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Calling Dr. McKissack?

Raider great to fix athletes

By Randy Lefko Sports Editor
Posted 4/15/20

MIAMI - When former Orange Park High School basketball, volleyball and track great Haley McKissack answered the phone for my interview, the first question was, “Do I call you doctor …

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Calling Dr. McKissack?

Raider great to fix athletes


Posted

MIAMI - When former Orange Park High School basketball, volleyball and track great Haley McKissack answered the phone for my interview, the first question was, “Do I call you doctor yet?”

“Not quite yet, in two weeks, I’m almost there,” said McKissack, 27, and currently in Miami en route to a July 1 date at Emory University Hospital Orthopaedics and Spine Center in Atlanta. “I’m close. Everything we are doing is online so I might as well be. I will be a doctor of medicine, an MD, in two weeks then start my orthopedic surgery residency in July. In five years, I will be an orthopedic surgeon.”

With the same intense confidence she displayed while hitting baskets for Raider coach Mandi Matricardi in 2011 (13.5 pts per game; district titles 2010-2011; region semifinals 2010, region finals 2011)) and spiking balls for coach Amy Walker (district title 2010, district runnerup 2011) while also swiftly running 400 meters on the track (65 seconds 2010), McKissack has pushed forward to fulfill a prophetic statement from nearly 20 years ago.

“I watched my grandfather deal with a broken leg when I was eight and that’s when I told my mom I wanted to be a doctor,” said McKissack, whose younger sister Kara, a recent graduate of Flagler College, was also a standout basketball, volleyball, track athlete though for Clay High School. “I think that was the trigger point that focused me to be a doctor.”

Jodi Bensley McKissack, Haley’s mother, concurred that her daughter had been an early commit to being an orthopedic surgeon.

“We always helped her as much as we could and always made sure she knew that we were there for her and that we always believed in her,” said Jodi McKissack. “She’s had a pretty amazing journey. There have been a lot of ups and downs, a lot of tears and stress, but there have also been a lot of great things along the way and she has always persevered.”

Ironically, McKissack earned a scholarship not for basketball or volleyball when she chose Nova Southeastern University, but instead was tabbed with a rowing scholarship for the Sharks.

“When I went for my official visit, the rowing coach had watched some high school videos and thought I would be a good fit for rowing,” said McKissack. “He assured me that a partial rowing scholarship would be available and I took it. I had never rowed before. The coach was looking for novice rowers with athletic ability.”

McKissack was able to compete as a freshman and sophomore, but suffered two of her own hip injuries (Acetabular labrum tears, to be medically accurate).

“I had a full academic scholarship and then rowing partial and that made things easier at Nova,” said McKissack. “We never anticipated the cost of medical school (at Florida International University), but my parents were fully committed to getting me through it.”

While at Nova, McKissack’s team won a national rowing title, but her injuries pushed her into recovery and a more administrative role for the team in her final two seasons.

“They honored the scholarship, but my injuries put me in more of a utility role,” said McKissack. “I even got to fill in at some practices as a coxswain (the guy helling, stroke, stroke), which was a lot of fun.”

Finishing with a bachelor of science from Nova, medical school was next.

“I wanted to go to medical school to be an orthopedic surgeon,” said McKissack, soon to be Dr. Haley McKissack, graduate of the Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine at FIU. “That was still the plan.”

McKissack’s move from Nova (2015) to FIU medical school (2020) to five years at Emory came about with plenty of sleepless study nights and a handful of worrisome exams.

“Emory is a really great program for orthopedics,” said McKissack. “From Nova to FIU, the jump was immense from basic college stuff with a lot of science to solely focused on the principles of becoming a doctor; biochemistry, pathology, genetics and a lot of specialized curriculums. The second year gets even more organs-specific intense; systems-based classes.”

McKissack’s Emory step is more visual for her family.

“Residency is not like Grey’s Anatomy and The Resident on TV and those type of programs,” said McKissack. “My mom watches those kind of shows, but I haven’t much.”

One of the final steps for McKissack’s journey to Atlanta was Match Day.

“We rank the programs we interview at, and programs we interview at rank us. It’s a national process called ‘The Match’,” said McKissack. “Once we submit our rank lists, a computer algorithm pairs us with a program. That was very intense. Then residency is followed by one year of fellowship for subspecialty training.”

McKissack felt her drive of athletics has given her the best mindset to keep striving further in her medical endeavors.

“Athletics is hard; you have to work really to get your team to a high level,” said McKissack. “I definitely think that part of my life; being a multi-sport athlete, translated to time-management, putting in the effort. I will say medical school was the hardest thing I have ever done. Prior to medical school, whenever I studied, I could study and study and study and it would payoff. Medical school was very different.”

McKissack noted all four years of medical school was never less than daunting.

“The adjustment from undergraduate to medical school is like drinking from a fire hydrant,” said McKissack. “There is nothing to prepare you for how hard it is. I, as a straight A student, was, at times, afraid that I was going to fail. It wasn’t because I wasn’t working hard. It’s so much critical thinking.”

Her second and third years, McKissack found her zone.

“Once I got there and figured out my time management and study habits, I was okay,” said McKissack, noting written tests for first two years at FIU with a written test after each rotation in her second two years. “That initial adjustment was shocking. People don’t talk about that a lot, but you are literally studying every day 8-10 hours a day. It’s like learning a new language. The testing is your entire route to success at that point. It’s a lot of performance pressure.”

Emory will offer a new challenge with more hands-on scenarios.

“I had a lot of time in operating rooms and saw a lot at FIU,” said McKissack, who had rotations in Utah, at Vanderbilt and South Carolina. “I don’t know if I had an A-Ha! moment, but the coolest thing I got to do was to put a screw into someone’s vertebrae (spine). It was a very small screw and the attending surgeon had confidence that I could handle it and they closely walked me through it. I was never a hammer and drill girl with my dad though.”