Our Staff

Karen Chase, MS, ATC, LAT

Karen is a certified athletic trainer, licensed in Connecticut. Her primary responsibility is providing the highest quality sports medicine care to the various student athletes and teams at Avon High School. However she also works with patients in a clinical rehabilitation setting in our office two days a week, treating sports injuries, designing home exercise programs, implementing performance enhancement programs, and fabricating and applying orthotics, splints and braces. Karen comes from upstate NY. She earned her Bachelors Degree in Athletic Training in 1999 from West Chester University in West Chester, PA, and earned her Masters Degree in Sport Health Care from the Arizona School of Health Sciences, a division of the Kirksville College of Osteopathic Medicine, in 2001. Karen has worked with athletes of all ages from high school to professional, and has several years of teaching both at the high school and collegiate level as well.  Karen is also certified in ART, Active Release Technique.

Chris Matan, PT, CSCC

Chris graduated from Quinnipiac College in 1995 with a BS in physical therapy. In 2003 he completed credentialing through the National Strength and Conditioning Association as a certified strength and conditioning specialist. Prior to joining Valley Sports Physicians in July of 2004, he was the senior sports medicine physical therapist at Gaylord Hospital for 9 years in their sports medicine department.

Here at Valley Sports Physicians, Chris covers all aspects of physical therapy and rehabilitation, including acute and chronic injuries and post-surgical rehab. Chris also has a strong interest in sports performance enhancement and designs specific performance enhancement training programs to help athletes get an additional edge on their game. He enjoys skiing, golf and spending time with his wife Stacey and their two sons, Matthew and Ryan.

April Thomas, MS, ATC, LAT

April joined Valley Sports Physicians in 2009 after serving as an Athletic Trainer at the University of Hartford for 4 years. Her primary responsibility is to serve as a physician clinical extender, working closely with the physicians seeing patients, assisting with procedures, designing home exercise programs, fitting and applying braces and orthotics, and assisting with other clinical and patient care duties.  She also provides Athletic Trainer services at Avon High School on an as-needed basis.