This Saturday and Sunday I will play in my final games as a member of the UND men's basketball team as we host the Spring Thaw Tournament. Those of you who attend our games regularly know me as number 20, “the guy who fouls all the time”. Recently I was presented with the opportunity to briefly share the story of my time here. It is definitely not a typical story and I hope that you all find it interesting.

I arrived at UND to play football here in the fall of 2004. Unfortunately, due to a fractured vertebra in my neck that I suffered during the fall of my senior season, I was deemed unfit to play full contact sports such as football. The primary concern was lingering nerve damage that had weakened my right shoulder and arm to the point where I could not even lift a pen to write on paper. This had not fully recovered and put me at the risk of even more damage.

So after three weeks of practice and before school had even started my football career at UND was over. Obviously, I was upset as I now found my self stuck at a school 16 hours away from my home, which is just a few miles north of Denver. I had no direction and my first instinct was to return home immediately and enroll in a school back there.

When I brought this up to my Dad, I was met with the firm response of “NO. You picked the school, and you are going to stay their.” And that was that and in hindsight, those words were exactly what I needed to hear.

I learned two very important lessons that first year at UND: long distance relationships do not work and Grand Forks is cold.

Later during that first fall, I was given a tryout with the basketball team by then Sioux head coach Rich Glass. He told me to come back in the spring if I was still interested and too see what happened. They already had a full roster, but the competitor in me decided to keep working.

During that winter, I worked to rehab my shoulder and played hours of pick up basketball. The following spring and summer I worked out with the team and was given the opportunity to join the team as a walk on. For this I am very grateful.

My freshmen year of basketball in 2005-06, we were lousy. I learned so much about college athletics as well as made some of my closest friends. Like I mentioned, we were not very good, but we sure had a great time playing together. The following year Coach Jones was hired and things slowly began to change.

My sophomore year, we were still lousy, but making strides of becoming average. We had a new cast of players as well as coaches and it was obvious that it would take some time before the new philosophies could take hold. It would be another year of taking our lumps, but everyone in the program could feel that we were headed in the right direction.

We really began to improve by my junior year and the program began to take shape with each player now becoming more accountable for their actions. This was the season the guys began to buy in to what the coaches were selling. We finished the year one win short of the DII National Tournament due to a great run through the last four games of the year and the 2008 NCC Tournament.

Going through the rough times that we experienced in the previous years made this stretch run that much sweeter. There is something satisfying about seeing all the hard work and dedication come to fruition, especially after failing time and time again. I will never forget playing with my teammates during the closing weeks of my junior season.

As we sit now, having nearly completed the first transitional year of DI basketball we are 15-11. Could our record be better? Yes. Could it be worse? Sure. I guess if there is one point I would like to make it is this.

When I look back on all the hours spent in the gym, all the injuries and obstacles that I have overcome. In all the times I have been in trouble with Coach, and all the wins and losses, I would never trade one of them for the relationships that I have made during my time here at UND. I take pride in the fact that I am leaving the program better than when I found it.

However, I feel that anyone who has been a member of and truly given themselves to any team will appreciate this. IT'S NOT WHERE YOU END UP, IT'S HOW YOU GOT THERE.

I must repeat this. I have truly enriched my life through friendships that I have made here in Grand Forks. And for this I am, forever grateful to all the people at UND who made that possible.

I leave UND more unsure about what I want to do with my life than when I got here, but I have a boatload of great stories and good laughs that I would love to share but I'm bad at typing and I would probably get in trouble anyway. Much love to Daniel Harkins as he and I have been through about all you can go though as athletes here at UND. And if anyone reading this is hiring we are currently both looking for jobs............. Seriously.

By the way don't forget to be at the Betty on Saturday to watch ole No. 20 and the rest of the Siox take on the beloved Coyotes of South Dakota. Tip-off is at 7 p.m. and we need that place to be loud.