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Match made in therapy sprouts growth

Physical therapist Jason Waz needed a place to fulfill his goals. Dee Thomas needed an heir. A high school coach connected the dots.

By PHIL DAVIS
Published March 20, 2006

NEW PORT RICHEY - Physical therapist Jason Waz had a vision but no venue.

Businesswoman Dee Thomas had a venue. And she was looking for someone with vision.

Gulf High School coach Jerry Young played matchmaker.

Waz, 33, played football and baseball for Young at Gulf High School in the late 1980s. Waz, who worked at several large therapy practices in the Tampa Bay area, often stopped in at Gulf High games to see Young. Staying in touch with coach paid off. Big time.

Young also is a board member at Thomas' New Port Richey physical therapy business, Ewing and Thomas. He knew Thomas, 60, was looking for an heir to her practice of 37 years.

"Of all the kids I've coached, Jason is at the top as far as being any kind of business executive," Young said. "Jason and Dee's personalities are about the same. Everything they do, they do at 100 percent. They both care about the same things."

They met. They clicked.

But that wasn't enough. Ewing and Thomas is owned by its employees. Waz had to win their approval and get a nod from the board of directors before he could come to work.

Waz started in October as Ewing and Thomas' new chief executive and immediately began crafting his vision. He's leading the company through an $800,000 expansion that will take the practice into fast-growing Trinity and Oldsmar.

Thomas said she likes Waz because he's a visionary, not a yes man.

"I think when you look for a successor, outward appearance isn't important," Thomas said. "We are as different as night and day, physically, in gender and in age. And yet if you talk to Jason for even a short time, the core values of what we want for the business are the same. Isn't that just the neatest thing to find such a match in values? That's the beauty of a small town."

Waz recruited David "Hap" Hudson, a former athletic trainer with the St. Louis Cardinals and the Philadelphia Phillies. Hudson now spends a lot of time training local high school athletes and helping them recover from injuries and surgeries.

Their expansion plan is straightforward: Offer the kind of rehab an athlete with a $14-million arm gets to the amateur golfer with a sore shoulder. Waz hopes to build on Thomas' solid local reputation and Hudson's pro-sports credentials.

"A pro athlete always has a deadline," Waz said. "The model for the professional athlete can be applied to any group from the elderly to the weekend warrior."

"Reputation by defined results, that's really our message," Hudson said. "It sells itself."

Ewing and Thomas' new Trinity office at 2039 Little Road is set to open this month, with an Oldsmar branch to follow sometime in the next year.

The company is one of many New Port Richey medical practices moving to Trinity in advance of Community Hospital's relocation there in 2008. Thomas said the company will keep its original location at 5311 Grand Blvd. even after the hospital closes the New Port Richey facility.

"This is our base," Thomas said. "This is where we've been for so long, since 1969. Clearly, for many years we've established our core. I don't see that changing. The core just grows."

The trio also will continue helping young athletes train safely. Waz said another appealing aspect of the Trinity office is its proximity to Mitchell High School.

Thomas likes the mix of elderly clients and young athletes.

"The younger kids give some additional get up and go to our seniors," Thomas said. "They really help each other, if not physically, then psychologically."

Waz used to work out at Ewing and Thomas when he played ball for Young.

"It's funny," Young said. "Now he's there as CEO."

[Last modified March 20, 2006, 00:36:17]