Fortune smiles on EWU with Forney

Credit Rich Rasmussen for making a nice audible on the call.

The Eastern Washington University tight ends coach/recruiting coordinator telephoned the house of football prospect Ryan Forney in August just to make small talk.

Cindy Wilson, Forney’s mother, answered.

Because of all the attention the Eagles had given Forney as he prepared for his senior year at Central Kitsap High School in Silverdale, Wash., Wilson assumed Rasmussen knew her son had been in a frightening but non-fatal car accident.

Rasmussen didn’t.

“When I told (Rasmussen), I think he was on the phone with me for 40 minutes,” Wilson said. “He was really reassuring.”

“Obviously, you’re shocked,” Rasmussen said. “My first concern was for his well-being and how the family was handling it. … You go from being that recruiter ready to make your sales pitch on Eastern to the humanitarian. It was just overall concern for him – how he’s doing, how they were handling everything in the family. I tried to be as positive as I possibly could.”

When others schools backed off Forney, who suffered six broken ribs, two collapsed lungs and two broken vertebrae, the Eagles continued to pursue the 6-foot-5, 275-pound lineman. Every member of the coaching staff sent hand-written notes.

Eastern was rewarded Wednesday.

Forney was one of the first to send the Eagles his signed national letter of intent, one of 28 players who want to continue their career with the defending Big Sky Conference co-champions and I-AA playoff participant.

“That personal attention was very nice, but it could have just stopped,” Wilson said. “(Rasmussen) was on the phone every other week. … We’re buying black and red (EWU colors) everything already. We’re very excited.”

The Eagles are also excited about Forney and the other players that committed.

“On paper this is probably the best class we’ve ever had,” said EWU head coach Paul Wulff, whose fifth year in charge produced a co-Big Sky Conference championship, I-AA playoff appearance and a sixth straight winning season. “But it will be two years down the road before we’ll find out where these players are and how they will be able to help the program.”

The class certainly got the attention of recruiting scouts.

“Eastern’s list is phenomenal,” Mike Warchol of WashingtonPreps.com said. “Eastern got a lot of talented kids to stay in-state. This class easily compares to the class that will be seniors in the fall.”

“This group has very good speed,” Wulff added. “We think these players will work extremely hard and do the things we ask them to do. We’ve really turned into a blue-collar program and I think these players fit into that.”

Forney also liked the feel that he got from the Eagles.

“You definitely get a sense of loyalty from Eastern, a sense of family almost,” he said. “Thank goodness they were able to see me at summer camp. They’re probably the only people who saw me at my peak. That was a big deal.”

Forney is definitely a prospect.

Forney said the Eastern coaches jokingly threatened his coach, Mark Keel, with being housed on the 11th floor of the EWU dormitory the next time he brought the Central Kitsap Cougars to camp – if he sent out recruiting film to other schools.

But on Aug. 27, Forney received recruit passes for Washington games. The same thing arrived from Oregon the next day.

“It was pretty hard to keep our feet on the ground,” said Wilson, who is from Oregon, went to Oregon State and had a brother play at UO. “It was cautious optimism. It was very exciting. We were flying about as high as we could that day.”

That night came the call from the hospital.

Her son had been in an accident. The car in which he was riding with teammates Cale Stenerson and Evan Phelps slid off a slick road near Silverdale and slammed into a tree.

“The car was bent in half, pretty much,” Forney said. “Looking at the car, I think it is amazing three people got out of there and can still walk. It was pretty serious. The doctors told me I was lucky I was so big and a football player. If I was a smaller person, it would have been much worse.”

Football became an afterthought, but Forney only spent four days in the hospital and missed just three days of school.

“Our concern was for his mental state, because obviously he’d lost an opportunity to play his senior year, which would have led to potentially other scholarship opportunities, realizing some dreams,” Rasmussen said.

“Unfortunately, things happen to us that are completely out of our control. They’re in control of a much higher, more powerful being. Sometimes we’re dealt a hand we don’t really know why, but things aren’t put on our plate unless we’re strong enough to handle them.”

Soon, Forney started thinking about football. By the end of the season, he played token minutes in his school’s final two games.

That was all Eastern needed to see to offer Forney a scholarship.

The Eagles pointed to his intelligence (1,300 on the SAT), mobility (basketball and track) and a little bit of an edge he showed on the field.

“We just feel so fortunate, so lucky,” Wilson said. “We’re so grateful Ryan had a couple of camps over there and the coaches knew him. We were so excited at the beginning of the season about the possibilities for him.”