The Long & Winding Road
By Ryan McCrary

KALAMA, Wash. – There are few things cooler as a sports fan than getting an “upset alert”. It typically means an upstart team or athlete is looking to conjure a win against an opponent that it shouldn’t be able to beat – at least on paper. Inevitably a broadcaster will use a variation of the phrase “Sometimes the <insert team or player name> is too young and/or dumb to know any better.” 

I’m currently attempting a career shift or pivot and I spent some time reflecting on my 20-year old self. I wasn’t anticipating just how nimble and adroit that version of myself was and how it gave me renewed hope for the here and now and the future to come.

I went to Gonzaga planning on studying international politics, specializing in the Cold War and the Soviet Union. I was going to study Russian and basically was going to become the next Tom Clancy character. A couple problems immediately popped up: 1. The Soviet Union collapsed (this was a good thing in general, but inconvenient for my plan) and 2. It turns out I was really (really) bad at learning Russian.

So, I moved to Plan B after my first semester. I worked as a student athletic trainer for four years, but while I instinctively knew what to do, I struggled mightily to explain why and the science behind it. Over the course of six years at Gonzaga I was sports editor of the school newspaper, I taped hundreds of ankles, I studied history, English, women’s studies and political science. In grad school I started in game operations and promotions/sponsorships before pivoting again to sports information. 

Sports information “stuck” and I proceeded to work in college athletics in a variety of external relations posts for more than 20 years. The journey has been amazing and the next chapter will be too. 

I can practically hear the broadcaster describing my next career stop – in my mind it’s always Marv Albert – “McCrary is playing with house money now… he’s clearly too young to know any better… Yessssssss!”

QUOTABLE: “Everyone has a plan ‘til they get punched in the mouth.” 
– Mike Tyson, Former Heavyweight Champion