“Back then, I thought I was just going to have to be a rec league player my whole life,” the Sinclair Community College freshman said with a shrug. “And I was pretty down about that.”
After all, that’s not how it all had started for him when he followed his family’s rich sporting tradition to Roger Bacon High School in Cincinnati. But he got little playing time there prior to his senior season, and even that final year he didn’t start. So when he graduated in 2008, he had stirred no interest from college programs.
Instead he went to Massannutten Military Academy in Woodstock, Va., and hoped a season there would build his game and his portfolio. But just a few months after getting there, right before Christmas, he said he leaped for a rebound during a practice just as a beefy teammate came caroming into him.
The impact sent Vic crashing to the floor. He landed with a twisting motion onto his back and the other player slammed down on top of him.
“I felt a sharp pain as I was lying there on the floor, but I finally got up and went to the sidelines and tried to stretch it out,” he said. “Then I just went back in and kept trying to play.”
He continued to do that for the rest of the season even though the pain got worse and his back stiffened until he had trouble moving around the court, sleeping at night and just bending down to tie his shoes.
“I think he did his best to keep it from his teammates, his coaches and especially us,” his mom, Tami Wyrick, said Wednesday. “He didn’t want us to worry and he didn’t want his dream to end. … And maybe he also didn’t want to find out what he already sensed, that the injury was more serious than he was letting on.”
When Vic finally got home in May, Tim, his dad and once a college basketball player himself, said he took him to see orthopedic surgeon Dr. Tim Kremchek, the longtime medical director of the Cincinnati Reds: “That’s when we found out he had broken his back.”
The news was numbing, Tami said: “When we heard that our hearts sank. He had cracked several of the lower vertebra and they put him in a brace. We didn’t know what kind of future he’d have then. We didn’t know if this was going to be a lifelong problem and what kind of future he would have, but he just refused to give up.”
After several months, the brace finally came off and Vic, without having done much therapy, followed a cousin to Casper Community College in Wyoming, where he tried out for the team with hopes of becoming a preferred walk-on.
“The truth is he probably shouldn’t have gone,” Tim Wyrick said. “His back was still bothering him. He just wasn’t ready yet. It was too soon.”
And that’s when he was knocked flat again.
“I didn’t make the team,” he said. “I felt pretty down.”
Although he stayed in school out there, his dad said “even he thought his basketball days were over. He kind of lost interest in school after that and started bouncing around between jobs.”
He returned to Cincinnati and worked for a landscaping company, a roofing company and on the side he helped his uncle pull up carpet and tile.
But after yet another hot summer day pulling weeds on another lawn maintenance job, he said he couldn’t help thinking: “There’s got to be more than this.”
A second chance
When Vic says “my family’s really into sports,” it’s almost an understatement.
His dad played basketball at Roger Bacon and then at Ohio Dominican.
His cousin D.J. Wyrick, now on Billy Donlon’s coaching staff at Wright State, was a 1,000-point scorer and team captain at Miami University Hamilton. Another cousin, Beckham Wyrick, played at the University of North Carolina Wilmington and has played professionally in Germany the past few seasons.
Bechkam’s sister Mallory played college basketball first at UNC Wilmington and then Wright State. She has since married former WSU guard John David Gardner. D.J.’s brother Nate played at Casper College and Vic’s older sister, Karlee, was a volleyball player for the Lincoln Memorial University Railsplitters in Harrogate, Tenn.
As the youngest of the Wyrick cousins, Vic had been determined to follow in the family footsteps. But when the path became too painful, he quit basketball for a while and then finally gravitated back to pickup games and a recreation league back in Cincinnati.
“After a while I started working out again and my back didn’t feel too bad and I thought maybe I could try once more,” he said.
He began to look at junior colleges in the area — Cincinnati State, Columbus State, Clark State and Sinclair Community College.
“He knew a couple of boys from Roger Bacon were at Sinclair and there was a guy from Moeller, too, and a year or so ago there was one from Chaminade Julienne, as well, so we thought Coach (Jeff) Price must like GCL (Greater Catholic League) kids,” Tim said. “We went up and watched a couple of Sinclair games last year and Coach Price invited Vic to play with the guys in open gym over the summer.”
Vic said right away he felt comfortable at Sinclair. “Coach Price saw something in me and gave me an opportunity to be a walk-on. He gave me a chance to get better and that’s what this is about here.
“Sinclair is a place where you get a second chance.”
Living a dream
Vic is not on scholarship. He pays his own way to Sinclair, lives in an apartment on Wyoming Street and makes his own meals.
A few months shy of 24, he’s the oldest player on the team.
When the season began, the 6-foot-4 forward was a starter and by late November he had already begun to make a name for himself, scoring 20 points and grabbing 13 rebounds against Tiffin.
Then came some major dental problems, followed by a severely sprained ankle and once again he was dealing with pain.
“Vic has had a tough road,” Price said. “He’s had to fight more than any guy on this team just to be out there on the floor. But the thing about him is that he just doesn’t quit. If I said ‘Vic, run through that wall,’ he’d say, ‘Sure, what part of the wall do you want me to run though?’ ”
Wednesday night, Vic, who is averaging seven points and six rebounds a game, had xx points in a xx-xx loss at Cincinnati State.
More than 40 family members and friends were in the stands and it was Tami who summed the night up best: “We just feel so much pride seeing him out there. Back a couple of years ago we thought that part of his life was over, but he showed everyone what can happen when you just never give up.”
Next season, Price said, he’ll have a scholarship for Vic if he returns to Sinclair. The other option may be a four-year program. Some Division II schools already have made inquiries.
As Vic Wyrick has come to realize, his dream of playing college basketball is just beginning.
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