We’ve all seen the video. A man the size of a small pick-up truck sweats, strains and grits his teeth as he pushes his foot against a heavily weighted steel plate until his leg is stretched to full extension.

Meanwhile, a voiceover announcer explains to us in a growling baritone that the man is “rehabbing” a knee which has recently undergone surgery to repair a torn anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) so that he can go back out onto the football field and collide with other massive bodies 30 or 40 times on a Sunday afternoon for wages an Arab oil Sheik would envy.

What that announcer rarely mentions are the people who help the big guy choose a course of exercise that is best for his specific type of injury, encourage him through the pain and exhaustion and evaluate his progress.

Those people are physical therapists.

With more surgeons recommending a rehabilitation program following orthopedic surgery, the rapidly growing elderly population and baby boomers entering prime age for heart attack and stroke, the need for qualified physical therapists is growing. No less an authority than the Mayo Clinic estimates that – at least through 2014 – the need for physical therapists will grow “much faster” than the average for other occupations with starting salaries that have already reached more than $50,000 per year.

According to Betsy Gunther of Peter’s Township High School’s physical education department, the time to address that growing need is before college. That is why she and the school board entered into an association with Mark Mortland of Mortland Physical Therapy and Sports Medicine in McMurray to have students who are interested in the profession work as interns at his facility.

However, not all students who are interested in the internship program get in, Gunther said.

“These are very high achieving students,” she said of the two current interns and three that have gone before them.

Students who wish to be considered must have completed Gunther’s anatomy and physiology course, the highest level of the school’s health classes. This is followed by an application process and intense interviewing to see if the students have the determination and stamina to withstand the extra hours and extra work required for the program and still keep up with their other studies and activities. After that process is completed, two students are selected for the 11-week, 10-hour-per-week internship.

This semester the two slots, sought by 11 applicants, went to Dana Aaron, a 17-year-old senior, and Amy Trotnick, a junior at the tender age of 15. Both young women are straight-A students and both play soccer and run on the school’s track team in addition to balancing their work at Mortland, their regular curricula and the hope of a social life in there somewhere.

“I probably would be going to bed earlier,” said Amy when asked what she was sacrificing by putting the time into this endeavor. “Asked the same question, Dana replied, “We’re giving up taking extra classes at the high school.”

On a recent visit to Mortland, an immaculate year-and-a half old facility loaded with the latest in exercise equipment, Dana was working with a middle-aged woman doing leg lifts on one of the apparatus at the site. Beside her, clipboard in hand, Amy was jotting down information intended to chart the woman’s progress throughout the process.

The diminutive students looked like typical teenage girls you might run into at the mall or a Friday night football game. But here they were, dressed in red and white pullovers, learning a craft and polishing skills in an effort to help someone get back to an active life.

It only took a few minutes of conversation to discover that the dissimilarities to others their age didn’t end there.

Both Dana and Amy said that they wanted to continue studying physical therapy in college, and then make it their careers. Both also stated that, in the beginning, they want to work in a privately operated facility like Mortland rather than hospitals or nursing homes.

When questioned about working with a college or professional sports team later on, Dana said, “I think that really would be cool,” while Amy answered that she might possibly want to open her own facility some day.

Immediately ahead for both students is a stint with one of the high school’s sports teams assisting the trainers in their duties to keep young athletes healthy and on the field. That, says Gunther, is another significant time commitment for these high-achieving teenagers.

“We’re talking about hundreds of hours before they’re done,” she said.

So if you are a young person thinking about going into the field of physical therapy, consider the time and dedication commitment before you begin the process. And there is one other thing you might want to keep in mind.

“As part of the program,” Gunther said, “some students go to California University of Pennsylvania’s cadaver lab to get some hands-on experience.”

For many of us, that part of the curriculum makes law school look pretty good.