From UMass to the Major Leagues
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Editor's note: This story was written by the UMass Amherst social media team and originally appeared on their social media accounts. It is reproduced with their permission. You can view the original post here.
They went from UMass to the major leagues. Even after a World Series where their teams went head-to-head, Erica Casto and Gillian Weir remain friends.
Gillian was a research fellow and postdoc from Australia. She'd come to UMass to work with renowned biomechanist and UMass kinesiology professor Joe Hamill. She'd intended to stay for one year, but would end up staying at UMass for four. Erica had come from West Virginia to start her Ph.D, working under kinesiology professor Katherine Boyer and focusing mainly on knee arthritis. Her turn toward sports would happen later, but when they came to share an office, their friendship bloomed right away. "We started at the same time," Gillian tells UMass. "And we shared an office for those four years."
The first to go major league was Gillian. She broke onto the pro sports scene in a big way when she took a job as the biomechanics professional for the New York Yankees. She now fills the role of Senior Biomechanist for the team. A few years later, Erica would take a job for the LA Dodgers, doing very similar work to Gillian as an Applied Research Scientist for the team. Both help baseball players optimize their already formidable physical abilities, allowing them to become more controlled, stronger, faster, and - yes - better players. "You leave every day kind of feeling like you did something, or helped out in some way," Erica says of her work with the Dodgers. "Even if it was just answering a question. I find that really cool."
Now, with the Dodgers triumphant in this year's World Series, their friendship and professional relationship both remain strong. They are united in their outlook: kinesiology is taking pro sports in exciting new directions. "The Dodgers and the Yankees really have the biggest performance science departments in Major League Baseball," Gillian explains. "And now other teams are adopting biomechanics as well. So it's really exciting for people interested in biomechanics and sports science because we didn't have these positions when we were in grad school, or even when I started university."
Erica and Gillian agree that pro baseball is an exciting place to work. The presence of the former UMass lab partners on the two teams who competed in the 2024 World Series foretells a bright future for their discipline. The major leagues are upping their game...and UMass kinesiologist alumni are on the cutting edge.