DENVER – Qualities that made Courtney Ryan a great soccer player at MSU Denver have also made her one of the best wheelchair basketball players in the world.
 
"What has transferred over from my soccer career is my feistiness," she said. "Despite being one of the smallest players out there, I'm not scared of contact, and I'm not scared of falling. That's what helps make who I am today. It's my physical nature and no-fear mindset."
 
Ryan, whose All-American soccer career with the Roadrunners was cut short in a 2010 game after she suffered an injury that would eventually leave her paralyzed from the belly button down, returned to her athletic identity as a member of Team USA in wheelchair basketball just two years later.
 
And, after taking some time away from the national team, she eventually returned and was part of the bronze-medal winning team at the 2021 Paralympics in Tokyo.
 
Ryan's achievements have earned her a revered place in the MSU Denver Athletics Hall of Fame.
 
She will be inducted on Oct. 1, along with men's basketball star Jonathan Morse, women's track & field and cross country standout Breanna Hemming, and men's soccer great Phillip Owen.
 
Tickets to the ceremony at the SpringHill Suites Denver Downtown on the MSU Denver campus are $50 for adults and $25 for children 12 and under.
 
Ryan's injury, which happened during her junior year, was destined to happen, whether on the field or elsewhere. But when she was tackled in a game at Colorado Mesa, a blood clot burst, causing some of the nerves to detach from her spinal cord, it perhaps hastened the onset.
 
The California native stayed in Denver for several months before eventually returning home to be closer to family and friends while adjusting to a new reality.
 
"Looking back at it now, I have some guilt because I was a very angry person in how I was dealing with that part of my life," Ryan said. "I just didn't want to accept what had happened. I had identified as a student-athlete for the majority of my life. I just thought everything was going to be fine – that it was just an injury and I was going to bounce back and walk again.
 
"Once reality struck a few months later, I was asking 'Why me?'"
 
Within a year, though, Ryan had already tried a few adaptive sports before looking into wheelchair basketball. Arriving at a gym and watching players play, Ryan's saw the intensity on display and her competitive juices began flowing.
 
Famously, at her first-ever tournament, she hit a game-winning shot and was offered a scholarship to play at Arizona. By 2012 she was already on the U.S. team for the World Championships, an incredibly rapid rise in the sport.
 
"I think competing at the collegiate level in soccer helped me," she said. "There's a lot of similarities when it comes to taking the proper angles and where to play the ball."
 
After that experience, however, Ryan stepped away from the national team. In gearing up for competitions, training was frequently for nine hours a day for up to a couple of weeks each month.
 
"I realized that I had a lot of things to cope with in living life with a disability," she said. "And before I was able to train at that level, I needed a bit of a break to focus on my own mental game."
 
She continued to play the sport, however, and played professionally in Australia in 2017 and 2018, and started a women's team in her home state while also becoming an assistant coach at Arizona in 2019.
 
By then, the time had come to play for the U.S. once again. But nothing was guaranteed. Rigorous training and tryouts are required for those who even have a chance.
 
"It had been few years, so it felt good that I was able to secure my spot," she said.
 
She helped Team USA to a silver medal at the 2019 Para Pan American Games in Peru, where the Americans lost to Canada in the final.
 
Then came the opportunity to play in the 2020 Paralympics, but those were postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
 
"We had been gearing up, training to compete at the highest level, and then change happened and it was extended," she said. "There were a lot of unknowns and we had to wait to compete again, and we didn't know if we would. But when the questions were finally answered, we were all very excited about getting the opportunity again."
 
When the Paralympics were played in 2021, Team USA beat Canada for redemption in the quarterfinals, and after a semifinal loss earned the bronze medal.
 
"To be able to play at the highest level in beautiful venues, it was quite surreal," Ryan said. "To see where the Paralympic movement has gone, and to be able to start to have some of the same resources as our brothers and sisters in the Olympic movement have, that's surreal, too."
 
Back in her days as a Roadrunner, the home venue at Auraria Field was a little more challenging.
 
However, she earned All-America first team honors in 2009, when she recorded 15 assists. She ranks fourth in program history in assists per game (0.41) and is tied for eighth all-time with 22 career assists despite playing less than 2 ½ seasons.
 
Memories are plenty. Her freshman season, MSU Denver was 20-2-3 and reached the Division II national semifinals, and her sophomore year the Roadrunners were 21-1-2 and 16-0 in Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference play.
 
"My freshman year, we were competing in the round of 16 and the Elite Eight in (Allendale) Michigan, and this Cali girl wondered why we were still playing when there was snow coming down," she said. "I remember gearing up for that game and the freezing temperatures. There was ice on the field, we were getting cut up when slide tackling, and getting hit by the ball it would burn and sting. But we ended up winning and making it to the Final Four in Florida.
 
"I have family in Michigan and I remember vividly having my aunts, uncles, and cousins, and my parents, in the stands to see us stamping our ticket to the Final Four."
 
Ryan gets back to Colorado on occasion for training at the Olympic & Paralympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, and is able to catch up with friends and teammates when time allows.
 
Coming back to be inducted into the MSU Denver Hall of Fame is another experience that she calls surreal.
 
"I never really expected that because I didn't get to compete all four of my years," she said. "I know it's kind of corny to say it this way, but it's good to know that my wheelprint there made a difference. It's good to know I'm still a name they remember, despite what happened."
 
Over time, Ryan has been able to embrace the person she is and all that soccer did to help her get where she is.

"I took my first steps on a soccer field, watching my brother and sister play," she said. "And I took my last steps on a soccer field, too."