Deborah John

I was a prior athlete myself - I ran track professionally in college and I'm a four-time national champion in the 100-meter. I hold multiple records at my college. I had firsthand experience of how important recovery is in terms of performance, and as I was transitioning out of competing professionally, I still wanted to be surrounded by sports and be able to give back. That opportunity came to me because initially I used to do athletic performance and fitness coaching, and I saw the massage therapy as the glue that holds everything together. You work out and you do all this stuff, you have to recover. So initially when I went to do massage, it was to add that component as a package deal. And then once I got into it, it kind of took a life of its own. Now I do elite sports massage therapy for college and professional sports teams. I work with the OKC Thunder NBA team, and we won the national championship last year. I also work at the University of Oklahoma, and we just won our 8th national championship for gymnastics in April. I feel like I was called to massage in this time and season of my life, so it's not that I want to do it for the money - it's bigger than that to me. It's definitely an area that I get to express my faith to others, incorporating encouraging the athletes. I'm kind of like a coach, a counselor, a psychologist, and all of those things in one. I'm able to listen to them and relate to them. I embrace the emotional dumping as part of the process because I know that comes with my job.