Inside the WSU Wing Cedric Coward’s damage, improvement and his plans for the future

Pullman – Cedric Coward turned the corner and burst into tears. It was the end of November, and Washington State’s Wing had just finished a meeting with a couple of coaches and team athletic coach who delivered the results of the MRI feud recently had gone through.

In a practice a few days before, Coward had suffered an articular cartilage tear, the results showed. On the way into the meeting, Coward was that bad news was on the way – “You get kind of a feeling of similar, cursed, it’s probably something I don’t want to hear,” he said – but the medical jargon didn’t mean much to coward.

So he asked Hailey Haukeli, Cougars’ athletic coach, about the likelihood of him being able to return to action later in the season. It was unlikely, Haukeli said. Coward would need surgery later, which would reveal his accurate diagnosis and schedule of improvement, but his worst fear had come to design: the injury was severe and he would be a longer time.

“You think you’re strong until something like that happens,” said Coward, “and something you absolutely love are taken away from you.”

But the main reason why Coward was in tears in a bohler gymnastics hall was not only because his first season at WSU had just been torn away from him after only six games. That’s because the team was traveling to a multiteam event in Palm Desert, California, where his parents, girlfriend and grandfather traveled from Coward’s hometown of Fresno to see him play.

He had not told any of them that he had suffered the damage that happened during a November 22 practice when he went up to a rebound during a review and was tangled with a teammate. He heard a pop. He had finished practicing. But the next morning he realized it wasn’t something he could play through.

“My arm was like dead weight,” Coward said. “So from there I was like, okay, this is serious.”

Coward’s dear was not interested until he called and told them the results of MRI. He first tried to call his mother, Shanel, but he was on the phone with head coach David Riley and assistant Pedro Garcia Rosado, who moved on to the news. So he called his father, Ray, who was immediately able to recognize something, was wrong.

“He spoke very slowly,” Ray said. “He understood that I understood what the possible injury was, but he was very methodical in how he told me because he knew it would crush for me.”

“Cedric answered the phone via Facetime and he cries,” Shanel said. “He sits in the stairs trying to have a private conversation because he didn’t want his teammates to look at him. So this is where he was emotional. His emotional state was one that I had not seen when he was a very small boy. “

As Cougars wrap up their season and take No. 6 seeds into the West Coast Conference Tournament to play an opponent to be determined on Saturday night in Las Vegas, Coward’s absence has thrown a shade throughout the operation. The team’s best player, Coward had recorded four double-digit scoring excursions-Inclusive a 30-point outburst he went down with his seasonal ending injury.

It has played an excessive role in the field for WSU’s season, which began with a Sterling 13-3 start, including 3-0 in WCC games with a keyhome victory over San Francisco. But it’s all about when things went south of Cougs, who continued to lose seven of their next nine games, including two setbacks to fighting Pacific. With these results, WSUS NCAA tournament evaporated in great chances.

Coward has not been the only cougar to miss time. The Sophomore Guard Isaiah Watts was sidelined in 10 games with a hand injury. The Transfer Wing Ri Vavers were on the shelf in 18 with different hand injuries. And beginner’s guard Marcus Wilson has been out since November 15 with a seasonal ending injury.

But for WSU, no absence has had a greater influence than Coward, which made a huge splash when he decided to follow Riley from eastern Washington to WSU last spring. In six matches, he delivered the promise that came with his commitment withdrew from the NBA Draft Pool to show his all-round game, scoring and rebounding and defense that makes him the complete player he is.

Because he only played six matches, Coward secured a medical red shirt and gave him a more season of university eligibility. He does not exclude a return to the WSU hero, but when asked if he considers it as a serious opportunity, he said: “Not really. I go with the expectation of not coming back.

“There is a part of me that will return, but most of me will go to my goal. So does the NBA, ”Coward said. “I think it’s really a situation for me where I don’t expect to return. And I think many people, even if they have that expectation because I am a medical red shirt, should see it from a point of view of what is best for the individual is what is best for them. If I become a draft I will be draft. If I don’t, I don’t and we’ll see what’s happening. “

In the first week of March, Coward does not appear on many NBA Mock drafts, a signal that his almost seasonal absence has caused his stock to fall significantly. But with his clear-to-action date at the end of March, he still provides a promising pro player, which is thanks to his physical tools, natural scoring ability and a decision to treat a career-changing injury like just another obstacle in the way.

