication and optimism paid off and he was offered a remote temporary job with the Detroit Tigers as a Baseball Systems Operator. Shortly after starting the job, he enrolled in Logan University’s Master of Science in Sports Science and Rehabilitation (MS-SSR) program.
“I knew an advanced degree was needed for the profession, but I wanted a program that would be flexible with a work schedule, something adaptable,” Chase said. “Having lived 20 minutes from Logan’s campus most of my life I was familiar with the school, but I didn’t know about the MS-SSR program until I was searching for programs that fit my criteria.”
In addition to the adaptability of the online classes, the competitive price and the trimester concept, the wide variety of courses offered to Logan MS-SSR students persuaded Chase to enroll in the program.
“I felt like the other programs I was looking at made you choose a focus going into the program and stick to it. While at Logan, I got to take a nutrition course, a biomechanics course. I was able to cover a variety of topics and then choose where my passion was after the class and follow it,” Chase said.
While enrolled in the MS-SSR program, Chase began a Biomechanics Internship with Tread Athletics in Pineville, North Carolina. From high schoolers to big league players, Chase worked with baseball coaches to help spot flaws in players’ mechanics and devise plans to fix them.
“I was able to put into practice at my internship what I was learning in the biomechanics course I was taking in the MS-SSR program,” Chase said. “The internship and MS-SSR program helped me learn a lot and feel more confident in my skills and in interviews.”
With the end of his internship with Tread Athletics looming, Chase began applying for full-time jobs in the baseball profession. The Detroit Tigers reached out to Chase and offered him a job as Baseball Technology Coordinator.
“I started the new job remotely in mid-December but moved to full-time in person in January. I’ve been able to succeed in a full-time job and in my classes because of the adaptability in the MS-SSR program,” Chase said.
Currently enrolled in his last trimester of the program, Chase is set to graduate in August 2024.
“I look forward to continuing to learn as much as I can, applying it in the real world and making myself the best I can be at my job.”