By Rich Winter

605 Sports

Last July during the height of the AAU basketball season, Corsica-Stickney’s Tyson Wentland was complaining of pain in his hip and hamstrings. 

Ibuprofen didn’t seem to help so the Wentland’s took their son to the local clinic. Not sure what was wrong they requested an MRI.

“All of a sudden he started sweating profusely and our doctor said, ‘This is weird,’ ” Tara Wentland, Tyson’s mom said. 

In addition to the MRI the doctor performed a blood test and it was determined the sophomore had a blood infection. 

A routine visit to their local doctor suddenly turned into an emergency check-in at the Stanford Children’s Hospital. Several days after playing in an AAU tournament Wentland suddenly found himself in surgery. 

“I had to have two surgeries done,” Tyson Wentland said. “They went in to clean out all the infection and then went back again a couple days later to make sure that it was all cleaned out.” 

For the multi-sport standout the time in the hospital was a scary experience. 

“It was tough because it all happened so quickly,” Wentland said. “I didn’t know if it would get better or if I’d be able to play sports again.” 

Wentland’s plans of playing the AAU summer finale in Kansas City vanished almost immediately. 

“That was really hard for him but he had a couple AAU teammates visit and he had a lot of support from back home to get through those first few days,” Tara Wentland said. 

A 6-foot-4, 230-pound sophomore, Wentland went to physical therapy multiple times per week and waited patiently to see if he might be able to play the latter part of the football season. Although he was eventually cleared to play for Corsica-Stickney’s playoff game against Irene/Wakona, Wentland and his family decided to wait for basketball season. 

“I could have come back but I was worried how that might affect the team,” Wentland said. 

Finally cleared to play sports and with football season now in the rearview mirror, disaster struck again when the Corsica-Stickney guys got together for a game of basketball during open gym. 

“We were playing and I came down and landed on someone’s foot,” Wentland said. 

Initially the Wentland’s assumed it was just a rolled ankle but after keeping tabs on the injury they decided to go in for an x-ray. 

“The doctor came back and told us it was broken,” Tara Wentland said. “Tyson and I just looked at each other, we both had tears in our eyes and right then we came up with a plan.” 

They called the same Orthopedic surgeon whom they had worked with during the summer and fall and got right back into the physical therapy groove. For a young man that averaged 18 points and eight rebounds per game as a freshman, the idea of losing another season didn’t sit very well. 

“It was tough because I was feeling better than I ever had before,” Wentland said. “To have it all taken away it took me a while to get back in the right frame of mind.” 

The Wentland’s made sure their son’s mental health was being taken care of.

“When you are a kid, high school sports is everything,” Tara Wentland said. “Then you get told you aren’t going to be having your next season so staying positive and keeping his mental health up were high priorities.” 

Last week, Wentland got the news he’s been waiting for since last summer. The sophomore was cleared to play, albeit restricted minutes in Thursday’s game against Freeman. He finished with 13 points and eight rebounds in his season debut. 

“I was just happy to be on the floor,” he said. “We have a special group of guys and I just want to help this group make it as far as we can.” 

While Wentland works his way back to playing shape the Wentland family was nervous during Thursday’s game, anxious to see if their boy’s body would hold up. 

“The best thing was seeing the huge smile on his face after the game,” Tara Wentland said. “The relief of getting through a game and doing so without getting hurt made us all feel pretty good.”