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It’s not surprising that when Brad Bettis
talks about his work at the Kimmell Wellness Center here in DeLeon, he
speaks with enthusiasm and passion. After all, he will be the first to
tell you that physical therapy, and the ability to help someone heal
enough to resume their normal activities, is what he loves.
But Bettis is equally enthusiastic about
most everyone in DeLeon, and is looking forward, very soon, to being
able to live here.
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MENTOR.
Brad Bettis, right, and his mentor's mentor, Bob Poynor, at
Kimmell Wellness Center. |
“Most of these people have helped me grow
up,” Bettis said. “I graduated from here in 1986. They’ve known me
from church, or school, or Boy Scouts or something. This is just a
real supportive community.”
Many of those who know Bettis understand
that he’s been affiliated with the Wellness Center (part of the
Comanche County Medical Center) for more than two years.
“I graduated from Southwest Texas in
1991,” Bettis said. “I worked for the hospital in Stephenville for
five years, as the director of out-patient physical therapy. In 1996 I
opened Stephenville Sports Rehab and Physical Therapy -- that was my
home office. Then we branched out to Comanche and started doing
therapy at the hospital there about eight years ago. After we’d been
in Comanche several years, Mark Blackburn and I purchased a physical
therapy facility in Weatherford. Then, finally, I got the opportunity
to also work here at the Wellness Center.”
Recently, when the opportunity presented
itself for Brad to really “come home,” he grabbed it.
“I sold the facility in Stephenville,”
Bettis said, “And I realized I wanted to focus on Comanche County.
This is home. So now, I’m in Comanche County five days a week.”
Bettis’ ties to DeLeon are strong enough
that he’s also planning to move his family here in the near future.
“My dream has always been to build a
house in Rucker,” Bettis said, “and we’ve now picked out our building
site.” Bettis and his wife, Tracey, have three children -- two girls
and a boy -- Whitley, 10; Codi, 7, and 3-year-old Braden. Tracey, a
Lampassas native, is a junior high counselor in Stephenville.
Bettis said that his decision to enter
the field of physical therapy was an easy one, considering his love of
sports.
“I guess, like everybody coming out of
school, you’d like to keep on playing sports,” Bettis said. “The best
way of being around sports that I could see, was to work with it. And
I like the medical field.”
An exceptional mentor was also a factor.
“I had such a good mentor,” Bettis said.
“His name is Dennis Connelly. He gave me a job in physical therapy,
while I was still in college, and it stuck -- I liked it. One of the
really neat things about getting to work here is working with Bob
Poynor, also a physical therapist. He was mentor to my mentor. I feel
like I’ve gotten training from the two best physical therapists
there’s ever been.”
Brad said that his parents, Cedric and
Betty Bettis, supported him, every step of the way, as he pursued his
chosen profession.
“I can’t say enough about my parents,” he
said, “they’re very supportive. They’re awesome. It was really special
to grow up in a Christian home. They constantly taught values. It’s
real important for Tracey and I to raise our children with similar
values. It’s nice that my parents are both here to encourage us and
help us get that done.”
Bettis believes the Kimmell Wellness
Center is an asset to the community.
“When I got into physical therapy, and
into the wellness and fitness market, I went around to different
facilities in Fort Worth, Dallas, Austin and San Marcos,” Bettis said.
“I wanted to see what they had. Even though this facility is somewhat
smaller in size -- which fits our population -- it’s the same
equipment, same quality.”
Along with Bettis, Kimmell Wellness
Center employees include Dayna Stewart, PTA, who does out-patient and
home health in the DeLeon area; Karen Mahan, office manager; Eva Sue
Johnston, LVN; Cord Dyson, PT tech, and Jimmy Mahan, PT tech., and as
mentioned previously, Bob Poynor, on an “as needed” basis. In
Comanche, there is also Troy Kimbrough, PTA, who does out-patient care
and home health in the Comanche area.
While having little time for hobbies,
Bettis said that he does enjoy hunting. “And the rest of my spare time
is spent chasing after kids and their sports,” he laughed. “They play
soccer, basketball and the oldest one is even involved in drag racing.
I love that.”
For all of his reluctance to leave
football after high school, Bettis is not even a weekend athlete now.
“It hurts too much,” he said. But he did enjoy the opportunity to be
on the sidelines for the Bearcats football team this past season.
“It’s been a lot of fun being on the sidelines this year, with Coach
Ward and the 1-A football team,” he said. “I had a great time.”
The Kimmell Wellness Center’s value to
the community is two-fold -- providing a place for post-surgical or
injury-related therapy -- as well as an exercise facility for those
already physically fit, or even those wanting to be.
Bettis stresses the importance of both.
“If we can get people to take hold of their own fitness situation,
then we’ll have a healthier community,” he said. And he has an answer
for those people intimidated by the thought of using a treadmill or
one of the weight stations -- or for those people who just don’t know
how to take that first step towards physical fitness. “They can call
me,” he said. “We’ll sit here and visit and figure out what they want
and how they want to do it. This is the best little deal going. Less
than $1 per day for your health. This is an incredible opportunity
here at Kimmell Wellness Center.”
Bettis just as eagerly discusses the
facility from a medical perspective. “The really neat thing about the
situation here,” he said, “is that we can see a patient in the
hospital, and when they recover enough they can go home and we can see
them through Comanche County Home Health, and then the same bunch of
therapists can see them on an out-patient basis -- they can get a
continuum of care.”
Although he has achieved a certain amount
of fame as the “therapist to the stars” (due to his work with high
profile rodeo athletes) Bettis said that is just “icing on the cake.”
“That’s fun,” he said, “and it takes you
places you probably would never have gone, but getting a lady to where
she can get her mail out of her mailbox is the real deal. Or getting a
hug from someone and having them tell you you’re family -- that’s what
it’s all about.” |
