Kalkhoff endures experience of a lifetime

The Indianapolis Colts will begin their playoff run this weekend against the Baltimore Ravens during NFL postseason action.

Before the world saw the Colts go 14-2, Newton native Danny Kalkhoff spent a large portion of his summer with Peyton Manning, Dallas Clark and the rest of the Colts during an internship of a lifetime.

“I got lucky really,” Kalkhoff said. “My advisor at Coe College, Chad Libby, was under graduate student with one of the trainers out there. He put in a good word for me. Sometimes it’s not what you know but who you know.”

Kalkhoff will graduate in May from Coe College with a degree in athletic training. But the experience he got with the Colts may be like no other.

“I can’t say anything negative,” Kalkhoff said. “I wouldn’t trade it for anything. I learned so much. I got to see some things I certainly don’t see at Coe College.”

One thing he got to do was see Manning at work. And he came away very impressed with one the league’s best quarterbacks.

“Peyton is one of the smartest people in the world,” Kalkhoff said. “He is so smart and so focused. If you run 14.5 yards and you should have run 15, he knows and he’s not happy.”

Kalkhoff also had a nice conversation with former Iowa all-American Dallas Clark.

“We were on a bus ride to Franklin Community College for OTA’s and some how he found that I was from Iowa,” Kalkhoff said. “We chatted about the state. He is a good guy. And he has tree-trunk legs. He is so big and so fast.”

Kalkhoff had to take his finals early to be able to get to Indianapolis for rookie camp, which took place just after the NFL Draft in April. He went back on June 1 for about a month and worked with players who were rehabbing injuries.

His experience continued July 16-19 as training camp moved to Terra Haute. He got to work two home preseason games and then one night after the Colt’s third preseason game in Detroit.

“The Colts are high class players,” Kalkhoff said. “You don’t have a lot of these guys getting into trouble. And the players are so big and so fast.”

Kalkhoff is eligible to take his Board of Certification in April and from there he plans on becoming a graduate assistant and seeking a masters degree. He is not sure yet where he will go, but he is looking at Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, North Texas, Wyoming and Boise State.

“Sports has played a large role in my life and athletic training allowed me to stay connected to sports,” said Kalkhoff, who credits Brett Altman and Laura Williams at Skiff Medical Center for helping him getting athletic training. “I wasn’t sure that I would like it, but after doing it for awhile, it became something I wanted to do.”

To become the best athletic trainer he could be, Kalkhoff was forced to put an end to his college wrestling career after two years.

“Wrestling wasn’t going to pay my bills down the line,” Kalkhoff said. “It was a good experience though. I just couldn’t workout how I needed to with everything going on.”

Kalkhoff did not have a favorite professional football team before this season butwill not actively be cheering for the Colts in the playoffs. Indianapolis is the No. 1 seed in the AFC with a 14-2 record heading into this weekend’s divisional game.

He developed a really good relationship with Adam Seward, who was eventually cut by the Colts but is still in the league, according to Kalkhoff. He also said return specialist T.J. Rushing is a good guy and that kicker Adam Vinateri is one of the funniest guys he’s ever met.

And what did he take from the experience with one of the NFL’s best franchises?

“I learned that the other team’s trainers should never beat you onto the field,” Kalkhoff said. “We need to work as hard as we can to be the best that we can be.”