Colorado Rockies: Q&A with Head Trainer Keith Dugger

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Colorado Rockies hats and gloves at Coors Field. The Rockies defeated the Cubs 5-1. Mandatory Credit: Ron Chenoy-USA TODAY Sports /

On Thursday before the Colorado Rockies opened a four-game series against the Atlanta Braves, the Rockies held their annual day to promote the PLAY (Promoting a Lifetime of Activity for Youth) Campaign. The Professional Baseball Athletic Trainers Society (PBATS), the Taylor Hooton Foundation and Henry Schein Cares teamed up for the event, and you can read more about the background of the campaign by clicking here.

Several members of the Colorado Rockies took part in the day’s activities, including outfielder Gerardo Parra, pitchers Jairo Diaz and Justin Miller, and head athletic trainer Keith Dugger. Each interacted with local teenage athletes, emphasizing the importance of physical education and the dangers of performance enhancement drugs.

After the event concluded, I had the chance to sit down with Dugger to talk about a number of topics, including the PLAY Campaign, PEDs, and being a trainer who works with a team that plays its home games at high altitude.

Henry: Tell me about the values of the PLAY Campaign and a day like today for kids.

Apr 20, 2015; Denver, CO, USA; Colorado Rockies manager Walt Weiss (left) talks with head athletic trainer Keith Dugger during batting practice prior to the game against the San Diego Padres at Coors Field. Mandatory Credit: Isaiah J. Downing-USA TODAY Sports /

Dugger: Among our peer group, we were talking about how secondary schools and high schools were losing physical education and kids weren’t getting out and being active because they had lost it in the school setting. You don’t have to go play an organized sport to be active. That’s kind of our goal is to reach out and go out and play Frisbee or go out on a walk. Now you have Pokemon Go, but at least people are out and moving.

Childhood obesity and diabetes is drastically increasing right now and we want these people to be aware that you have to live a healthy life and an active life. Be aware of performance enhancement drugs, whether you’re male or female. We just want the word out. Maybe these kids are the only active one in their family, but maybe they can inspire their mom and dad or aunt and uncle to get out and move too.

Henry: You had three players out here with you today. How easy is it to get players involved in something like this?

Dugger: It’s tough because we’re taking away their family time and personal time. In reality, once the players start doing it, they love it. They were these kids not that long ago. Some of them are not too much older than these kids. They like their voice to be heard too. They would rather talk in a setting like this to these kids than go do a TV interview or be in front of a camera. They get to come out here and watch kids play and run and smile and they also get to sign a few autographs. They can also talk about their story. They love when people ask them how they made it or what made them special or what were the goals they set to attain.

Henry: How many times do you do something like this during the season?

Dugger: We do one PLAY campaign. All 30 clubs do one PLAY campaign. But I probably do two or three camps similar to this. This one is special because it is the athletic trainers and strength coaches doing it. Sometimes these kids will ask us questions that may be a little different than they would ask a coach.

Henry: Talk about the camaraderie there is among all of the trainers in MLB.

Dugger: We have a unique peer group. We’re an education-based society and we provide a lot of scholarships for kids going into college who are working toward an athletic training degree or physical therapy degree. We take in interns throughout Major League Baseball and the minor leagues to get these kids exposed to what professional baseball is. That’s how I got my start. I got exposed to this through an internship in college. All of my assistant trainers I hired from internships. I think every trainer we have in our organization came from an internship. It’s the only true way to see if you’re passionate about working in a certain sport.

Next: Next, We Talk PEDs and Altitude

Jul 20, 2016; Denver, CO, USA; General view outside of Coors Field in the seventh inning of the game between the Tampa Bay Rays against the Colorado Rockies. The Rays defeated the Rockies 11-3. Mandatory Credit: Ron Chenoy-USA TODAY Sports /

Henry: How does the message you’re giving to kids today differ than the message you’re giving to the professional athletes you work with every day?

Dugger: The message about playing and being active, there are very few we have to worry about on the active side. The message about some of the performance enhancement stuff, it’s ongoing education. It’s ongoing education for me, my assistants, our physicians, and our administrators.

It’s an evolution. Things are changing so rapidly. We’re always behind in society. Our setting, professional baseball, is just an adjunct to society. If there’s abuse of some performance enhancement drug in society, there’s probably some of that abuse in this profession. But as long as we can educate our guys and tell them it’s too risky. Here’s what could happen to you: The loss of your career and the harm to your health. We keep them updated to any products that come out. That’s the best thing we can do and we do that constantly. We have memos. We have DVDs we show them. If there is a new supplement or drug being used in a foreign country that we’ve never heard of, we’ll give them a handout and tell them, ‘This is what’s coming out. Be aware.’

All in all, it’s an ongoing process. MLB is great about it and the commissioner’s office helps us. There are a lot of physicians, doctors, and therapists who provide us help. It’s all about education.

Henry: What about the challenges you face as a trainer who works with a team that performs in high altitude for so much of the season?

Dugger: First, I hate talking about altitude. We should use this as an advantage and we have. We’re stopping the everyday speak. It’s common sense stuff. Take care of the things you can. You know you need proper rest and proper diet. You need hydration. Stay away from the caffeine, tobacco products and alcohol and other things that are going to affect you. If you can control those things first, then you’re already jump-started. That’s what we do and that’s part of the education. These guys know after playing a long homestand here, you have to take care of yourself and you have to eat right, sleep right, and take care of yourself.

Next: Colorado Must Stop Struggling at Coors Field

There are a lot of teams who use an oxygen tank. We’ve dabbled with it a little bit. One of the things we’ve done for years is worked at CU (University of Colorado at Boulder) with altitude study people to track what does work and what’s a placebo effect. Are guys getting benefits from this kind of stuff? We see guys in other sports use oxygen, but we’re also not running sprints. A hard sprint for our guys is running from first to third. If they can’t handle 10 seconds of sprinting, we have some issues.

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