Rick Doerr is a man of many talents. He’s a plastic and reconstructive surgeon by trade, but doubles as a U.S. Paralympic sailing medalist. Still, he finds time to volunteer in the sport that he grew up playing and still loves — lacrosse.

Doerr, who had his lacrosse career ended by a car crash in 1992 that left him a paraplegic, picked up sailing, another childhood sport. After years of working the U.S. Paralympic team, Doerr qualified for the 2016 Rio Paralympic Games and won the silver medal in the Three-Person Keelboat event.

He’s lived an accomplished life, but continues gives back to lacrosse as a volunteer coach for Bergen Catholic (N.J.).

How did you get involved with lacrosse?

Lacrosse was kind of a new sport when I started playing in New Jersey in the 1970s. One of the preeminent programs was in the town where I went to school, Montclair. I remember driving home from school and seeing the high school team play. When I got to the high school level, the school that I went to was a private school and they were starting up a team. By my senior year, I was all-state.

How did you continue playing through pre-med and med school?

While I was at New England College in New Hampshire, I noticed that in the springtime during lacrosse, I always did better on my grade point average. It made you focus a lot more. I played during graduate school with the University of Colorado, the club team. Once my eligibility was over, I started to play with the Denver lacrosse club.

Shortly after, I applied to medical school in Chicago. Once I got there, I found some lacrosse players. Lacrosse players seem to seek themselves out. If you have a lacrosse stick in your hand and you start playing, you hear, “Hey, I play lacrosse, too.”

How did your lacrosse family help you after your accident?

All the guys from the Chicago lacrosse club came to my hospital and my aid. My apartment needed to be moved out and my teammates took my furniture. They helped me find an apartment in Chicago. They helped my wife. To this day, whenever I go to Chicago, the first call I make is to the guys.

How did you stay connected to the game after the accident?

When my nephews started to play lacrosse, I was out there watching and taking interest in how they were doing. It turned out that my one nephew’s coaches got sick. He developed multiple sclerosis and had to give up coaching. The assistant took over and, for an elite level program to have just one guy coaching them is really underwhelming. I was talking to him about the schedule and how the team was shaping up and I said ‘if you need some help, I would be glad to help you. I have a lot of knowledge of the game.’ He was like ‘That would be terrific.’ That was in 2001.

It started with something as simple as volunteering and going to practices and the next year, they hired another coach and it turned out he played under my old coach at my high school. I came to the meeting and the next spring, the guy asked if I would help out. I was like ‘Sure.’

COURTESY OF RICK DOERR

Have you ever used your medical skills on the lacrosse field?

I’m certainly not the team doctor, but there have been a couple instances on the field. One of them was the kid Chris Hogan, who in his senior year, was hit so hard in a game against one of biggest rivals, he ruptured his spleen. The symptoms were pretty obvious to me as a physician. I told the parents that they needed to keep an eye on him.

Probably about an hour after the game, I called the father and asked ‘Does Chris have shoulder pain? Is he short of breath?’ Check. I told him to put Chris in the car and we went to the hospital. They got him there and did the scan, and lo and behold he had the ruptured spleen. Unfortunately, he didn’t want to hear it. It kept him out for six weeks. He was not happy.

How does a sailing career fit into all that?

I grew up on the water on the Jersey shore and sailed with my brothers and cousins. As I went through college and got into lacrosse, sailing took a back seat until my accident. I was going through rehabilitation at the Rehab Institute of Chicago. They had an opportunity to get out on a boat. I looked at it and I was with the physical therapist. I was like, ‘There’s no way you can get someone out of a wheelchair on the boat.” She dared me. I said, “Don’t dare me. I’ll do it just to prove you wrong.” As soon as I got on the boat, I realized what a freeing, emotional moment it was. Off I went.

They introduced sailing in Atlanta in 1996 and we eventually won the U.S. trials in 2008 and competed in Beijing. We won the trials again last year and headed to Rio.

Would you like to see lacrosse in the Olympics?

It would be well deserved. ... Lacrosse should be in the Games as an incredibly competitive sport. It brings out the spirit. I went to Lake Placid to watch the U.S. hockey team play with a bunch of college kids in the 1980s. It’s just gritty kids doing it for the right reason. They aren’t doing it because they are getting paid to do it. I would imagine that a lot of college kids that would get an opportunity to play in the Olympics would be doing it for the love of the sport, not so much the love of the accolades.