Dr. Jessica Zarndt, team physician for the Las Vegas Raiders, poses on the indoor practice field at the Las Vegas Raiders Headquarters/Intermountain Healthcare Performance Center in Henderson Wednesday, Sept. 6, 2023. Zarndt, a Las Vegas native, is also a primary care sports medicine physician at Desert Orthopedic Center.
Monday, Sept. 11, 2023 | 2 a.m.
When Jessica Zarndt stepped onto the field of Allegiant Stadium to work her first Raiders game in 2021, all she could feel was empowerment, even if the cheers and claps weren’t for her.
Zarndt’s career in sports medicine had taken her to many events, from roaming the sidelines on high school football Friday nights to being the first full-time female doctor for teams at the University of Texas.
Being in the NFL felt different, she said.
“As a young female in this job, I think you’re told quite a bit (that) you don’t know what you’re doing (and) I think you’re made to feel a little inferior by the men,” said Zarndt, a physician consultant for primary care sports medicine with the Las Vegas Raiders, on the gender disparity in the sports medicine industry.
“When I stood on that field in Allegiant Stadium, I knew what to do and it was very empowering for me.”
Zarndt was 13 when she walked out to the field at Cheyenne High School for her first practice with the cross country team. It was another blazing day during a typical Las Vegas summer, and the running Zarndt would do didn’t help, but that first practice would change her life forever.
Zarndt, 42, said her passion and understanding of “what sport can do” for a person was fostered as a young prep athlete.
The Las Vegas native said her four years running under coach John Dixon and “some of the best teammates” she has had led to her current path — working to help athletes recover from injuries, teaching the region’s future doctors and treating injured Raiders players.
Zarndt also works as a clinical assistant professor at Touro University Nevada, where in 2008 she was a member of its first graduating class of physicians.
“I met some of the best people that I could have met for a 13-year-old girl to start growing up and becoming I guess what I am now — a sports medicine physician,” Zarndt said. “I think that started this idea that sports can really change the world, as Nelson Mandela said.”
In 2021, there were 3,200 sports medicine physicians per 100,000 people, according to the Association of American Medical Colleges. About 28% were female — roughly a 7% increase in females employed in the industry since 2017.
“What we’re seeing is a lot more women going into medicine in general,” said Andrew Priest, president and provost at Touro University. “In the not-too-
distant future, you’re going to see more and more women involved.”
With this in mind, Zarndt felt it was important to chase her own dream and become part of an industry’s changing demographic.
Zarndt graduated from UNLV in 2002, spent four years in medical school at Touro, then moved on to a residency in family medicine at the University of Texas from 2008 to 2011.
She said the residency was “a great job for a young sports medicine person” because it was only her and one other person working the sidelines for all 17 teams at the college — including football, soccer, volleyball and basketball.
There were many occasions in whichshe was the only female sports physician at those Big 12 Conference sports events, she said.
“I think there’s still a lot more opportunities in sports in general for men, (but) I’m happy to see that it’s changing,” Zarndt said. “I’m happy to be a part of that change, but it hasn’t always been easy. It still isn’t.”
In 2013, Zarndt returned to Touro to teach. Although Priest hadn’t known her formally at that point, he was aware that Zarndt graduated in the institution’s first class of sports physicians.
He would later come to know her as “gregarious, very popular with the students, very informed ... (and) an all-around great person,” he said.
It’s one of the biggest reasons why Touro approached the alumnus when Zarndt returned to Las Vegas after a stint teaching at UCLA and working for the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Now, in addition to working full time at Desert Orthopedic Center, Zarndt also dedicates some of her time to teaching classes and leading third- and fourth-year medical students during their clinical rotations.
Priest believes having Zarndt there — as both a female sports physician and local resident — is “highly valuable” fixing what Zarndt calls an undersaturation of sports physicians in the region.
Unlike Zarndt, who spent those few years practicing in Texas and California, not even half of the active sports medicine physicians were practicing in the state in which they graduated, according to the Association of American Medical Colleges.
Of the roughly 180 students from Touro who graduate each year, up to a third of them stay in Las Vegas, said Priest. Many go into a variety of other specialties. He hopes Zarndt will become an example to students that they can have prosperous careers even if they stay close to home.
“Jessica just happens to be a high-profile example, because of her work with the Raiders and her work with sports medicine and with high school teams,” Priest said. “(But) we just want to see more and more of that. Maybe her coming in and talking and working with students will inspire some of them to become sports-medicine physicians.”
In the meantime, Zarndt will continue to care for her clients — whether they’re a soccer player from Canyon Springs High School or a defensive lineman with the Raiders — and help with fostering a love for sports and sports medicine in her students.
When Zarndt walks into Allegiant on game days, sometimes it takes her back to a specific memory during her time at UCLA.
She worked with the women’s basketball team through the COVID-19 pandemic, watched the senior players on the team struggle to qualify for the NCAA Tournament in 2021 and stood with them as they cried after a loss that eliminated them in the second round.
For her, helping these young women and understanding what they were going through — as both a former athlete and member of their care team — was powerful.
“Realizing that I helped them get there and they’re gonna be OK, even though there’s a lot of tears, I think I’d felt a sense of accomplishment,” Zarndt said. “I was a part of their journey and helped them be healthy young women, and I think it hit me that the impact I can have when I’m in this role as a sports medicine physician for these teams.”
