Every morning plastic surgeon Brett Stompro begins his day at his Danville office with thoughts of tummy tucks, eyebrow lifts, and the ever-popular rhinoplasties. By mid-afternoons in the fall he’s concentrating on three-step drops, cover-two zones and pulling guards as an assistant varsity football coach at California High School in San Ramon.
“It’s easy to switch gears,” Dr. Stompro says. “It’s two different worlds. Ninety-eight percent of my patients are women and are treated with loads of TLC. In the afternoons…well let’s just say that young men need to know you mean business.”
Dr. Stompro opened his doors in Blackhawk Medical Center in 1994 and started to work for the Cal High football program in 2006. In at least one instance, the two different worlds crossed. “The mother of one of my players had been in my care. After practice one day she said to her son, ‘I see Dr. Stompro is one of your coaches, isn’t he nice?’ The player said, ‘No, he’s not nice…and he cusses, too.’”
Before entering medicine, Stompro’s career as a star quarterback for San Leandro High School earned him a high school hall of fame designation and numerous awards. He also earned two varsity letters as the centerfielder for the San Leandro baseball team. “Coaching satisfies my competitive thirst,” he says. “It’s as close as you can get to playing. Every achievement I’ve had has been the result of hard work and not accepting failure. “I got into plastic surgery and coaching for similar reasons. I love helping people be everything they can be and seeing them achieve their dreams.”
Dr. Stompro’s duties at Cal include coaching the quarterbacks, the linebackers and special teams. “Our quarterbacks have done well,” Stompro says. “We may not have some of the gifted passers that Monte Vista and San Ramon have, but we’re efficient. Our quarterback ratings are among the highest in the East Bay, and our touchdown to interception ratio is consistently one of the best in the region. That measure is the number one predictor of success as an offense. Coach (Eric) Billeci’s play calling has also been great.”
Dr. Stompro clearly takes pride in all his work. He got into plastic surgery because it merged his interest in medicine with a talent he has for sculpting. “It was like combining my vocation and my avocation,” he said. The results in plastic surgery are often striking, as are those he achieves with young men. “I love taking a player who may not have played much as a freshman, and work with him within and outside practice to hone his skills and make him successful.”
Future Cal High star quarterback Drew Reil was relegated to playing in the “fifth quarter” of frosh games in 2007 after the scoreboard was turned off. With Dr. Stompro’s help, by the time Reil was a senior in 2010 he led Cal to a 12-2 record, breaking records along the way.
The schedule Dr. Stompro keeps every week this fall is daunting. He greets patients at about 7 a.m. and mixes surgical procedures with office work depending on the day. He leaves for Cal at 2:30 p.m. and is on the field for practice from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. On Thursdays the team has a dinner that runs from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m., and on Fridays games and post-game analysis can run past midnight. Finally they return to host the weekly Sunday night coaches’ game planning dinner.
“I’m a lucky guy,” says Dr. Stompro. “In my medical school yearbook I said I wanted to be a plastic surgeon, coach football and live on a golf course. I got two out of three.” And as the saying goes, two out of three ain’t bad.
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