News
Fitzgibbon Marks 13 Years of Free Sports Physicals at Area Schools
August 24, 2026
Student athletes and academic sports programs in the area have received more than a decade of support from Fitzgibbon Hospital, as it marks 13 years of providing no-cost sports physicals to Marshall High School, Bueker Middle School, St. Peter’s and several outlying school districts, including Hughesville, Mendon, LaMonte and Brunswick.
So far in 2026 - its 13th year of providing this service - Fitzgibbon provided more than 500 athletes a free physical, ensuring they are screened to participate and have the state-required paperwork to do so. Most recently, they performed sports physicals on Thursday, Aug. 27, at Miami R-1 School.
Fitzgibbon sends providers from its employed physicians group to these schools for on-site sessions during which they evaluate athletes, perform basic physical exams, make any health recommendations necessary and ensure the athlete’s participation form as required by the Missouri State High School Athletic Association is completed. Many of these all-school clinics are held in the spring, so athletes are ready when fall sports practices begin in August, prior to the start of school. If any issue is found, it is referred to the parent or the student’s primary care provider.
“We started this in 2013, following our placement of Diane Schlesselman, certified athletic trainer, at Marshall High School. She is a Fitzgibbon employee. Her presence on the sideline and knowledge in caring for student athletes and ensuring they can stay healthy and participate in their chosen sport is in keeping with our mission to ‘Improve the Health of Our Community,’” said Angy Littrell, CEO of Fitzgibbon Hospital.
Staff of Fitzgibbon Orthopedics and Sports Medicine have worked alongside doctors and nurses from Marshall Family Practice at these events. Any athletes new to the district or who may have missed the event in the spring can contact Schlesselman to receive a voucher for a free physical to be provided at Marshall Family Practice.
The Missouri High School Athletics Association requires a sports physical to be on file for each student athlete, ensuring that the student has been medically cleared to participate.
“Part of our reasoning for doing this is to prevent the cost of a physical exam to be a barrier to student participation. We all know that physical activity, especially in an organized sport, increases the student’s health and wellness. And studies also show that structured, ongoing sports participation even leads to an improvement in grades. We also hope that the attributes of teamwork and discipline via organized sports will follow the student into adulthood,” said Littrell. “In that way, the student wins and the community wins, regardless of the outcome of the game.”
According to the President's Council on Fitness, Sports and Nutrition, children now spend on average of seven and a half hours per day in front of a screen of some kind. Nearly one-third of high school students play video or computer games for three or more hours on an average day of school.
According to the Aspen Institute, a policy-based organization located in Washington, D.C., adolescents who play sports are eight times more likely to lead an active lifestyle as adults than those adolescents who do not play sports. The organization formed “Project Play,” which works to draw attention to the benefits of athletic activity in adolescents and children. Project Play is supported by the Robert Woods Johnson Foundation, Nike and the American College of Sports Medicine.
While overall high school sports participation has rebounded to record numbers nationally since the pandemic, Project Play has found that the cost to participate in youth sports has increased by 46 percent since 2019, with 25 percent of students citing their fear of injury as a reason for not playing. Other factors negatively impacting student participation includes time demand and reported poor behavior by some parents or coaches.
"Everybody that plays a sport in high school has to have a physical,” said Schlesselman, the athletic trainer sited at MHS. “These sports physical events make it easier to provide them all on one day. The participating doctors are checking the student's heart and lungs, checking for any skin diseases or problems, and they check the musculoskeletal development as well, to make sure everything is working fine. Parents are welcome to accompany their child to the event, if they wish."
Prospective student athletes will bring home a notice of the free-physicals event several days in advance.