Wichita State notes: Regan Peare aims for summer return from career-threatening injury

Wichita State volleyball player Regan Peare landed wrong, which seems like an unfair way to describe a horrible moment.

Peare dislocated her left knee, tearing her anterior cruciate and medial collateral ligaments and both menisci, during a match in San Antonio in September. That injury ended her volleyball career, she believed for a few days.

“I can’t even describe it,” she said. “I’ve been playing volleyball my whole life. I was more in shock and I didn’t really know how to react.”

Two months later, she is optimistic about the tough rehab road ahead of her and plans on returning to the first stages of full athletic health by early summer.

“I just went up for an approach, came down and — I don’t really know,” she said. “It was a freak thing.”

Peare, a sophomore from Andover, started the season as a backup setter. During that mid-September tournament, coach Chris Lamb moved her to attacker for matches against Texas Tech, Texas State and Texas-San Antonio. During the second set of the tournament’s final match, she attacked, landed straight-legged, she said video reveals, and her season ended.

She underwent surgery on Oct. 4. Late last week, she began to transition off crutches. The plan is to bear weight on the injured leg by early December. Current exercises are simple measures, such as working to contract her quad muscles, which are atrophied.

“I’m excited to fix the things I needed to fix before and start from scratch,” she said. “Get strong and strengthen the proper things I need to to prevent this.”

Anxiety filled the immediate days after the injury. She needed to pick a surgeon and decide on a course of treatment that will determine her volleyball future. After surgery, she recuperated at home and roommates Hanna Shelton, Emma Tynan and Kara Maleski visited for dinner and drove her to class and practice.

“They’ve been the best support crew I could have,” she said.

Spring will be dedicated to rehab with strength and flexibility the priorities. While the prognosis changed from career-ending to career-delaying, doctors warned her that she suffered something more significant than a typical knee injury. Rehab loomed long and hard. Sometime in June, she plans to return to the volleyball court.

“I am so excited, but, also, the mental part is going to be hard,” she said. “Going through that, it’s kind of scary to think that it could happen again.”

It’s the family way — Mason O’Brien believes he didn’t get much of a chance to play baseball at Oklahoma State for two seasons.

So he followed his family ties to Wichita State.

O’Brien, a first baseman from Owasso, Okla., signed with WSU last week. He transferred from OSU to Cowley College, where he will play first base this spring before coming to WSU with two seasons of eligibility. His uncle is former Shocker catcher Charlie O’Brien and he is cousin to former catcher Chris O’Brien and pitcher Tim Kelley. Former Shocker pitcher Jeb Bargfeldt, also from Owasso, told him he would love WSU.

“I thought it would be really cool to follow in their shoes,” Mason O’Brien said. “They’ve had good things to say about it.”

O’Brien played in 17 games as a freshman at OSU in 2015 and recorded two hits in 22 at-bats. He tore his left anterior cruciate ligament on Feb. 1, 2014 (his birthday) and is convinced he came back too soon and played the 2015 season at around 70 percent of his speed and mobility.

“I should have redshirted that year,” he said. “I wanted to push through and win a job.”

For 2016, he told OSU coaches he wanted to redshirt if he wasn’t in the plans for a regular job. He did that and concentrated on strength and conditioning. He played in the New England Collegiate Baseball League for the Plymouth (Mass.) Pilgrims in 2015 and for the Derby Twins last summer.

“It’s been a tough road,” he said. “Everything is good now. I’m feeling really good.”

Next fall, he will add his name to one of the biggest legacies in WSU baseball. Charlie O’Brien played in 800 big-league games from 1985-2000 and is regarded as the gold standard for defensive catchers. Chris O’Brien (Charlie’s son) earned Missouri Valley Conference Player of the Year honors in 2011 after hitting .410 with 25 doubles and 10 home runs. He spent 2016 in Double- and Triple-A with the Baltimore Orioles.

Mason O’Brien knows about WSU’s proud history — he’s watched several games at Eck Stadium — and knows about the recent struggles.

“I want to be one of the guys that helps get them back on track,” he said. “I know they’ve got all kinds of talent.”

Class acts — WSU recorded an 81-percent Graduation Success Rate (GSR) for the 2015-16 school year, as compiled by the NCAA.

The GSR records a four-year average for students who graduated or left school in good academic standing. This year’s GSR measures the progress of athletes who entered WSU from 2006-09.

Volleyball and men’s and women’s tennis record 100-percent GSRs. It is the sixth straight perfect score for women’s tennis and the fifth for volleyball.

Men’s basketball ranked last among WSU’s programs at 63 percent. That ranks ninth among Missouri Valley Conference schools, with Southern Illinois last at 50 percent.

Women’s basketball is at 92 percent.

Down in the 905 — Former Shocker Fred VanVleet scored 20 points in his debut for Raptors 905, Toronto’s NBA Development League team, on Friday.

VanVleet made 7 of 13 shots and handed out seven assists in a 100-87 win over Greensboro.

With Toronto, VanVleet played briefly in one game.

This story was originally published November 19, 2016 at 1:34 PM with the headline "Wichita State notes: Regan Peare aims for summer return from career-threatening injury."