Yankees' trainer shares his knowledge

By David Ciulla '08 |Staff Reporter

The New York Yankees’ strength and conditioning trainer made a visit to Morrisville State College for a few days earlier this month. Dana Cavalea worked with the women’s softball team for three days and ended his stay with a presentation at the STUAC Theater on Oct. 14.

The 23-year-old Cavalea has been with the Yankees’ organization for the past four years. Prior to his job in New York, he worked for Major League Baseball teams in both Pittsburgh and Toronto. Cavalea also travels and spreads his knowledge of sports conditioning to amateur athletes.

Cavalea worked with the Lady Mustangs for three days and provided them with knowledge of ways to getting themselves into better conditioned softball players. For approximately four hours on Thursday and Friday afternoon and three hours on Saturday morning, he helped the softball team with weight-room training and pre-workout stretching techniques.

“It’s awesome; it really is,” said Robin Penoyer, the Morrisville State College softball coach. “It was a lot of work. We now know how to do it and can help each other and will continue to do it from here on out,” she added.

Cavalea gave the Mustangs programs for the remainder of their off-season. He encouraged them to be healthy with their new nutrition program along with their weight-training plan. “The best way to motivate an athlete is to challenge them,” he said.

Before leaving Morrisville, Cavalea also held a seminar for the public where youth softball teams and parents were in attendance. He spoke on the importance of injury prevention in sports and stressed that although being strong is important, it is not the most important aspect.
He said that the most important aspect is being less likely to getting injured.

Cavalea instructed the youth athletes’ how to perform certain pre-game stretching exercises that would help them to become less prone to inury.

In addition, he instilled that the game should be fun and gave each of them something to strive for. “Each of you should be having fun and shooting to bring your game to the next level,” he suggested.