Giving thanks to a special person: Former softball star Jen Rothrock West is still coming through in the clutch

As a softball player at Liberty High School and Lafayette College, Jen Rothrock West was the person her coaches wanted up to bat with the game on the line.

She was an East Penn Conference all-star shortstop at Liberty where she helped the Hurricanes reach three consecutive league championship games and win the 1993 District 11 4A title.

She moved on to Lafayette where she was the leading hitter in the Patriot League during her senior season in 1997, hitting .415, which placed her 30th in the NCAA Division I rankings.

West set both the single-season RBI and runs scored records at Lafayette, driving in 32 runs in 1996 and scoring 34 of her own in 1995. She set the single-season RBI mark in 1995 as a sophomore before breaking her own record a year later.

It is no wonder that she made the Patriot League’s All-Decade Team for the 1990s and was inducted into the Lafayette College Maroon Club Athletic Hall of Fame,

Now, nearly a quarter-century after she played her last college softball game, West is still an important part of a lineup and coming through in the clutch.

She was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 2003 and may have slowed a step, but as a physical therapist and the head of Good Shepherd Rehabilitation Network’s Multiple Sclerosis Wellness Program, a position she earned in May, she is using the same dedication and passion that made her one of the area’s best softball players to help people deal with the obstacles that the often disabling disease can cause.

“My new position is perfect for me and truly is the best of both worlds, fulfilling my passion of working with others, like myself, who live with MS,” West said. “I still get to spend two days in direct patient care providing physical therapy to those with MS and other ailments. For the other three days, I have the privilege and unique perspective of overseeing Good Shepherd’s MS Wellness Program.”

She describes it as “a one-of-a-kind and innovative program that aims to promote the well-being of those living with MS by providing education, social interaction/support, modified exercise/physical activity and community engagement with the goal of enhancing quality of life.”

West said that because she can relate to MS patients, she wanted to get her certification as an MS specialist.

“When this position opened to lead the MS wellness program, I wasn’t sure I wanted to make the move because I loved where I was and loved what I was doing,” she said. “I decided to do it and it turned out to be the best decision. I still spend three days a week doing direct patient care, building my MS caseload, and orthopedics, but the other part of the week is spent on managing and taking care of the wellness program, which I enjoy greatly.”

West said MS is an autoimmune disease that affects the brain and the nerves that affect the body.

“It can have a wide range of symptoms and that’s one of the most challenging parts,” she said. “It’s very unpredictable. There’s no set course that the disease is going to take. You can have very mild symptoms, you can have very severe symptoms, but it can affect a whole variety of things. It can affect your strength, your walking, your balance … it can make all of those things very difficult. It can cause bowel and bladder issues, it can cause a higher rate of depression. There’s really almost nothing it can’t touch.”

But through West’s personal touch and understanding of the disease, her patients know they have a great teammate to take on each challenge that MS causes.

Karen Long is vice president of outpatient therapy operations at Good Shepherd Rehabilitation Network and has known West for many years as a colleague and later as her supervisor.

Long is also the wife of Kevin Long, the recently retired band director for the famous Liberty High Grenadier Band.

“When Jen started working here at Good Shepherd she told me she was in Liberty’s band,” Long said. “And I am like, ‘Wait, I thought you were an amazing athlete?’ And she said ‘Oh yeah, I did them both.’ Right away, that was impressive to me because I admire people who came multitask and have the ability to handle a whole different bunch of things at one time and keep all kinds of balls up in the air.”

Long was West’s assistant and then became her patient after undergoing shoulder surgery about 12 years ago.

“I chose her to be my therapist and the thing about Jen that is so special is that she meets the patient where they are,” Long said. “It doesn’t matter if you are an athlete or someone who works in an office, she was going to match my goals what I needed to do with my life. She met me where I was and had that innate ability to know when she could push me and when I didn’t need to be pushed. She knew when I needed to be independent and when I needed an extra push.”

Long said West’s firsthand knowledge of dealing with MS makes her the ideal person to help patients deal with its ups and downs.

“That makes her extra special,” Long said. “Had she not had MS she still would have been great at this because she has this innate ability to meet you where you are. But being able to walk the walk and empathize with people and understand what they are dealing with makes a world of difference.”

While Rothrock’s stats were outstanding at both Liberty and Lafayette, there are no RBI totals or batting averages to measure success with an MS patient.

“You can’t have those defined goals as much,” she said. “You might be able to build some strength and make some progress, but it’s not easy to measure. You have someone who might have difficulty walking. You work with them and they’re probably still going to have difficulty walking. It’s more about teaching them how to cope with it and give them strategies to help improve how they’re doing things.”

One of the goals might be just to get the patient to understand what their physical abilities and capabilities are.

“You may try to get them to come to terms with that and help with how to deal with that,” she said. “You basically want them to live the best life that they can within their limitations. You want them to find their greatest quality of life, whatever that can be for them.”

The 46-year-old Rothrock looks back on her sports background as helping her deal with the adversity that has come with her own battle with MS and with helping her patients battle through the challenges.

“Even though my stats were good as an individual at Lafayette, our team records at Lafayette were not,” she said. “We struggled to win games. So while I loved playing, there were also a lot of hardships and challenges because we struggled to reach our potential. Dealing with that helped to prepare me to deal with the hardship of my own MS diagnosis and as well as helping MS patients.”

While West may not have won a championship at Lafayette, she’s clearly a champion in the game of life.

She said that while her MS symptoms aren’t as severe as they are for others, it has had an impact on her life.

“I can’t walk the same distance I used to walk and I walk with a limp now,” she said. “I couldn’t play softball if I wanted to because I can’t run. I don’t know if I could still hit because my right leg is my weak leg and that’s what you use to push off on. Those are things I deal with on a daily basis and some days are harder than others. But we do what we have to do.”

She sends that message to her patients, encouraging them to live their lives as fully as they can.

“My job is very gratifying,” she said. “I am probably taking as much benefit from them as I am giving to them. They enjoy the unique perspective I bring because I am one of them. We have a tight-knit group and to be able to connect to the patients and to the members of the group, is very special. I feel as though this job has been life-changing and I want to do the very best I can with it to help as many as I can.”

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