LAKELAND — Timing is indeed everything. It certainly was everything for Doug Teter. He went to Central Michigan University shortly after Ron Sendre and Ken Kopke established the first sports medicine major of its kind at the school. He later was about to be certified right at the time Russ Miller was in the process of increasing the professionalism of the trainers in the Detroit Tigers organization.
All that put Teter on the road to Lakeland where his professional life and personal life intersected. He found a home became minor league rehab coordinator for the Detroit Tigers then on to assistant trainer for the Tigers 11 year ago. And in October, he was promoted to head trainer for the Tigers. Since moving up to the major league club, it’s been a balancing act for Teter with the career he loves and his wife and three sons that he calls his greatest achievement.
From the cornfields to the ballfields
Douglas Michael Teter was born in Indiana but grew up in Constantine, Michigan, where he was closer to South Bend than he was to Detroit. He lived in a farming community — mostly cornfields — where he knew every farmer and his father worked for a seed corn company.
A football player and wrestler in high school, he paid for his college education at Central Michigan working in the cornfields during the summer, often walking the cornfields with a hoe pulling up weeds among other duties, starting early in the morning when dew would quickly drench the workers who were covered head to toe so leaves from the cornstalks wouldn’t cut them.
“It wasn’t terrible,” he said. “It was fun work as a kid. For me, it was better than working in a warehouse or doing something else. It was fun because I knew everyone.”
Farming, however, wasn’t what he wanted to do as a career.
What did he want to do?
“I knew I wanted to stay in athletics,” he said. “I didn’t want to work in an office.”
At Central Michigan, he was a manager of the football team his first semester and saw what the trainers did. It looked like something he would enjoy, and sports medicine became his career. As it turned out, he picked the right school.
Sendre was hired in 1976 to develop a sports medicine major, and by 1980, he and Ken Kopke, who implemented a sports medicine minor three years earlier, established the sports medicine program that became one of the top majors at the school. The first students graduated in 1983 and five years later Teter enrolled at the school.
The first sport he worked with was gymnastics and rotated to different sports along with rehab training. Working with the indoor track and baseball teams, the two sports that Sendre focused on, allowed Teter to develop a close relationship with him.
As part of the sports medicine program, he had to work a six-month internship. Wanting to go somewhere, he chose Baptist Hospital in Miami.
As he was finishing up in 1993 and was about to take the test to be certified, he got a call from Sendre asking whether he’d be interested in working in minor league baseball.
Again, it’s all about timing. Miller had taken over the previous year as the Tigers head trainer. Baseball trainers at the time didn’t have to be certified, but Miller wanted all of the Tigers’ minor league trainers to be certified. Only one, Steve Carter, was. Miller gave them a year, and one year later was looking for five new trainers and called Sendre for recommendations.
Teter had already been offered a job at Baptist Hospital.
“When you’re 23 years old in Miami, it’s hard to leave,” he said.
Sendre advised Teter to try it for a year so he could have it on his resume. His boss in Miami said the same thing and told Teter if he didn’t like it after a year, he’d still have the job offer at the hospital.
Teter took the baseball job and never looked back.
The road to Lakeland
Teter began his athletic training career in A-ball in Fayetteville, North Carolina, in the South Atlantic league and quickly knew he found his calling. It was quite the experience.
“The athletic trainer, there’s only one,” he said. “If you’re lucky, you might have an intern. If you’re lucky, you have a good clubhouse assistant. Back when I did it, I was in charge of the laundry, too. It was fun. I enjoyed doing it. I enjoyed the people I was working with. I just decided to stay with it.”
By then, Carter was at Triple-A and oversaw the rest of the minor league trainers. If Teter was dealing with a player that affected the 40-man roster, he’d deal with Miller.
Other than the guidance on what the program was in the organization, the maintenance work and other requirements, Teter was on his own.
“It was really your show,” he said. “It was yours to succeed or fail. ... You’re the first responder, you’re the rehab guy. You’re the guy who washes the towels — back then. It’s all changed now.”
After a year in Fayetteville he spent a year in Jamestown, New York, then two years with the Lakeland Tigers. Then in 1997, he became minor league rehab coordinator working out of Lakeland, staying in that position until 2006. During his time in Lakeland, he often spoke to students at Florida Southern and has helped out as a trainer when needed.
"He's a great teacher," said Sue Stanley-Green, program director for the athletic training program at Florida Southern. "We've really enjoyed him coming and speaking to our students. He knows the shoulder as well as anybody I've seen. And he's a very patient teacher with out students. He takes his time so they can understand it."
In Lakeland, where he has spent the offseason since 1994, Teter found a home. He met his future wife, Joya, in 1996 and they were married in 1997.
Athletics run in the family.
Joya is now a volleyball official but coached club volleyball and high school volleyball at Kathleen and Lake Gibson in the 2000s. Their oldest son, Zach, was born in 2000 and just finished his junior season of football at Lake Gibson where he was one of the top offensive linemen in the county. The couple also had twins, Deacon and Matthew, in 2003.
The big leagues
In 2006, when Kevin Rand took over as head trainer when Miller retired, the Tigers expanded to three trainers at the major league level and Teter was promoted to the big leagues. From a professional standpoint, it was the ultimate step.
“You’re pampered,” he said. “You’re really pampered. There’s not really another way to say it. It’s an amazing job. You’re just blessed to have that opportunity to do that. There are a lot of guys in the minor leagues who are trying to get to the major leagues.”
It’s a lot of work, of course. Game days are often 12- or 13-hour days. It’s why on off days, everyone tries to stay away from the stadium if possible. They try not to schedule regular maintenance treatments on off days.
“If it’s not something that will affect whether or not they play tomorrow, most of the times we’ll take the day off,” he said. “They need the break from the clubhouse just as much as we do.”
When he has time off, he’ll go to movies — loves movies, especially true stories like ''Dunkirk.'' He also likes to go saltwater fishing in Tampa Bay or bird hunting in Michigan.
The biggest challenge when he got to Detroit wasn’t from a professional standpoint. It’s missing his family and not being home every night.
“To be honest, that’s everything,” he said. “The real down side of being in Detroit is the fact that I don’t live there. My family’s here. My wife and I made a decision not to move the family.”
It was tough getting used to the separation. Until three years ago, Joya and and his sons would spend mid-June to early August in Detroit. As they got older, they started having responsibilities in the summer with their sports, and their time in Detroit decreased.
"You have to remember that Zach was 6 and the twins were 2 when he went to Detroit," Joya said. "It was difficult. We don't have any family around here, but we were very lucky that we had very good friends."
The Tigers' organization, she said, helped make it easier. When Zach was 7, he had his appendix rupture. He went to the hospital at midnight and it ruptured at 2. She called her husband, and Dave Dombroski, then the Tigers' general manager whom she said created a family-first environment, made sure Doug was on the first plane to Lakeland. He was there when Zach got out of surgery.
Modern technology also helped with the separation.
"Thank God for Facetime," Joya said.
Still, the time away from his wife and family hasn’t become any easier over the years. Teter said he and Joya make it a point to see each other at least once a month during the baseball season with Joya joining him in Detroit or on a road trip.
“For us, it works,” he said. “We just make it work.”