Troncale on the mend

PANAMA CITY BEACH - The day after Arnold senior Mark Troncale separated and then reinserted his shoulder into its socket during a summer basketball camp, his father knew who he was going to call.

Troncale was in Tuscaloosa, Ala., with the rest of the Marlins boys basketball team participating at a University of Alabama team camp in late June. Troncale went up for a rebound with his left arm, got tangled with an opponent and his shoulder came out of its socket.
He felt fine until the buzzer sounded. Then Troncale knew something was wrong.

His father, Mark Troncale Sr., set up an appointment with renowned surgeon Dr. James Andrews in Birmingham, Ala., for late July.

"My dad told me I was going to see Dr. Andrews so I just thought he was some good doctor in Birmingham," the younger Troncale recalled.

When he arrived for his appointment, it didn't take Troncale long to figure out who Andrews was. While he sat in the waiting room at the Andrews Sports Medicine and Orthopedic Center, he was surrounded by Andrews' collection of sports memorabilia. Photos and autographs from some of sports biggest names dotted the walls alongside the jerseys of Donovan McNabb, Steve McNair and Charles Barkley, to name a few.

On one side of Troncale in the waiting room was Florida Marlins pitcher Sergio Mitre, who underwent Tommy John surgery last month. On the other side was Washington Nationals pitcher Shawn Hill.

Andrews has become the pre-eminent orthopedic sports surgeon in the country, operating on athletes such as Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods, Bo Jackson and Roger Clemens. Andrews also has an office in Gulf Breeze.

When he saw Troncale, he swiftly made his diagnosis.
Troncale - who has received interest from many college basketball programs - suffered a partially torn labrum in his left shoulder, and Andrews put him down for surgery at 8 a.m. the next morning.

"I didn't have any idea I was going to have surgery," Troncale said. "He came in there and moved my arm around. He looked at the MRIs, came back in and said, ‘You have a pretty good tear. You don't have to have the surgery, but I would recommend you have it. It's for you and your parents to decide. And if you don't have it, you'll definitely have to have it after the season or if something happens while you were in season.'

"So we thought, let's go ahead and have it done."

Andrews had Troncale out of surgery in an hour. Instead of a six-month recovery, Troncale is on a three-month track. He's in his ninth week of rehab and expects to be released by Andrews on Oct. 10 to prepare for the upcoming season.

"I feel a lot safer with him," Troncale said. "He's really outgoing. He was straightforward, too. He was serious about it, but he was kinda funny, too. He was like, ‘I want to see your jersey up there.'"