By Mike London
mike.london@salisburypost.com

COLUMBIA, S.C. — On Tuesday night, Columbia International University sophomore Bethany Rymer was in the small town of Cleveland, Ga., northeast of Atlanta, playing the game she loves most — basketball.

She plays one of her better games — four 3-pointers, 18 points and nine rebounds — but the CIU Rams (3-8) lose to Truett McConnell.

“Still, basketball has been fun and enjoyable,” Rymer said. “We’ve had a coaching change, but the chemistry is getting better and better.”

Rymer accomplished terrific things during her days at South Rowan High. She was a top competitor in track and field, a Rowan County cross country champion and a 1,000-point scorer for the basketball team despite not playing her junior year.

Her older sister, Kira, became the most decorated volleyball player in the history of Columbia International, a perennial All-American, and she also fell in love with the college, so Bethany made the decision that the small, Christian-centered school in Columbia, S.C., might also be the best fit for her.

But Bethany planned a nursing major — she’s already a National Guard medic — and she knew basketball would make time demands that might detract from her studies. So she accepted a scholarship to compete in cross country and track and field and figured her basketball days were behind her.

“With National Guard weekends and the pre-nursing program, I felt that trying to play basketball would be putting too much on my plate,” Rymer said.

As it turned out, cross country was challenging enough.

“Those days in cross country season start at 5:30 a.m.,” Rymer said. “It was exhausting, but I got my times back down to 20:40 for a 5K, and we also run some 6K meets.”

In the gym, Columbia International experienced an 18-win women’s basketball season in 2022-23, with North Rowan graduate Hannah Wilkerson playing a huge part in unprecedented success for the program. The Rams were so successful that CIU head coach Danielle Fleming was hired by Division II Clarion University in Pennsylvania, and Wilkerson and several more top players transferred to Clarion to play for Fleming.

Columbia International’s program was short-handed after the unexpected departures, leaving CIU AD Darren Richie scrambling for new players.

Richie remembered that Rymer, the cross country girl, had been a good high school basketball player. He wondered if she’d be interested. He didn’t know Bethany all that well, but he did know Kira because he’d handed her a few dozen volleyball awards.

He texted Kira: “Do you think your sister might play basketball for us after cross county season?”

Well, Kira could ask, and she did.

Richie did a great sales job on the program, the life experiences that college basketball could provide, and the doors it could open for Bethany’s future.

He talked her into giving hoops a try.

“I was really reluctant, at first,” Bethany said. “I knew they needed help and I really did want to help them out, but I hadn’t played basketball in two years, and I didn’t know any of the girls on the team. And then there was the time factor. Committing to basketball is a lot more than playing games. It’s practice, and it’s weight training, and it’s travel.”

CIU’s basketball season started really early, on the afternoon of Oct. 28, with cross country season still in progress, but Rymer was there.

Rymer came off the bench that day, but it felt good to have a basketball in her hands again. Not a lot was expected, but she scored 22 points and had 11 rebounds and made the game-winning three-point play against Morris College.

“That first game was crazy good,” Rymer said with a laugh.

After that dazzling debut, her teammates knew they could depend on her, and she has become one of the team leaders. After 11 games, she’s second on the team in scoring (13.3 points per game) and leads the team in rebounding (6.8 per game), a remarkable stat for a guard.

“I was always a point guard in high school, but we’ve got a point guard, so I’ve played different positions,” Rymer said. “I know I need to score some and I try to help on the boards.”

Basketball has made the schoolwork more challenging, but she’s kept up and did well last semester even in tough courses such as anatomy & physiology.

She hasn’t committed yet to playing basketball again next season. At this point, it’s one game at a time, one week at a time, and one season at a time. She knows she’d like to play, but it will depend on how the grades go.

“Getting a nursing degree is the priority over athletics,” she said. “I’ll be taking 19 credit hours next semester, so it just depends on whether I can keep my grades up.”

This weekend means National Guard duty for Rymer, who is the medic for three units. She reports to Mocksville.

“My life always busy — there’s always a lot of stuff going on,” said Rymer who also hopes to squeeze in some indoor track meets for CIU.

There is one sad note to Rymer’s rather amazing story,

Richie, the tall, affable fellow who talked her into making a basketball comeback, died suddenly at 58 in late November. He was traveling with the Columbia International women’s soccer team for a national tournament when he contracted bacterial meningitis.

Richie was a beloved figure at Columbia International and will be missed.

Every bucket Rymer scores for the basketball team is because of him and honors him.