After Hours

When Peter Curcione was 17, an Italian soccer club offered him a chance to play professionally. The young midfielder was flattered, but in the end he chose the University of Michigan and a road that eventually led to medical school, orthopedic surgery and Kagan Jugen and Associates’ Lehigh Acres office. “I can’t say my decision is wrong,” he says. Sure, being an orthopedic surgeon is nice, but … “I wanted to be involved in sports in some way. I’m a sports junkie.” That opportunity presented itself 10 years ago when Kagan Jugen and Associates became the official team doctors for the Fort Myers Everblades minor league hockey team. Curcione serves on a rotation with the practice’s other doctors, stitching up ailing players for seven to eight games each season. Three years ago, Curcione took over as the team doctor for the Lehigh Senior High School football team, performing physicals and pacing the sidelines during games—just in case. “They don’t pay us to do it,” he says. “We do it because we love working with athletes.”