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Somewhere in his phone, Shanel still has a video of a groggy sweep that wakes up from the operation, which is when he would learn his long -term diagnosis and recovery time. Coward received his operation on December 11 in Los Angeles from Dr. Neal Elattrache, who has operated on stars from Shohei Ohtani to Kobe Bryant, and not until he opened Coward’s shoulder, he would be able to learn the right extent of his injury.

It turns out that Coward didn’t just have an articular cartilage tear. He also had a jagged rotator cuff and a partially torn labrum. It placed his injury to the difficult side, and the medical staff in LA confirmed what WSU teachers and coaches suspected: Coward would have to sit out for the rest of the season.

When the doctors loosened tubes from Coward’s body, they told him the news. But he was too tired to treat what they told him. He fell asleep. Later, when he woke up, Shanel showed him the video. When reality hit him, he looked at his mother.

“That means I’m out four to six months,” Coward said.

Coward wasn’t thrilled, but he wasn’t crushed either. He had already “got my feelings out” when he met with WSU coaches and called his parents, he said, and Shanel recognized that her son was “too loopy” to be upset right after the operation. Furthermore, he realized that he would probably miss significant time after surgery, regardless of the results.

Ray, a professional drummer, traveled to work, which is why he was unable to be in LA with Shanel and Cedric during his operation. But mother and son spent about a week in southern California, the first few days of preparing for his operation and more by recovering from it.

“She always says I’m still her baby,” Coward said. “Although I am 6-6 and 21 years old, I am still her baby. She did a really good job of helping me through what I went through helped me in what I needed, whether it was 8 o’clock in the evening, 1 in the morning, she was always there, which helped me take my pills, all the different things I needed. “

“I just wanted to make sure he wanted to be okay,” Shanel said. “I know he has people around him and similar things, but there is no kind of care that you can get better than your mother’s care. His physical would be ok. I trusted the surgeon and all those who were going to be there, but his mental is what I was more interested in and held his mood up and made sure he remained focused, and made sure he remained focused on school and his influence on the game, even if he couldn’t play. “

It turns out that the part was the one Shanel needed to worry about the least. Before his operation, Cedric called Ray to update him on what was going on and told him he was on his way to his operation. He sounded calm, Ray remembers, just as nothing was wrong.

For some, it could be surprised. Not to Ray.

“Nah,” Ray said. “That’s how he was raised.”

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Even before his surgery, Coward made progress with his improvement. He began to express his new reality that he would miss a significant time, that he should become a de facto coach, watch the game from a new perspective and offer his teammates encouragement in practice and another set of eyes in play.

It admits Coward was no easy process. “It wasn’t easy at all. No chance, ”Coward said.

Coward had to look in the mirror. There was no change in his circumstances. Not everyone would think sin on him. He appreciated the good wishes he received, but there was no Delorean to jump in to travel back in time and prevent him from being injured in practice. The damage happened.

It helped him move on to his next mindset. He had to be present with his WSU team that was supposed to be around his teammates.

“If I’m here, sitting in mourning every day and feeling bad for myself, the guys will see it,” Coward said. “I’m still a captain. I am still a leader of this team even though I am not playing. It still shows. So you have to have a positive attitude, to know, hello man just because I am reviewing this does not mean that I am only focused on myself because that is not what I’m about. “

It raises what seems like a fair question: Why is it so important to sweep to stay involved in the team, especially with the next chapter of his life around the corner?

“Because I would have the same thing for me if anyone else was injured,” Coward said. “I think it’s a big thing to use your voice and to show action. Especially now that I can’t necessarily show the action on the field anymore, it’s a big thing for me to still use my voice, because if I’m at the end of the bench quiet and don’t do anything, I don’t think it benefits anyone.

“It is not beneficial to the team and is not beneficial to me, because now I am seen as this leader or this captain, but at the same time I am the quiet guy. That’s not how I roll. It is honest to me a way to keep me sensible and stay in the game. Just being able to talk to guys about things I see, things that might help them, give them suggestions, ask them what they see, and then find out a way to solve it. “

Coward has not solved all the problems for Cougars ending the regular season on a two-game-winning series, on the way into Saturday’s tournament games with some momentum. But he enables himself to solve his own problems on the field. The more he sees his injury as just another obstacle, he realizes, the less of one it looks like in the first place.