LAKE CHARLES – Longtime McNeese team physician and one of the nation's top orthopedic surgeons, Dr. David Drez, was presented the Jack Weakley Award of Distinction on Wednesday in Houston at the annual National Athletic Trainers' Association (NATA) award's banquet.
 
The award, formerly the President's Challenge award, honors one individual each year for a lifetime of outstanding contributions that directly impacts health care in the area of athletics, athletic training, or sports medicine and are of major and lasting importance.
 
Established in 1976, the award provides a stimulus of continued service, research and education in the field of athletic health care.
 
Dr. Drez retired in 2013 after a 42-year career as an orthopedic surgeon with 37 of those as the team physician for McNeese's athletic program.
 
He attended and graduated from Tulane Medical School and began a residency in orthopedic surgery in 1967 then opened his practice in Lake Charles in 1971 while also working the sidelines at McNeese athletic contests, assisting then team physician Dr. Boyd Woodard.
 
In 1973 Woodard asked Drez to take over as the lead McNeese team physician and that's when he began an association that lasted until his retirement, a pairing that was the longest in the nation.
 
During his career, Drez, who is a retired Lieutenant Colonel in the U. S. Army Reserve, became a nationally known lecturer and author and was inducted into the Louisiana Athletic Trainers Hall of Fame as well as into the McNeese Hall of fame.        

He has served as a visiting lecturer or professor at the Baylor College of Medicine, at UCLA, at the University of Texas Medical Center, at the Univ. of Pittsburgh, at Northwestern University, at the University of Arizona, at Balgrist University in Switzerland and at the LSU School of Medicine where he also served as a clinical professor.
        
Drez was also the innovator in providing athletic trainers for local high schools in Southwest Louisiana.
 
He built lasting relationships with former McNeese athletic trainers Dowell Fontenot and Jim Murphy and during his time at McNeese, treated upwards of 10,000 student-athletes.
 
The rehabilitation area of the Dowell Fontenot Sports Medicine Center at the university is named the David Drez, MD rehabilitation center. He was one of the five founding members of Center for Orthopaedics in 1994.
 
Dr. Drez was nominated for the award by Murphy, who served 33 years as McNeese's athletic trainer before retiring in 2013.