AU ROUNDUP: Petrone named director of sports medicine

Special to the News

Published: August 13, 2008

Joe-Joe Petrone, a 25-year veteran with collegiate and NFL experience, has been named Auburn’s Director of Sports Medicine, athletic director Jay Jacobs announced Wednesday.

Petrone has spent the previous six years as Middle Tennessee State University’s Director of Sports Medicine, overseeing the entire athletic training operation.  He was also the primary liaison for the football program.

The Nashville, Tenn., native came to MTSU after spending five years as the athletic trainer and therapist at HealthSouth Sports Medicine Center in Tampa, Fla.  He was responsible for the rehabilitation of all injuries and in charge of the sports medicine outreach program at his facility.

Petrone was the assistant athletic trainer for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers from 1987-96, where he saw to the care and prevention of player injuries and handled all needs for his team physicians.

From 1981-87, Petrone was the assistant athletic trainer at Ole Miss, where he assisted with the football program and was the head athletic trainer for basketball.

“We are very excited that Joe-Joe Petrone and his family are joining the Auburn family,” Jacobs said. “He has a tremendous amount of experience on all levels and brings a wealth of knowledge to our athletic department. Our student-athletes will continue to be under wonderful care with Joe-Joe’s expertise.” 

Petrone worked as an athletic trainer for the New York Yankees Fantasy Camp for five years and also donated his time and knowledge as an athletic trainer for Florida College and Hillsborough High School football. 

He was the New York Yankees AA farm team’s interim head athletic trainer in July 1981 and was a graduate assistant athletic trainer at the University of Kentucky from 1980-81.  He served as a summer assistant athletic trainer for the New York Jets in Hempstead, N.Y., during the summers of 1979 and 1980 and began his career as a student athletic trainer at Vanderbilt University from 1977-80.

“I am excited to be back in the SEC with one of the finest schools in the nation with a chance to develop and improve upon an already-experienced athletic training staff at Auburn University,” Petrone said.

A certified member of the National Athletic Trainers Association, Petrone earned a bachelor’s degree in health and physical education from Vanderbilt University in 1980 and a master’s of science degree from the University of South Florida in 1994.

Duncan joins Pawlowki’s AU baseball staff
After an eight-year professional baseball career that included two years with the New York Mets, Jeff Duncan has joined John Pawlowski’s coaching staff at Auburn as a volunteer assistant coach, Pawlowski announced Wednesday.

Duncan played outfield at Arizona State and was a seventh-round pick of the Mets in the 2000 MLB Draft. By the middle of the 2003 season he had made his MLB debut, seeing time in center and left in both the 2003 and 2004 seasons.

In eight minor league seasons, Duncan hit .270 and stole 171 bases, with his best year at the plate coming in 2002, when he hit a combined .373 with 18 doubles, three triples, six homers and 26 RBI for Capital City and St. Lucie.

“Bringing Jeff in to work with our outfield and assist with the hitters was a no-brainer,” Pawlowski said. “He is an up-and-coming coach that really knows his baseball and I am looking forward to him working with our team.”

“I am really excited to be here. The facilities are unbelievable. We just have to start putting wins on the board and I believe that we have the right staff in place to do that,” Duncan said.

Pawlowski and Duncan’s ties go back to 1999 when Pawlowski was the pitching coach at Arizona State and Duncan was an Honorable Mention All-Pac-10 outfielder that same season. In two years at ASU, he hit .358 with 38 stolen bases in 45 attempts before being drafted after his junior season.

Schepperle qualifies for Canadian Women’s Open
Auburn junior Candace Schepperle fired a 2-under par 70 at the Camelot Golf and Country Club in Ottawa, Ontario, on Monday to secure one of four qualifier spots for the LPGA’s Canadian Women’s Open.

The Canadian Women’s Open is a 72-hole tournament held at the Ottawa Hunt and Golf Club in Ottawa, Ontario, that will feature 156 players today-Sunday. Following the first two rounds, the tournament field will be cut to the lowest 70 scores and ties. Live scoring is available at LPGA.com.

Prior to qualifying for the Canadian Women’s Open, Schepperle won the Women’s Alabama Golf Association State Stroke Play Championship at The Ledges in Huntsville, firing a 71-66-68 -205 last week.

The Birmingham native has twice been named second-team all-SEC and was named SEC Freshman of the Year in 2007.

Soccer’s King named preseason All-SEC
After a record-setting sophomore season, Auburn junior forward Caitlin King has been voted to the 2008 SEC Preseason All-SEC team, it was announced by the league office on Wednesday.

King, from St. Louis, tied the Auburn school record for assists in a single season with 13 in 2007 as she helped Auburn advance to the NCAA Tournament for the second time in her career and the sixth time in the last seven seasons.

Playing the most minutes of any of Auburn’s forwards (1,601), she finished the year second on the team with five goals, two of which were game-winners and a team-best 23 points, registering a team-high 52 shots.

“It’s really exciting to be named to the Preseason All-SEC team,” King said. “It is such a great honor and it’s even more exciting because our team is going to be very good this year and I can’t wait to see this season play out.”

King joined Georgia’s Carrie Patterson and Tennessee’s Kylee Rossi as the forwards on the team. Making up the midfield was Amerra Abdullah and Ashlee Elliott of Florida, Malorie Rutledge of LSU and Katie Schulz of Vanderbilt. On the backline was Lauren Hyde of Florida, Kellie Corless of Georgia, Danielle Johnson of Ole Miss and Blakely Mattern of South Carolina. Jaimel Johnson of Tennessee earned the nod as the goalkeeper.

Each SEC head soccer coach voted for three forwards, three midfielders, three defenders, one goalkeeper and one at-large candidate. No ties were broken and coaches were not allowed to vote for their own players.

Auburn opens up the 2008 campaign Aug. 22 at 7 p.m. when it plays host to Grambling at the Auburn University Soccer Complex.