Middle attacker Ryan Clarke would play volleyball everyday for the Ball State University men's volleyball team if he could.
However, he physically can't.
Suffering from chronic knee tendinitis, a disease that results in inflammation from large amounts of activity, in both knees, the Cardinals' blocks leader has been limited, playing in 23 out of 36 games this season.
"It's not a problem that is really going to go away ever, it just gets better or worse," Clarke said. "Over time it started breaking down a little bit, but having the time off and having a [stricter] regiment of therapy is really helping out."
Over the summer, Clarke had surgery in an attempt to repair his knees, but the surgery didn't fix them the way the team was hoping, coach Joel Walton said.
"He still is right back to where, if he tries to go into a full week of activity, his body can't take that," Walton said.
Because of these setbacks, the team allows Clarke to partake in half of its practices.
Team trainer Colin Lank said with Clarke's condition, he is prevented from jumping at certain practices because jumping increases the inflammation.
"We are just worried about maintaining where he is at right now so we've been giving him some days off to where he can rest and have non-jumping days," Lank said. "We alternate days [and] hope to progress to the point where we have him playing in every match and playing in every practice."
Along with the monitored practice schedules, Clarke said the physical therapy he receives in his non-practice days, and the large amount of stretching he's instructed to do by team trainers has greatly helped him.
"I can definitely feel that my legs are starting to get stronger," Clarke said. "I'm just trying to get flexibility in there because I have a lot of swelling."
For the beginning of the regular season, the Cardinals' strategy has been to play Clarke in one match each weekend, Walton said.
Over the weekend at the Volleyball Hall of Fame Classic, it was the first time this season Clarke played in two matches in one week.
"For a student-athlete he's done a great job coming in and getting his rehab done," Lank said. "After his surgery, he was in a lot of pain and had a lot of swelling going on. Probably out of his potential, he was 60 percent, and since we have been working with him he has gotten up to almost 90 percent."
Lank said one of the reasons for the team's new strategy with Clarke is due to what he did this preseason.
Clarke played in nearly every preseason match and practiced with the team more often than under his current schedule.
The result was Clarke's knees continuing to flare up, Lank said.
"It was mainly too much stress, too quickly," Lank said. "He was ready for it, but now we just have to be a little more cautious about using him."
Without Clarke in the lineup the Cardinals are 1-2 and have not defeated a Division I team this season.
Also, Ball State averages 7.3 blocks per match without Clarke and 10.5 blocks with Clarke in the lineup.
"Ryan, when he's healthy, talks a lot and is very confident in himself and extremely aggressive," Walton said. "When his knees hurt, he loses a lot of that edge. [He's] not aggressive and he goes inward and doesn't talk. A healthy Ryan Clarke is somebody that is one of our best jumpers."
Along with a team-high 27.5 blocks, Clarke has a career-high nine digs this season.
Clarke said the toughest thing he's had to this season was watch his teammates play while sitting on the bench.
"I hate watching," Clarke said. "I love playing out there and being in the middle of things. I want my team to win, but that's definitely been the hardest thing to watch other guys."
Along with Clarke, the injuries have also been a challenge to Walton.
Walton said he traditionally would push some players to see how truly injured and sore they are, but Clarke's body will continually break down come game time.
"It does take a change in mentality and understanding from me, because we want to get one good night per weekend out of Ryan Clarke," Walton said. "To do that, we have to give up a couple days of practice per week so his body will be able to play."
Clarke said he first experienced the tendinitis in high school, but it wasn't as intense as it now due to the shorter high school schedule. He also said it really started to affect him last season.
Last season Clarke played in nine matches and 19 games after redshirting his freshman year in 2005.
"In high school, our team was small and our program was small so we didn't practice very often, and when we did it was half screwing around," Clarke said. "Since getting to college and working hard, especially last year..., it really started just breaking me down."
In addition, Walton said the team was unaware of the chronic knee tendinitis when he recruited Clarke, and the knees weren't a problem until his freshman season.
"His body with the jumping, lifting and practicing we were doing just started to break down from that point," Walton said. "It really became an issue last season when he started to compete, and we started to see that just a regular practice routine was just breaking him down."
Despite the knees continuing to bother Clarke throughout his college career, he feels confident that he will be getting more playing time as his knees get better.
"If I continue to strengthen my legs and help making this problem get under control I expect to play as much as possible," Clarke said. "I don't see any reason why I shouldn't have the ability to."
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