The Lone Senior: Spotlight on #15 Ryan Fiegi

Ryan Fiegi, the current star of the Men’s Basketball team, started playing basketball when he could first walk. His brother and him started playing YMCA ball when they were in fourth and fifth grade; “It helped that he [his brother] liked basketball too…we competed against each other from then on.”

Ryan and his brother grew up playing sports: “My dad played basketball in high school, my mom wasn’t that athletic, but yeah, we played ever since we could throw a ball or pick up a basketball.” He played “anything you can think of…basketball, soccer, flag football, baseball, t-ball…”

But, believe it or not, basketball was not Ryan’s favorite sport growing up. “Soccer was my favorite when I was younger, I think just because all my friends played soccer. It probably wasn’t until AAU, 6^th or 7^th grade, that I quit baseball and just played football, basketball and soccer. I think that’s when I really started liking basketball.”

In high school, Ryan played football and basketball. He also did track one year, participating in jumping events, but he said it didn’t amount to much of anything.

Ryan also said “football was more of a way to stay in shape in the fall, and a lot of my friends played football in high school. I was the quarterback so I didn’t really like the hitting part of it, which is probably why I was the quarterback. I just had to stand back and throw it.”

Ryan’s senior year of high school he broke his color bone playing football, so he was out for the rest of the season. He says “it just happened that I got hurt and it made me just really focus on basketball after that.”

Right out of high school Ryan attended Western Oregon University where he played on the Men’s Basketball team—and really liked it. He was planning on staying for four years, but then his coach got offered a better job and left after his freshman year. He said he was really close to his head coach; “he was the one that recruited me, and we were really close and it hurt me to think that he was leaving. I didn’t feel like I had any ties to Western after he left.”

Coach Miles recruited Ryan out of high school, so as soon as he heard the Western coach was leaving, he “called up coach miles and was like, ‘hey, you have any money down there and would you like to have me?’ He [Coach Miles] said ‘yeah, I’ll try to find some money for you. He says “I knew coach miles and OIT had a great chance to go to the national tournament each year and do good,” so he wasn’t worried about coming to the program.

It has been a great two-and-a-half seasons for Ryan, but this year he’s finding himself in a little different shoes than what he is used to. “The major thing is the different position for me. Having Levell, he was one of the best point guards I’ve ever played with, so that helped having him run the show the past two years. I was kind of the second, third man, however you want to look at it—behind Andre my sophomore year and then Josh Garrett last year. We’ve always had kind of a three-man game going with guards so that’s the biggest thing, having to play point guard. But also being the only senior on the team. It’s got its advantages and disadvantages I think. The major advantage is towards the end of the game people know who is going to get the ball, and that’s been fun. That Concordia game I’ve never felt anything like that before. I was just in the zone, or whatever you want to call it. That was fun…but it’s been a lot of fun to know that I’m the go-to guy. I haven’t been that before. And I think everyone knows that and hopefully it will help us down the road.”

As far as the rest of the season goes, Ryan said that “the second half of season is going to be so tough in conference, I mean, just look at last night [loss to Evergreen State]. Every game we have to come and play. Every team, every night can beat us and they can beat Eastern and they can beat Warner…I think, hopefully our inexperience doesn’t com into play at the end. There are only four or five of us that have gone to the National tournament and played and had significant minutes. So hopefully that doesn’t come into play down toward the end of the season and we can keep what we’ve done and not forget that we are still 17-4 and remember that we are still a good team. The main goal is just to get to Branson. Because once you’re in Branson any team can win. Just look at what happened to Northwest last year; they went to the final four. Once you’re there, you play defense and you make some shots anyone can win that. And that’s one thing I’ve learned going back there twice is no matter how good a team is…you go in there and anyone can be anyone. It’s such a tough, tough, tough thing to win back there. That’s the main goal, and once we’re there I think we have a good chance to do some good things there.”

Looking beyond basketball, Ryan will graduate this year with an accounting degree and has already accepted a job with Moss Adam’s, the largest accounting firm in Medford. This is just along the lines of what he had planned: “I always knew that college was just a stepping stone toward your career. And I knew I wasn’t going to play basketball the rest of my life. So I just wanted to go to college and get my schooling paid for with basketball; use basketball as a means of getting an education. It was never about trying to be the best I could ever be in college, playing basketball.”

He did just that. Now he’s looking beyond a Bachelor’s degree, with his long-term goal of eventually making partner. To start out, Ryan plans to work while going to graduate school, eventually working toward his CPA license, but not before he gets married to his high school sweetheart.

The two got engaged last August, and have set the big day for July 19, 2008. As far as the planning goes, Ryan says he didn’t help too much: “she has what she wants in her head, and she’ll ask me and I’ll say ‘yeah go do it’. But I don’t really have ideas; I mean, of course I care what it looks like, but the details are not really my thing.”

They both want to stay in Medford because both of their families are there and that’s where they want to raise a family. They will both live in Medford, moving in with her parents for however long it takes to find a place of their own. And although he’ll be in Medford, Ryan hopes to stay in touch with some of the basketball guys. “I definitely love the guys that I’ve met over here and hopefully I’ll be friends with them forever.”