By David Fong

Troy City Schools director of communications

For nearly 40 years, through five different coaches and injuries that ran the gamut from strains and sprains to compound fractures and major dislocations, one thing has remained unchanged for the Troy football program, standing sentry on the sidelines on Friday nights to ensure every players’ health and safety.

Since 1987, Dr. Don Delcamp has served as the Troy High School football team’s doctor. While he retired at the end of last season — both as Troy’s team doctor and as a practicing orthopedic surgeon — he remains a fixture on the sidelines, now in a consulting role.

Friday night at Troy Memorial Stadium, Delcamp was honored for his many decades of service prior to Troy’s homecoming game against Xenia.

“When I first started, it was primarily the football players that were coming to see me. But I’d also have some wrestlers, some tennis players, some basketball players, things like that,” Delcamp said. “(Former Troy football coach) Steve Nolan came to me and said, ‘Will you come stand on the sidelines during football games and provide medical attention to our players?’ I told him I was starting a new practice and I had young kids at the time, so I wasn’t sure I could do it. But I told him I’d do it for a year and see how it went. And here we are 38 years later … I guess I found the time.”

Delcamp graduated from Newton High School in 1974 and earned his medical degree from The Ohio State University in 1982. He would go on to open an independent practice in 1987, the same year he started working with Troy High School’s athletes. He joined Premier Health on the Upper Valley Medical Center campus in 1998.

“It’s turned out to be mutually beneficial,” Delcamp said. “People would come to see me and tell me that they saw me standing on the sidelines, and if I was good enough for our boys, I must be good enough for them.”

Delcamp has been an integral part of the Troy football team’s staff through five different decades.

“We are very lucky to have had Dr. Delcamp be a part of our program for so long,” Troy Athletic Director Dave Palmer said. “Not only is he incredibly knowledgeable and professional, but he also does a great job working with our student-athletes and our coaching staff. He genuinely has the best interests of our student-athletes at heart, which is something you look for in a team doctor. We can’t thank ‘Doc’ enough for what he’s done here at Troy.”

Delcamp said he’s seen an evolution in the way teams and schools handle the medical needs of student-athletes, as well as an evolution in himself as a student of the game of football.

“I never played football, Newton didn’t have football then and still doesn’t now, so I really didn’t know too much about the game,” he said. “I spent a lot of time early on just trying to figure out what was going to happen next so I could be ready for it. In 1987, having trainers on the sideline was basically unheard of, so the team doctor had to deal with everything.”

Over the years, Delcamp said he’s made plenty of memories of watching Troy’s storied football program. Some of those have been painful memories, while others have been highlights for him.

“There are a couple of moments that stand out. I remember (in 1993) when we lost to Piqua on the final play of the game,” Delcamp said. “That was the year where it looked like if Troy and Centerville had both finished the season undefeated, which it looked like we were going to, Centerville would be left out of the playoffs. I also remember the 1996 playoff game against Lima Senior. I have no doubts that if we had won that game, we would have won the state championship that year.

“I also have a lot of positive memories. I remember us winning some games we weren’t supposed to win. I remember (in 2007) when Piqua had a really good team and we beat them in the final seconds of the game. I remember one year (1993) when we went over to Greenville and had 11 possessions and scored 11 touchdowns.”

Although retired, Delcamp remains a fan of the game and the Trojans. Premier Health’s Dr. Thomas Zink has taken over as team doctor, but Delcamp said he’ll remain on the sidelines as both a consultant and fan.

“It’s become almost a ritual for me,” Delcamp said. “In the fall on Friday nights, I get the opportunity to watch a lot of good kids and a lot of good people standing on the sidelines at Troy football games.”