Colorado State University Athletics
Senior Profile: Keyora Wharry
3/1/2016 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Wharry Off The Court
FORT COLLINS, Colo. – Adversity strikes at the most inopportune times, when we can be at our most vulnerable. How people respond to the adversity that comes their way throughout their life, defines the success that they will have. Senior guard Keyora Wharry has dealt with hurdles throughout her playing career, but she has responded to have a dominant career at Colorado State.
Wharry was never meant to be at Colorado State, however.
Coming out of high school, Wharry had put together a couple of stellar seasons and gained the attention of numerous collegiate coaches across the country. Hailing from Fresno, Calif. though, Wharry knew that she didn’t want to be too far away from home and her family, so she promptly eliminated many of the schools.
After an extensive recruiting process, Wharry settled on committing to New Mexico State, a school where she felt like she could succeed and do her own thing, but also be close enough to home if needed. Just three games into her collegiate career, however, adversity struck. Wharry suffered a major knee injury and was sidelined for the rest of the season. The hard times continued for Wharry as New Mexico State informed her that they would not be renewing her scholarship for the following season.
“That was the biggest setback of my life,” Wharry said. “I was by myself. I told my mom and she didn’t know what to do. And dealing with an injury on top of that and not knowing when I’m going to be able to run again, it was tough.”
There was Wharry, far away from home, unable to run because of a knee injury, and without a team to play for. Not knowing what else to do, Wharry returned to Fresno.
“The best option was just to go home,” Wharry said. “My knee was messed up. I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do with my future. All I knew was that I should continue school, so that’s all I was thinking about.”
Friends and family offered their condolences and support, but as Wharry notes, no one could really relate to what it was she was going through. Wharry dedicated herself to her recovery, taking about seven months from the knee injury to be cleared to run. While she couldn’t run, she got stronger in the weight room. She worked on her game and on her mind until she was ready to get back onto the court with Fresno City Community College.
Rejuvenated, and perhaps with a mammoth chip on her shoulder with something to prove, Wharry excelled at the junior college level. Playing in an up and down system that allowed the guard to showcase her explosiveness and penetration ability, Wharry averaged over 24 points and 10 rebounds a game. Once again, the colleges came calling. And once again, Wharry was steadfast on wanting to remain somewhat close to home.
Colorado State entered the picture for Wharry during her first season at Fresno City when assistant coach Tim Moser noticed her play at a Practice. Hearing of the interest, Wharry was of course flattered, but she also knew very little about the school and program at the time.
Still though, Wharry developed a level of comfort and familiarity with Moser, with Head Coach Ryun Williams, and with the rest of the Colorado Staff and players. She joined the program in her junior year in primarily a reserve role, where Wharry expressed her frustrations at struggling to find a niche with the team and to carve out her role.
Over the summer, Wharry devoted herself to basketball. She spent countless hours in the gym and in the weight room fine tuning her game and envisioning a new role that she could carve out with this year’s squad.
At the beginning of her collegiate career, Wharry was a player that suffered a devastating injury who lost the support of her school. In her junior season, Wharry was a bench player who showed plenty of promise and potential, but it wasn’t all clicking. In her senior season, after a strenuous offseason workout regiment, Wharry has transformed herself into one of the most dominant players in the Mountain West and a catalyst for one of the best teams in school and Mountain West history.
Adversity hit Wharry hard. Wharry just hit back harder.
