Friday Features: Ryan Cram Brings Unimaginable Joy to Livingston
By Chris Megginson
Most only dream of winning a championship ring in their first season on the job.
Ryan Cram, special assistant to the head coach for University of West Alabama baseball and football, did it.
Ryan, the son of UWA women’s basketball head coach
Rusty Cram, joined the UWA baseball staff in 2015, his first year in Livingston after spending the previous two seasons at Belhaven University, where his dad was head coach.
Shortly after Coach Cram was hired, UWA head baseball coach
Gary Rundles received a call from Belhaven head coach Hill Denson saying Ryan was a young man who needed to be part of the program.
“As soon as I met Ryan it all became very clear to me how special a young man he is,” Rundles said. “I told him, ‘if you get involved in our program, we’re going to get you a ring. Man, he was all in!”
By May, Ryan was holding up the Gulf South Conference championship trophy after a 42-11 season and 26-6 mark in the GSC. It was UWA’s first GSC Tournament title since 2005 and the start of three consecutive 35-win seasons for the Tigers on the diamond.
“We had a very good team, but I really think the team blossomed and accomplished a lot of things because of Ryan being a part of their life,” Rundles said.
Ryan’s role on the team is that of umpire liaison, taking care of the umpires from the moment they hit campus until the leave, but his main role is that of encourager through his own life story and enthusiasm.
In 1987, Ryan was born with a chromosomal deficit known as Williams Syndrome (WS), which effects one in 10,000 worldwide. There are an estimated 20,000 to 30,000 known cases in the United States. Those with Williams Syndrome are faced with heart problems at a young age, among other factors. Ryan underwent several surgeries in his youth and had as many as eight to 10 specialists attending to his medical care at once. The Crams were told to not let Ryan be involved in sports like his older brother, Scott, but they wanted him to live life, and he has. According to the Williams Syndrome Association, the other side of WS is having a highly social personality and an unimaginable joy.
That is what has become Ryan’s and the Tigers’ secret weapon.
“He walked into our program and made an instant impact,” Rundles said. “We had a very good team, but I really think this team blossomed and accomplished a lot of things because of Ryan being part of their life and knowing that there’s times you never give up and never cave in … He really helped instill that into our guys, and I think that had a lot to do with why we won a championship that year.”
The championship made Ryan a hot commodity on campus. Football coach
Brett Gilliland came calling next.
“I told him we had to get some of that luck,” Gilliland said.
This season, the weekend of his 30
th birthday, Ryan asked to lead the Tigers onto the field before their GSC and home opener against Mississippi College. The Tigers won, 42-13. Gilliand told Ryan he could lead the charge every game if he wanted. He has, and the Tigers have continued to win, including Top 10 road wins at North Alabama and Delta State. UWA, now on a four-game win streak, enters this weekend’s game against No. 22 West Georgia as the No. 23-ranked team in Division II and the only team undefeated in GSC action (4-0).
“Everybody is fired up, and we’re working toward that goal of getting a championship,” Ryan said of the team’s current run. “As long as we keep playing like we’re playing and do what we’re supposed to do, it’s going to be a great ending to the season.”
Gilliand, who also named Ryan a special assistant to the head coach this season, refers to him as the Tigers’ hype man.
“He’s had a tremendous impact on the culture we’ve built here over the last few seasons. The overall culture of our program is better because he’s been a part of it,” Gilliand said. “His role is to keep us down and grounded. No matter what is going on, he’s going to be level. He’s going to be excited and is always going to be positive … He’s going to find the positive in anything that’s going on, and he’s always trying to lift up a guy who had a bad play.”
Gilliand admits sometimes it is himself who gets that lift on the sideline. Ryan finds his way next to the one having a bad day and waits until he’s looked at. Once eye contact is made, a smile and fist bump follows.
“He’ll pat me on the back, call me a crazy joker, and makes everything better,” Gilliand said.
Rundles knows that feeling. He says those moments have not only been known to change the course of his day, but have changed his life.
As it turns out, Ryan’s secret weapon isn’t much of a secret.
“You mention Ryan Cram, and I’ll guarantee you, the majority of people who know anything about West Alabama and our campus, they know exactly who he is and have fallen in love with him. That’s just the person he is,” Rundles said.
While, Ryan was involved some at Georgia Southern and then at Belhaven, Rusty Cram said he’s enjoyed watching the involvement at West Alabama.
“I think it’s a testament to the type of coaches we have here. It’s very much a family … it makes his mom (Jana) and me tickled to death. It makes us very proud for Ryan and the community,” Coach Cram said. “It’s been cool to watch because he’s so into it.”
When he’s not on the field, you can usually find Ryan studying trains.
“He’s a wizard with trains,” Gililand said.
Ryan has a covered deck alongside the train track in Livingston that a family friend built for him. He’ll go out to “Ryan’s Landing” and hang out his custom red flag to alert the train engineers to his presence. He’ll take his friends with him. As a train approaches, Ryan wave his flag and the train whistle sounds, “Hey, Ryno,” the engineers yell out as they pass by at 50-60 miles per hour. About three to four times a week, Ryan and his father hit the road to find trains in the surrounding areas of the state, driving up to Tuscaloosa at times.
“Everybody else hurries up to beat a train, we hurry up to catch it, so he can tell me what kind it is and everything about it,” Coach Cram said.
In addition to trains, Ryan has competed in the Special Olympics and is passionate about music – to the genius level of musical talent, according to his father. A few years back, Ryan joined the UWA Scarlet Band from Tiger Land as a featured drummer, set up with a drum set on the sideline during halftime. He loves the Eagles, Temptations and other older groups, but is quick to say he enjoys the new sounds also.
Ryan says moving twice in the last six years after spending most of his life Statesboro, Georgia was difficult, but he’s having a blast at UWA and is enjoying the new friendships with the coaches.
“I love every single minute of it and being able to be out there with the team and being able to be a part of it,” he said. “I love it here. This is where I think God has put us, and this is where hopefully we’ll be for many more years to come.”
Learn more about Williams Syndrome at williams-syndrome.org.
Follow Megginson on Twitter @jcmeggs. Email comments to megginsonjc@gmail.com.
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