After spending 11 seasons in the National Football League maintaining his own body and skill level, Grey Ruegamer is now helping Flathead residents improve their health at The Summit Medical Fitness Center.

Ruegamer, who played center for the New England Patriots, Miami Dolphins, Pittsburgh Steelers, Green Bay Packers, New York Giants and Seattle Seahawks, is now a health and wellness coach at the Kalispell fitness center. 

His role is to help rehabilitate adults and strengthen athletes as well as improve nutrition and general wellness.

“I've been through a bunch of stuff in my career so I can relate a story of knowing what it is like,” Ruegamer said. “It's getting knocked down and getting back up and I can be an open ear for somebody. It's definitely a physical aspect, but there's a huge mental part of it too.”

His long NFL career was derailed in 2009 when, during Seahawks training camp, he ruptured his triceps. It was a career-ender, and a frustrating one, but Ruegamer was able to look back on his career and be pretty satisfied. Two Super Bowl rings with the Patriots and Giants certainly didn't hurt.

“The quarterbacks I got to work with were all hall of fame options,” Ruegamer said.

He centered the football to such long-tenured quarterbacks as Dan Marino, Tom Brady, Brett Favre, Eli Manning and Matt Hasselbeck.

“If you've got to have a guy handle your undercarriage, there are worse options,” he said.

While never a full-time starter, Ruegamer said the preparation necessary for his 17 career starts and 100-plus career games was more than enough to prepare him for an environment like that at The Summit.

“My role was to know the ins and outs of every position,” he said. “Centers have to know a lot of things out on the field. It really stretches your synapses. That preparation to compete at a very high level is huge. You can get beat competitively and that doesn't change in the workplace. You just change the verbiage a little bit.”

He has taken a competitive attitude since his days at Bishop Gorman High School in Las Vegas, where he was a three-sport athlete in football, wrestling and track and field. 

His ties to Montana reach back even further than that.

“My family is originally from Cut Bank,” he said. “So I have those Hi-Line ties that go way back. My wife and I built a house in Whitefish and we always wanted to come back.”

Family members remain in Montana, including a cousin who is a physician at Kalispell Regional Medical Center. 

After high school, Ruegamer spent four years as a starter at Arizona State University, handing off to future NFL player Jake Plummer and playing with Pac-10 Defensive Player of the Year Pat Tillman, who gained fame not only for his career with the Arizona Cardinals but also for his subsequent enlistment in special forces and death in Afghanistan.

“It was a shock to everybody who knew him,” Ruegamer said of his former teammate. “He was absolutely hilarious and he called it like he saw it. Some people could deal with that and others couldn't.”

The 1996 Arizona State Sun Devils played in the Rose Bowl against the Ohio State Buckeyes, ultimately losing the game and a piece of the Associated Press National Championship.

After his days as a Sun Devil, the National Football League was a bit of a culture shock.

“The NFL leverages player-coach loyalty,” Ruegamer said. “You'll run through a wall for your coach and they know that. The quicker you learn the business of the NFL the quicker you survive.”

With bosses such as Bill Belichick (whom Ruegamer describes as intense and “football all the time”), the transition to the medical world is one of the rare times it comes from a more stressful place.

“I have the ability to give back,” he said. “It’s great to work with someone, help them see the goal and finally attain it. The light bulb goes off for them and its very rewarding.”

Some of the programs Ruegamer works with for rehab and athletes include the Parisi Speed School and Competitive Edge, which are designed to increase strength, speed, and life skills such as studying and personal responsibility. 

He is working toward his master’s degree in wellness coaching from California University of Pennsylvania and wants to help people toward a more healthy way of living.

“Big Pharm is one of the biggest problems we see in health,” Ruegamer said. “We’re treating the symptoms and not the causes and we need to change that. There are so many different ways to approach health and we need to be aware of that.”

Reporter Ryan Murray may be reached at 758-4436 or by email at rmurray@dailyinterlake.com.