After four years with Strawberry Crest football, Ryan Weems has committed to continue his academic and athletic journey at Gettysburg College.
Throughout his time with the Chargers, Weems was part of a senior class that saw Strawberry Crest win just three total games throughout their 2-8 freshman season and 1-8 sophomore season before improving to 5-5 in 2021 and posting the program’s first winning season since 2013 as they finished the 2022 season at 6-4.
“I would say that my past four years at Crest have been up and down,” Weems said. “My first three years there we didn’t have a winning season and I played a lot as a freshman, so it was hard. We didn’t win many games and we got some hate around school, so it was kind of hard being a football player at Crest for a while. So yeah, I would say the past four years were just up and down because of the challenge of being a football player at Strawberry Crest and the community around it. My senior class all had a vision and we were all committed to the process of getting better. We knew that we weren’t going to win every game but it became more about competing than just winning and I think that’s what helped us build that chemistry to work together and rise up and become winners and come out on top of some games. Those last couple of years we had a lot more belief from around the school after winning a few games, you could just see people start to believe in us a lot more. And it’s not going to change overnight, there’s still some improvement that needs to be made around school and the students’ belief in the football team, but it was dramatic. Last year it was completely different, it was night and day from the previous years just because of that winning season.”
By his sophomore season, Weems began seeing regular action on both sides of the ball, both as a running back and defensive back – finishing the year with 12 tackles and an interception on defense while totaling 165 rushing yards and one touchdown as a running back, bolstered by a season-high 86 rushing yards and a touchdown in the Chargers’ lone win over Freedom. He also added two receptions for 35 yards and eight completions at quarterback for 61 yards. And as a junior he had earned a full-time starting role. En route to the Chargers’ 5-5 season in 2021, Weems totaled 34 tackles, one tackle for loss and two interceptions on defense, 317 yards on 19 kickoff returns on special teams and 354 rushing yards and four touchdowns on 87 carries on offense.
In the spring of his junior year, Weems attended a camp at Hillsborough High School where he first met Gettysburg defensive coordinator Mike Hoyt. At the camp, Springfield says that he lost a rep in a one-on-one drill when Hoyt came up to him and gave him some advice, telling him to try a different technique on his next rep. In his next opportunity, Weems followed Hoyt’s advice but lost the next rep again. And once again, Hoyt came over and gave his advice, which Weems followed and began to win rep after rep after rep. Hoyt continued to work with Weems throughout the day and saw the talent, but also took notice of the coachability and later extended an official offer letter.
Throughout Weems’ senior season, he totaled 42 tackles and one forced fumble on defense while racking up 283 rushing yards and five rushing touchdowns on 55 carries and 35 receiving yards and one receiving touchdown on three catches. That December he took an official visit and by February he signed his National Letter of Intent committing to join the Bullets football program and continue his education at Gettysburg.
“Wabash was another interest, that’s where my good friend Marcus Springfield is committed, and I was getting a little bit of interest from there,” Weems said. “I ended up getting an offer from Gettysburg in my junior year after a camp where I met Coach Hoyt, I went up there for a visit last December and it was really nice. I had a few other schools reach out to me but I never really took up on those chances because Gettysburg was my number one choice right away. The way the coach made me feel is what got me. He more wanted to know who I was, it wasn’t just about football, he liked me as a person. There were points throughout my recruitment when I felt like I wasn’t good enough to play at the next level so it felt really nice for this coach to see me perform and then offer me. It made me feel like I was worth it, he validated all of the hard work that I had put in and he really helped me out from a mental standpoint throughout my senior year because like I said, at points I felt like I wasn’t good enough but that offer validated the hard work. It felt really good for someone to see what I can do and then put their trust in me.”
After setting a goal to play collegiate football several years ago, that hard work paid off and the dream has finally become a reality for Weems as he’s set to move onto campus at Gettysburg in just two short weeks.
“The feeling of signing is so good because I set a goal and I set a standard for myself that I was going to play college football and I always held myself to it,” Weems said. “So to get that offer and be able to sign it let me know that everything, all the blood, sweat and tears was worth it. I feel like a lot of people under me, coming up in football, they just need that motivation. Once you get offered and can sign and go through the whole recruitment process, it really helps you as a person and encourages you to do better because it lets you know that they see you work hard and lets you know that everything has meaning to it, it wasn’t just for nothing.”