Published: December 24, 2008 02:40 am      

EKU’s Wiersma hasn’t allowed injuries to end his college career

RICHMOND — When it comes to overcoming challenges, Ryan Wiersma might know how it’s done better than almost anyone.

Wiersma, the final player remaining from the Travis Ford years, has suffered through a long list of injuries which forced him to take a redshirt season and have limited his playing time throughout his career at Eastern Kentucky University.

The 6-foot-6 senior forward played on the EKU team that advanced to the NCAA Tournament in 2005, but he has experienced plenty of adversity in the past few years.

“That was probably the greatest basketball experience I’ve ever had,” Wiersma said of playing EKU in the NCAA Tournament. “You’ve never seen so many Kentucky fans rooting for Eastern. It was a great experience. There wasn’t a lot of maroon in the stands but everyone was pulling for us as an underdog.”

However, his sophomore year, Wiersma had to deal with more than just a coaching transition. He only played 10 games the entire season after injuring himself in practice.

He has had two shoulder surgeries, as well as ankle surgery.

“I think I got put in a bad situation,” he said. “I got hit at the wrong angle and tore something. Once you’re playing with injuries, you’re more susceptible to injuries. My body is getting better every day and getting more used to playing as the season goes on. It’s been a long process throughout my career.”

In the year and a half that he spent off the court, Wiersma did something that EKU coach Jeff Neubauer said he has never seen before — he became a better player.

He had just 16 career assists, but had 25 during the 2007-2008 season. He also had just 15 turnovers and shot 44 percent from the field as he played in every game (30) for the first time.

“The one thing I really like about Ryan is he was injured for about a year and a half and it’s really hard to do this, but he literally improved a great deal as a basketball player in the year and a half that he didn’t step on the court,” Neubauer said. “If you think about that, it doesn’t make a lot of sense. He paid attention in practice every day. He paid attention in the film sessions and made himself a better player.”

While a redshirt season is not ideal in some occasions, Neubauer said it benefited Wiersma, who sat out the 2006-2007 season, not only on the court, but off of it as well.

“Once he came back from the injury, he was much more patient and he allowed the game to come to him a little bit more,” Neubauer said. “That made him a significantly better player. Part of it was just the natural maturation of a basketball player that allowed him to see the game a little more clearly as they get older.”

Wiersma, who is originally from Newark, Ohio, played his final two years of high school at the prestigious Hargrave Military Academy in Chatham, Va. His signing class boasted nine players who signed at the Division I level, including players that went to Florida State, Southern California, Xavier, Arkansas and Louisville.

However, when Ford left to take the coaching vacancy at UMass, Wiersma admitted the transition was tough because the styles of coaching are so different. Neubauer said Ford’s teams were very defensive-minded squads, while his put a lot of emphasis on valuing the ball and the assist-turnover ratio, as well as three-point shooting.

“My first year, it was really hard because I didn’t really fit into coach Neubauer’s system of shooting a lot,” Wiersma said. “It’s been a long process of building myself into this style.”

In Wiersma’s five years at EKU, 34 players have worn a Colonel uniforms. Although he has played the longest with Mike Rose (the only other senior on the team), he said every season, it takes awhile before the team feels completely comfortable with everyone’s individual role.

“We’re definitely coming together a lot,” he said. “Every day, we’re getting better and becoming more comfortable playing with each other. Everyone does different things well, so you have to find their niche and where they go on the team. We’re trying to just play together as a whole and be able to trust one another. We improve on that every day.”

So far this season, Wiersma is averaging 1.7 points and 14.6 minutes a game. He has started eight of the team’s 11 games and is averaging 2.4 rebounds a game.

The Colonels are set to return to action Jan. 3 at Tennessee State.