Marshall University Athletics
MCGILL: Country boy Bee finds another home at Marshall
11/15/2018 5:40:00 PM | Football, Word on the Herd
Ohio native will play final game at Joan C. Edwards Stadium this Saturday vs. UTSA
By Chuck McGill
HerdZone.com
HUNTINGTON, W.Va. – The Ryan Bee most people see exists underneath a white helmet and football pads, a defensive lineman who looks like a power forward and has a knack for shedding blockers and corralling quarterbacks.
At 6 feet, 7 inches tall and around 280 pounds, he stands out. He is imposing in person, tough on the field and relentless in pursuit. If he so chooses, a National Football League paycheck likely awaits him after a decorated football career at Marshall University, where he will finish in the top 10 in program history in sacks. If professional football is not the next step, Ryan's next destination is certain. He'll follow his heart back to Hayesville, Ohio, a legitimate one-stoplight town where the comfort of a tractor and his momma's hugs will always be near.
"He's so successful on the football field, but he's not one who eats, sleeps and drinks football," said Ryan's mother, Joanne Killey. "He has so many other interests – and he loves coming home."
Ryan's mailing address is Ashland, Ohio, but he grew up on a farm in Hayesville without neighbors in sight in any direction. He attended the tiny high school of Hillsdale, which is surrounded by cornfields and has a "Drive Your Tractor to School Day" that is popular with students. Ryan was a standout three-sport athlete, smashing records on the football field as a tight end and defensive end, and then becoming the school's first Division I scholarship football player. He dominated in basketball, drawing interest from Division II schools and shattering scoring records. He became the first freshman in Hillsdale history to dunk, and the crowd would rush to its feet when Ryan had a breakaway opportunity to throw it down.
"Everyone wondered if he would bring the basket down," said Jeff Bee, Ryan's father.
Ryan, an avid hunter, was larger than life in Hayesville, which has a population of 461, and at Hillsdale, where his graduating class included 68 people. He was clocked at 87 miles per hour on his fastball as a high school freshman, but he did not play. When the coach tried to recruit Ryan to come out for the team, Ryan politely declined. He did not want to take the spot from a player who had stuck with the sport. That, Joanne said, is the thoughtful and gentle person those who know him best see consistently.
"He is such a great person," she said. "So kind and goofy."
Joanne calls her oldest son a momma's boy. He makes small gestures to remind her of him when they were apart, like flipping a picture on the wall upside-down to see how long it takes her to notice.
When it comes to achievements, Ryan does not much care for the adulation. After high school football games, Ryan would talk to his father, who has long worked on the pipeline in Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, about what happened on those Friday nights. Ryan would downplay the number of catches or tackles, and his father would later find out from those who witnessed the game in person.
"It was like pulling teeth to get information out of him because he is so humble," Jeff said. "It turned out he had this many touchdowns and this many sacks, but you would not know it by what he told you."
The father then began recalling a tee ball story in which Ryan could not stop talking about how he hit the ball to the fence, which the other players could not do.
"It was the only time I can remember him being me, me, me," Jeff said. "He was taught right then: show people what you can do; don't tell them what you can do."
Ryan has done that during his five years at Marshall. Entering Saturday's game against UTSA – Ryan's final game at Joan C. Edwards Stadium – he has played in 43 career games. He is ninth on the program's all-time sacks list with 18.5, playing most of the past two seasons on the interior of the defensive line. He is one of the team's four captains for this Saturday's game, a team-best 16th time the coaches have given him that honor.
"When he first came in we didn't know what we had," said J.C. Price, Ryan's position coach at Marshall. "He wasn't a highly recruited guy. We talked about how if he didn't make it at defensive tackle we could move him to the offensive line. The next thing you do is challenge him and when we challenged him, he responded. You look up and he's starting at defensive end as a freshman. It was all due to his hard work and his work in the weight room. It was all up to him."
Ryan has made 194 tackles and been credited with 41 quarterback hurries. He also has six pass deflections, two forced fumbles, four fumble recoveries and two blocked kicks during his four-year playing career.
"He has the 'measurables' that the NFL looks for," Price said. "He can gain weight; he can lose weight. I don't know how many guys who are playing college football right now who have played every position along the defensive line and done it at an all-conference level. He's played end, 3-technique and nose guard. He brings something unique, to be that tall and play with knee bend. It's incredible."
Ryan has always had the size. He came into this world on Nov. 12, 1995, an eight-pound, 12-ounce newborn. By kindergarten, he was wearing size four shoes and size 12 pants. The lines marked on the house's door frame showed the growth spurts over the years.
Jeff remembers Ryan at the Loudonville street fair and being too big for kiddie rides, or when an opposing baseball coach initially refused to believe Ryan was of legal age for the league after he smashed a home run.
"He's always been huge," Joanne said. "He's always been a big, big boy."
One who has a big, big heart. These days, Ryan wears his heart on his sleeve – or, at least, underneath it. In the summer before Ryan's junior year at Hillsdale – July 26, 2012 – one of Ryan's older brothers, Joshua, passed away in Arizona. Ryan was devastated by the loss.
"We went to the funeral out there and this lady told me, I don't even know who she was, but she felt like she needed to tell me how Josh always talked about me and was so proud of how far I'd come," Ryan said. "He was so excited to see where I could go. I took that to heart … I know he's still watching me."
Ryan wanted to ink a tribute to his late brother somewhere on his body, but promised his mother he would not get a tattoo until after graduating high school. Now, on Ryan's right shoulder, he has a tattoo with Josh's name above a set of praying hands.
"It's the toughest thing for a parent to go through, but it is not great for the kids either," Jeff said. "I told Ryan that his brother was going to be like an angel on his shoulder."
Ryan carries on, as he always has. He has never shied away from hard work or a difficult road. As an officer for FFA (Future Farmers of America), Ryan often sought out the long hours and arduous labor of farm work. His first job was picking up rocks out of a hayfield, and he took the money earned and purchased a stereo.
"Man, that took a lot of rocks," Ryan would say when he looked at the stereo.
Even throughout college, on weekends when football was in the rear view, Ryan would make the four-hour drive home and hop on a tractor and plow fields for hours, acre after acre, until the sun began to set. It is where he is most comfortable, although the Thundering Herd football player has made Huntington and Marshall his home away from home over the past five years.
"I'm so glad Ryan is at Marshall," Joanne said. "He has made so many friends and he and Coach Price are so close. Coach Price loves him like his own kid. I feel like they are part of my family. Ryan is where he is meant to be."
Chuck McGill is the Assistant Athletic Director for Fan/Donor Engagement and Communications at Marshall University and a six-time winner of the National Sports Media Association West Virginia Sportswriter of the Year award. In addition to HerdZone.com's Word on the Herd, McGill is the editor of Thundering Herd Illustrated, Marshall's official athletics publication. Follow him on Twitter (@chuckmcgill) and Instagram (wordontheherd).
