Randall Kruger of Lyndora is a man of second chances — for himself, his patients and his students.

An instructor in Butler County Community College's Nursing and Allied Health Division, as well as the program director for the physical therapist assistant program, Kruger spends most days showing his students how to rehabilitate patients' physical prowess following trauma, joint replacements or debilitating medical conditions.

When he's not teaching, Kruger is a physical therapist at Butler Memorial Hospital or volunteering his services elsewhere.

“I couldn't be more blessed. I love teaching and being a physical therapist. I'm lucky to have a job that allows me to do both,” Kruger said.

But Kruger's ability to help people have a second chance was born of his own second-chance opportunity.

The Mars native graduated from Mars High School in 1988, playing baseball and football, then headed to Westminster College.

Kruger started as a liberal-arts major, then shifted to psychology, back to liberal arts and, finally, education. Despite carrying a 3.5 grade point average, he didn't finish his education at Westminster.

“I started off with the traditional college route, but I dropped out my junior year. It had nothing to do with the school, but everything to do with me,” Kruger said.

“(Westminster College) was a fantastic school. I just had no direction. I didn't know what I wanted to do.”

After a visit to the alma mater of his mother, Mary, a nurse, Kruger transferred to Marietta College in Ohio.

“They had a program in sports medicine that seemed pretty darn interesting,” he said.

“It seems strange to say, but, as a 20-year-old, I had a moment of lucidity, realizing this was a second chance that a lot of people don't get. From the day I started, I realized this was where I belonged.”

Kruger said he loved the challenge of the classes, the interaction with instructors and athletes, and the problem-solving, analytical nature of the field.

“I love the problem-solving analysis. It fit me. I was a 6-foot, 2-inch, 180-pound offensive lineman. I realized the Steelers were not going to be calling me. You have to find a place where your interests and your talents match up,” he said.

“Also, my first year there, I met the woman that I will be married to 18 years this summer.”

As a student trainer, Kruger worked with athletic teams all over the college campus as well as with students at the campus clinic. The college also lent its student trainers to high schools that had no full-time trainer.

“It was an amazing amount of responsibility for a 21-year-old student. I enjoyed the challenge,” Kruger said.

“The head trainer would give us as much freedom as we earned.”

He earned his bachelor's degree in sports medicine in 1993.

Kruger had dreams of being a professional athletic trainer, but the travel and demands on his time were daunting.

“I love the field, but realized the hours did not lend themselves to starting a family,” he said.

Injured during the baseball preseason as a freshman at Westminster College, Kruger's own experience with physical therapy had planted in him the seed of interest in the field.

“I thought, ‘It's amazing what these people do,'” he said.

Kruger decided to attend the University of Pittsburgh's master's program in physical therapy, attending classes while interning with UPMC's Center for Sports Medicine.

Newly wed, Kruger balanced classes and his internship with working for a moving company while his wife, Debi, worked part-time jobs.“I don't know that I liked working that many hours, but it was necessary. We were a young married couple trying to make ends meet,” he said.Kruger also volunteered to be a guinea pig for medical studies.“Each one became progressively more unpleasant, so each one paid a little bit more,” he said.About six months before Kruger earned his master's degree in physical therapy in 1996, the couple welcomed their first child.With Debi unable to work for much of her pregnancy and her husband attempting to juggle education, internship and work, the family moved in with his parents.“I wasn't proud of (moving back home),” Kruger said, but the proximity of his parents' home to Butler Memorial Hospital led him to cold call about a job.“It just so turned out they were going to have an opening around the time I was graduating. They hadn't even advertised it yet,” Kruger said.“I felt I owed it to myself to get that hospital experience, never dreaming I'd enjoy it. Yet, here I am, 16 years later, still enjoying it.“Careerwise, it's been a great place to work,” he said.“Patients never change. The problems people can experience are never going to change. Techniques and protocols, however, are very different (from when he attended school).”Kruger got his start in teaching in 2000, when a colleague at Butler Memorial, who also worked at Butler County Community College, told him a position would be opening soon.“At the time, coincidentally, I was talking to my wife about my interest in teaching,” he said.Kruger survived the interview process.“My wife is a teacher, so she really helped me out. She was my sample audience,” Kruger said.Working normal, 9-to-5 hours some weeks and marathon 70-hour weeks on other occasions hasn't deterred Kruger, a marathon trail runner and hiker. He volunteers his services to those in need when he is not teaching, or works shifts at Butler Memorial.The Krugers are now the parents of three children, daughters, Hannah, 16, and Karly, 11, and son, Reed, 11, but that didn't stop the family patriarch from adding more school work to his schedule.The past two years he was on the other side of the desk, earning his doctorate in physical therapy at Chatham University in December.“I want to believe I'm a better therapist having done it. It's changed the way I practice,” Kruger said.“I wish I could say it's the last doctorate, but it's more likely the first.”Kruger said he wants to earn a doctorate in education, both to improve himself as program administrator and to participate in educational research, presumably gentler than that he volunteered for as a student.From his own second-chance epiphany in college to the students he works with at BC3, many of them embarking on second careers, Kruger believes in helping others.That belief extends to his community.“Part of our role on Earth here is to reach out and help people. Everyone has something they can give, and the church teaches us we should give,” Kruger said.“We have to find a way to give back.”He said participation in church or community service groups, community involvement and personal investment in general, is the best way to give Butler a second chance for a new heyday.“Probably the biggest export Butler has is Butlerites, recent graduates,” Kruger said.“You want to make Butler better, help somebody. It's why I do what I do, and it's how I truly believe the community can be improved.”<B>KRUGER FILE</B><B>Name:</B> Randall Kruger<B>Address:</B> Lyndora<B>Employment: </B>Program director for Butler County Community College's physical therapist assistant program; an instructor in BC3's Nursing and Allied Health Division; part-time physical therapist at Butler Memorial Hospital<B>Family:</B> Wife, Debi, and three children; daughters Hannah, 16, and Karly, 11; son Reed, 11; two brothers, Tom and Ken; mother Mary, who is a nurse; and his late father, Karl, who was a physical and health education teacher.<B>Education: </B>Mars High School graduate, 1988; bachelor's in sports medicine, Marietta College (Ohio), 1993; master's in physical therapy, University of Pittsburgh, 1996; doctorate, physical therapy, Chatham University, 2011‘From the day I started, I realized this was where I belonged.'<B></B><B>BUSINESS INSIGHT</B>Randall Kruger, who is program director for Butler County Community College's physical therapist assistant program, offers these tips on having a successful career:• “This applies to anyone in the medical field. You have to have a strong science background. Take as many sciences in high school as you can get.”• Prospective therapists should study hard in composition and communication.“There are a lot of transferable skills. Poor bedside manner can exist in any field. When you ask people what makes a good practitioner, they don't tell you the technical stuff. What it boils down to is communication skills.”• “You must be willing to be adaptable. This field changes so rapidly.”Kruger paraphrased the oft-repeated medical school adage: “Half of what you will learn in medical school is wrong. You just don't know which half, yet.”• You must be passionate about helping others, not the paycheck.“I recognize that, both as a clinician and an educator, I'm in the service industry. I'm just an overeducated, useless guy without my students or patients.”