THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, June 9, 1996 TAG: 9606070182
SECTION: PORTSMOUTH CURRENTS PAGE: 03 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Close-Up
SOURCE: Janie Bryant
LENGTH: 125 lines
Gregory S. McNabb didn't think much about long-term goals 10 years ago. He was focused on playing sports.
He had been captain of the football, baseball and wrestling teams at his high school in Salt Lake City.
He went to Snow College in Ephraim, Utah, on a football and baseball scholarship. In 1985 his football team won the national junior college championship.
He was studying pre-physical therapy at the college, but his goal then was ``just playing sports,'' he recalled.
``It was my first love, and I just wasn't thinking down the road at all,'' said McNabb, now a second-class petty officer and physical therapy technician at the Naval Regional Medical Center in Portsmouth.
Although he had been invited to a few professional baseball camps, including that of the Cincinnati Reds, a neck injury ended his collegiate career and any hopes of going on to become a professional.
He suffered the injury in a game at the end of his year on Snow's championship football team.
Although he transferred to Mesa State College in Grand Junction, Colo., on a football scholarship the next year, the injury began to take its toll.
``It was just so hard to play,'' he said. ``My right arm would go completely numb. I lost a lot of strength in it.''
At the end of the season, his coaches told him he would need to try out for the team the next year.
``At that point I was so frustrated,'' he said. ``That's when I gave up collegiate athletics.''
McNabb went home to Salt Lake City and attended the University of Utah for one quarter, then started looking at the military branches to see which one might offer him the best chance at a career in the physical therapy field.
``I think with no more sports for me, I just looked around and I evaluated what I had attained at that point,'' he said. ``And it was essentially nothing as far as pursuing a professional career.''
Even now, McNabb says he would not give back those three years of college sports. But it did not take him long to realize the need to start making up for lost time on his career track.
He completed boot camp as the top graduate and was also the distinguished honor graduate of the Hospital Corpsman School in San Diego.
He worked in the coronary unit of the Portsmouth hospital for a year and a half, then went to Physical Therapy Technician School in San Antonio, Texas. Again he was the distinguished honor graduate.
McNabb was no longer an average ``C'' student.
Assigned to the Naval Branch Medical Clinic in Norfolk, he took classes at Old Dominion University at night for three years. In 1993, he was selected for the Enlisted Educational Advancement Program, which allowed him to go to school full time for two years.
He earned a bachelor's degree in sports medicine, receiving the Darden Colgate Outstanding Scholar award as the graduate with the highest grade-point average in the college of education.
He was also selected the Enlisted Educational Advance Program student of the year.
Before leaving ODU, McNabb was awarded a stipend to do research on the effect of Siberian ginseng on highly trained aerobic athletes.
``They had several hot topics going on you could choose from, and I wanted to do something in the field of increasing the performance of athletes, so I chose to go with the ginseng,'' he said.
McNabb used members of the Tidewater Striders running club and treadmill tests to do an eight-week study under the guidance of Melvin H. Williams, eminent professor of health, physical education and recreation at ODU.
``Within the limitations of our study, we concluded that there was no ergogenic effect imparted to the subjects,'' he said.
For one thing, he said, ``you cannot draw any conclusions from one study.''
The research was published in Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, the journal of the American College of Sports Medicine. The work also was presented last September at the International Olympic Committee World Congress in Atlanta.
McNabb is now assigned to the Physical Therapy Department at the Naval Medical Center in Portsmouth.
His wife of three years, Kristen Sherrill McNabb, is a biology major at ODU and plans to be a veterinarian. She is the daughter of retired Wilson High School athletic director and coach Jim Sherrill.
McNabb says he would like to stay in the Navy if his military career allows him to continue his education. He also says he would like to work in the sports medicine field one day, either as a doctor or a physical therapist.
He has applied to medical schools and physical therapy schools, and says he would welcome the challenge of either.
Name: Gregory Scott McNabb.
Nickname: Mac.
Neighborhood: Collinswood.
Number of years in Portsmouth: Eight.
Birthplace: Atlanta.
Birthdate: July 21, 1966.
Occupation: Physical therapist assistant, U.S. Navy.
What job other than your own would you like? Team doctor for the Atlanta Braves.
Marital status: Married.
Children: None. Four dogs - J.D., 16; Shasta, 5; Taz, 3; and Jake, 3 months.
Fondest childhood memory: Hunting and fishing with my brother, Josh.
First concert: Eurythmics in Park City, Utah, in 1983.
What song or book title best describes your life? ``Absent-Minded Professor.''
If you won the lottery, what's the very first thing you would buy? A Lincoln Continental for my mother.
If you could trade places for just one day with anyone in the world, who would it be and why? No one. Dealing with my own affairs is tough. I wouldn't want to inherit someone else's problems.
Biggest accomplishment: Graduating from ODU in the top six of 1,700 undergraduate students.
Most embarrassing moment: Forgetting the words to a speech in front of the entire student body.
If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be? My absent-mindedness.
Perfect way to spend the day: Hanging out with my wife.
I can't resist: Food.
Favorite Portsmouth restaurant: Stonebridge Restaurant.
Favorite Portsmouth hangout: Johnny's Frozen Custard.
Biggest problem facing Portsmouth: Portsmouth residents not supporting Portsmouth businesses.
If you had three wishes for Portsmouth, what would they be?
Economic growth.
Improved education.
Better communication between leaders and residents.
Other than its small-town atmosphere, what do you like about living in Portsmouth? Being near family and friends. ILLUSTRATION: Staff photo by JIM WALKER by CNB