Tim Ryan always coached wrestling to help other people. Now, engaged in the fight of his life against cancer, the focus and perseverance he received from wrestling is aiding him.
"SPORTS HELPS me to deal with what I’m going through now," he said. "Wrestling is one-on-one, and you learn to fight through a hard situation. Once you’ve wrestled, there’s nothing life can throw at you that you can’t handle.”
Trouble is, cancer doesn't play fair, but Ryan's doing his best. Although he had to stop coaching, the legacy he'll leave will live on. “I really believe it’s not just about coaching a sport,” he said. “It’s about coaching a person in life."
His favorite saying is, "Success is a choice.” Said Ryan: “You can choose to be happy or sad, get good grades or not. So in wrestling, you choose to practice and work hard because it makes you a better person. You have to be driven to succeed, and you’ll fail, at times. But you’ll pick yourself up and keep fighting. I’m having to live that, right now.”
Married 23 years, he and wife Liz have three sons and a daughter. Tim “T-bo,” 23, will soon enter med school; Kristin, 20, is a GMU sophomore; Jeremy is a sophomore at Westfield and Gabe is a Deer Park Elementary fifth-grader.
Ryan credits his Christian faith with helping him cope and face what’s coming. “I know where I’m going to be when I die,” he explained. “I’ll miss my family and relationships, and we cry together and have a lot of love. I know that my kids will miss me horribly, and that’s what tears me apart. And my wife’s my hero and my rock; without her, I’d be lost. God has given me a great family, but I know my time will come. And if heaven is what I’ve heard it is, everything will be fine for me and I won’t be in pain anymore.”
Regarding the fund-raiser, he’s overwhelmed. “I never expected this,” he said. “Some people go their whole life and never know the impact they had. But now, hundreds of people are telling me this. I always put others before myself — even other people’s children before my own.”
Besides wrestling, Ryan coached travel soccer for Herndon and traveled on the national tennis team with son Tim. “It’s been a great experience for me, and I’ve loved sharing that with the kids,” said Ryan.
As for the local community, he called it, “hands down, the best, in the way they pull together to help people and support each other. They help their kids and give them the best opportunities. This is a phenomenal group of parents, and it’s been a blessing how they’ve reached out and supported my wife.”
“I PRAY for a miracle every day and accept His will,” continued Ryan. “Every day, my family and I give each other a kiss and thank God for another day.” If he has a message for the community, said Ryan, it’s this: “Don’t take your days for granted, because you never know when they’re going to end.”