Mike Frostad never envisioned he would be part of World Series champion when he was a student at the University of Calgary. He accomplished that with the Atlanta Braves in 2021.
Frostad attended Calgary’s Crescent Heights High School before enrolling at the U of C. He got his first taste of championship action as a student athletic therapist under U of C Hall of Fame member Dale Butterwick receiving his first Championship ring when the Dinos were Vanier Cup championsin November 1995. Mike currently is the Head Trainer and Director of Sports Medicine for the entire Los Angeles Angels baseball organization.
Mike has fond and vivid memories of the 1995 season.
“It was about three games into the season and I remember Dale (Butterwick) telling me if we (the Dinos) go to the Vanier Cup you will be assisting me,” Frostad stated this past March at Tempe Diablo Stadium.
“Vanier Cup was my first big event after four years at the University of Calgary. Who knows where I would be if we (Dinos) had not gone to the Vanier,” stated Frostad who never played baseball but played hockey and ski raced.
Frostad is quick to acknowledge the mentorship he received from Butterwick, current head therapist Bonnie (Tolton) Sutter at the U of C, and the physicians that worked in the U of C Sports Medicine Center.
“Dale taught me to be calm and collected and even keeled and Bonnie was a great mentor,” Frostad stated.
At the 1995 Vanier Cup Mike met some members of the Blue Jays staff. He kept in touch in the following months after returning to Calgary. When a position became available with the Jays organization in the spring of 1996 Frostad was interviewed and hired. He became part of the lineage of former Dino athletic therapists that worked in the Jays organization following Geoff Horne, Brent Andrews, and Mike Wirsta, all graduates of the U of C’s Kinesiology program.
Like the players, the road the big leagues for therapists is not easy. Mike spent ten years as a minor league athletic trainer. The work included doing laundry at 2 AM at the hotel. One of the teams he was with didn’t have a hitting coach. Resources were often stretched thin and many tasks requiring attention were tedious, but necessary to keep the players on the field. In the minors he got to tour of North America’s baseball stadiums in addition to long bus rides. St. Catharines, ON. for a season, a couple of years in Hagerstown, MD., and five years in Dunedin, FLA, home of the Blue Jays minor league headquarters were his postings in addition to two years in Medicine Hat. AB. He also spent a year in winter baseball in Venezuela gaining additional experience.
Fifteen years after the Dinos Vanier Cup triumph over Western, Frostad was back in the Skydome, this time with the Blue Jays reaching the Majors as an assistant trainer from 2010 to 2017. He was with their organization for 22 years before being let go at the conclusion of the 2017 campaign.
Frostad was not out of work long. He joined the Braves spending four seasons with them, culminating with a World Series win in 2021.
Immediately after the Braves captured the World Series, he was approached by the Los Angeles Angels for his current position. It was a difficult decision for Frostad, now in his 28th season of professional baseball leaving the Braves and mentor George Poulis, the former head trainer for the Blue Jays and Braves.
“I learned we are born to help from Dale (Butterwick). We want to be a part of it without being seen as a part of it,” stated Frostad who is more than happy to remain in the background.
“The hardest part of the job is having to tell a player their career or season is over. The gratification is knowing you played a part in getting a player back from injury, had a hand in their return and were part of the group effort in that,” stated Frostad who spends off-season in Redcliff, AB., just outside of Medicine Hat and still follows some of the Dino athletic teams he worked with.
The 50-year-old Frostad is not about to rest on his laurels. He is a certified member of the Canadian Athletic Therapists Association and the National Athletic Trainers Association and recently graduated from the University of St. Augustine with a Master of Health Sciences degree specializing in athletic training.
Frostad’s advice for young people in athletic therapy is basic. “You never stop learning and teaching someone, and as a young person you can not put a cap on how far you can go,” Mike Frostad is an example of that.
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