In his sophomore year at the University of Lynchburg, Alex Derstine ’25, a biology-biomedical science major and goalie for the men’s soccer team, met with Dr. Tom Bowman, a professor of athletic training.
He told Bowman he wanted to research concussion care, specifically as it related to athletes with disabilities, or para athletes.
Derstine had recently worked with Emily Maxwell ’18, ’21 DPT, a Lynchburg women’s soccer alumna and physical therapist, to help develop the Mid-Atlantic Amputee Soccer team, a coed regional branch team of the American Amputee Soccer Association.
Maxwell, head coach of the mid-Atlantic team, is also assistant coach of the AASA’s women’s national team, which placed second at the inaugural Women’s Amputee Football World Cup in 2024.
“We connected online and in person at Homecoming in 2022, spoke with a few leaders at [the American Amputee Soccer Association], and then started seeking out players and facilities to get a team started,” Derstine said.
“We have since been able to organize a few trainings for interested amputees and offer opportunities for these athletes to compete nationally and internationally as a branch team under AASA.”
Having the opportunity to research para athlete concussion care would combine a couple of Derstine’s goals. “Ultimately, it was a cool combination of a desire to be involved in sports medicine research and learn more about how I may be able to fill a present gap for an under-researched population,” he said.
It would also give him the opportunity to work with a team of faculty researchers from the U.S. and Canada. Bowman, who has researched and published extensively about concussions and concussion care, encouraged Derstine to pursue his research and compiled a team of researchers to support him and the project.
In addition to Bowman, they included Dr. Katie Mitchell of the University of Toronto and Dr. Landon Lempke of Virginia Commonwealth University. Mitchell and Lempke, Bowman’s colleagues, were described by Derstine as “well-respected in the concussion and para sport research spaces.”
“[Dr. Bowman] … had recently been at an international conference and a major area of need in concussion research was work surrounding para sport,” Derstine said. “So, he encouraged me to combine my interests in concussion research with my passion for serving para athletes by pursuing this project surrounding para sport concussion care.
“I was the central researcher and spearheaded the adaptation of our survey from Dr. Lempke’s prior work, along with data collection — sending out surveys online and doing follow-up interviews with para sport healthcare providers — data analysis, and abstract and manuscript writing with lots of insight and support from the rest of the team.”
He added that Bowman “guided this process” and “surrounded me with a highly professional research team, and was a constant support system for me throughout the entire research process, often leading me to dream bigger and pursue higher-level work than I knew I was capable of.”
In May, Derstine presented the team’s research at the American College of Sports Medicine Annual Meeting, held in Atlanta. It was the first time Derstine had attended or presented at a professional conference.
“Dr. Bowman suggested I prepare an abstract to submit for presentation at this conference, as it aligned with my future goals and offered a great opportunity to meet other researchers performing similar work across the world,” Derstine said.
“I had a great experience and was able to approach and connect with many highly professional researchers performing similar work to my own, and I was even able to spark some conversation for future collaborations as well, which was really exciting.
“Dr. Bowman offered me a great structure for preparing my abstract and poster materials, and he and my research team offered extremely valuable feedback and edits that led to a successful presentation and conference experience.”
In October, Derstine will present at the World Federation of Athletic Training & Therapy World Conference in Maynooth, Ireland. The presentation, “Para Sport Concussion Care: An Update on Para Sport Healthcare Provider Practice,” also encapsulates research done by Derstine, Bowman, Mitchell, and Lempke.
“The abstract is different from the [American College of Sports Medicine conference] but ultimately I will be presenting the other results from my research project in a very similar environment there,” Derstine said.
“I will present a poster that illustrates the work we completed, but this conference presentation will emphasize a bit more of our quantitative findings surrounding the usefulness of published concussion tools in para sport populations.”
Bowman, whom Derstine describes as “an amazing mentor,” also will travel to Ireland for the conference. “He has guided me along a very productive timeline for my work, which results from his great expertise in research in general,” Derstine said.
“I have worked with him for over two-and-a-half years now, and over this time he has surrounded me with amazing professionals and resources that set me up for success [and] constantly reached out to ensure that I felt supported and was continuing with our project plans.
“He often pushed me to excel in the work I was completing to lead me to a place that I didn’t know was possible for an undergraduate. This relationship and experience have been more than rewarding and has positioned me to be involved in para sport research at a national and international level, moving forward.”
Derstine, a Westover Honors Fellow, graduated from Lynchburg in May. Since then, he says he’s been “quite busy.” In addition to presenting at the ACSM conference and preparing for the conference in October, he has shadowed medical professionals and researchers at OrthoCarolina, Atrium Health, and Wake Forest University.
This month, Derstine will move back to Lynchburg, where he’ll work as a clinical patient care technician at Collaborative Health Partners and pursue a master’s degree in medical science with a business management focus at Liberty University.
He also will be a graduate assistant for Liberty’s men’s soccer team.
