Columbus East High School

When the final whistle blew Friday night, Dr. Cary M. Guse stepped off the BCSC sidelines after more than two decades as the district’s devoted team physician. It’s a moment steeped in gratitude and memory — but not in retirement. Because of recent changes at Columbus Regional Hospital that eliminated its sports medicine department, Friday night marked Cary’s last official game-day role for BCSC; he will, however, continue to see and welcome patients at Southern Indiana Orthopedics in Columbus, North Vernon and Seymour for years to come. A Hoosier at heart, Dr. Guse’s path to sports medicine began on the field. A former multi-sport high-school standout who went on to play college basketball and baseball, he parlayed that athlete’s perspective into a life in medicine. He graduated from Indiana University School of Medicine, completed residency training, and then pursued fellowship training in sports medicine — experience that would later define his approach to treating athletes at every level. Early in his career Dr. Guse served as team physician at Arlington High School in Indianapolis and provided coverage for Indianapolis Indians baseball, the Colts’ training camp, and the NFL Combine. His resume then took him north to Minneapolis, where he worked with five professional Minnesota teams — the Timberwolves, Twins, Vikings, Lynx and Wild — a chapter he often recalls fondly for its fast pace and big-league stories. But Columbus called him home. He returned to raise a family and joined Southern Indiana Orthopedics as one of the region’s first fellowship-trained sports medicine specialists south of Indianapolis. Over the years he became Medical Director for Sports Medicine at the hospital, served as head team physician for Columbus East (and formerly Columbus North), taught as an adjunct instructor for local college pre-med and athletic training programs, and helped build local sports medicine infrastructure — including founding roles at the Columbus Specialty Surgery Center and the practice’s physical therapy service. Those leadership roles reflect a career equally devoted to clinical care, education, and community health. On the field and in the clinic, Dr. Guse’s work has been broad and steady: treating concussions and torn ligaments, operating on fractures, managing outbreaks and public-health challenges, and navigating pandemic protocols — all while making himself available to families by text or phone at any hour. Coaches, athletic trainers, principals and parents came to rely on his judgment and calm presence; student-athletes learned that his priority was always getting them back into the game quickly and safely, and addressing the emotional as well as physical sides of injury. That 24/7 dedication is a hallmark of his tenure with BCSC. Through it all, family came first. His wife Kristi and their children — Jacob (Columbus East class of 2023, now a Wabash College student) and Jenna (Columbus East class of 2024, now at the University of Indianapolis) — were a constant presence at games. Jacob and Jenna once rode to their first matches in “pumpkin seats” as infants; over the years they grew into the sideline tradition of standing beside their father as he cared for athletes. Tonight, each has returned from college to join Kristi in surprising and congratulating him as he takes that sideline one last time in an official capacity. While tonight closes a chapter for BCSC, it is emphatically not the end of Dr. Guse’s medical career. He will continue practicing at Southern Indiana Orthopedics — seeing new patients and longtime community members alike — aiming to get them “back in the game of life” with the same expertise and compassion that defined his sideline presence. For families across Bartholomew County, that continuity is welcome news: Dr. Guse’s clinic doors remain open, and his commitment to local care remains as strong as ever. Please join the community in thanking Dr. Cary Guse for his years of service — for the late-night calls, the calm on the sideline, and the steady hand that helped generations of athletes recover, compete, and thrive. Once an Olympian, always part of the Olympian family.