Injury Sidetracks the Travel Plans of CSUN’s Kyman

Only hours before his college football season ended prematurely, Coley Kyman was growing weary of his jet-set life.

What Kyman envisioned as a glamorous lifestyle had turned out to be a tedious exercise in waiting--at ticket counters, baggage claims and airport curbs.

Before Kyman recovered from lengthy trips with the U.S. national volleyball team to Sheffield, England, for the World University Games in July, and Havana, Cuba, for the Pan American Games in late August, he was off with the Cal State Northridge football team to Cheney, Wash., one weekend and Blackwater Draw, N.M., the next.

As it turned out, Blackwater Draw was the last stop on the Kyman cross-training tour. Now, Kyman would gladly exchange his broken left clavicle for a chance to ride the bus with his teammates to games at Davis and Sacramento.

In relief of injured starting quarterback Marty Fisher on Saturday, the 210-pound Kyman was hit hard by Sam Washington, Eastern New Mexico’s 280-pound defensive end.

Washington steamrollered Kyman after Kyman released the ball on his seventh play of the game.

“I don’t like to complain,” Kyman said, “but he hit me, not as I was releasing the ball, but after I released the ball. He could have let up. He didn’t need to drive me into the ground.”

Northridge Coach Bob Burt said that he and his staff believe the hit was legal, but that Washington was overzealous afterward. The film shows Kyman getting hit, but he and Washington are out of the picture from that point.

According to Northridge team orthopedist, Dr. Lester Cohn, Kyman’s clavicle is expected to take six to eight weeks to mend, and another two weeks to rehabilitate.

Cohn said that Kyman’s injury should heal and does not expect it to affect Kyman’s volleyball or football career.

Because Kyman redshirted for football as a freshman in 1989, he is applying for a hardship that would allow him to save a year of eligibility and play his sophomore year of football next fall.

An All-American volleyball player, Kyman will have his volleyball eligibility run out in the spring of 1993.

If Kyman sticks with his plan to complete his eligibility in both sports, he will have been in college for 5 1/2 years.

“I want to graduate and that will give me more time,” said Kyman, a physical education major. “And I want to have the three years I have left in football.”

One of the hitches in his plan is his future with the U.S. Volleyball Assn. Eventually, Kyman wants to turn pro in volleyball, but he also wants to be eligible for major international competition.

The USVBA requires its athletes to play two major international tournaments as amateurs before turning pro if they have plans to play for the United States in international competition, such as the Olympic Games.

If Kyman stays at Northridge through the 1994 football season, his pro volleyball career would be put off until at least 1996 because Kyman would need at least two years to fulfill the USVBA’s requirement of two major international tournaments.

Another factor is Northridge’s future in football, which could be decided at the NCAA convention in January.

If the Matadors are Division I by 1993, Kyman could be subject to a different set of rules. Currently, Division II players are eligible to compete so long as they have not completed 10 full-time semesters of school. In contrast, Division I players have five years of school to complete four years of athletic eligibility.

Kyman is also considering--fleetingly--the fear that a more serious football injury could threaten his future in volleyball.

“This isn’t going to stop me from playing football,” Kyman said. “Even though it is scaring me and scaring (CSUN volleyball coach) John Price.”

Interestingly, Price is one of Kyman’s few supporters in his dual athletic endeavor.

“I’ve been told that I’m crazy for being that way,” Price said. “My attitude with him has always been if you play two sports, you’ve just got to be able to live with the consequences that getting injured in one (football) might mean the end of the other (volleyball).”

Price, who is convinced that Kyman has the potential to be an Olympic volleyball player, knows that his charge is irrepressible.

“Coley wants to play in the 1996 Olympics and the (NFL) Pro Bowl in the same year,” Price said. “That’s the way he views things.”

Kyman needed such optimism just to endure his journey back to Los Angeles.

On Saturday night, he had to sleep sitting up with his left arm strapped in a sling across his body.

Then, following a 6 a.m. wake-up call, he rode a bus 4 1/2 hours to Albuquerque where he boarded a flight to Los Angeles.

“The bumps in the road were very painful,” Kyman said. “But I lived with it.”

Matador Notes

Quarterback Marty Fisher (bruised throwing hand), center Ed “Skip” Allum (knee sprain), and defensive tackle Ken Jackson (ankle sprain) practiced Tuesday and are expected to play Saturday at Cal State Fullerton. Fullback Anthony Nicholson, who missed Saturday’s game with an ankle sprain, also practiced and should be ready to play against the Titans. . . .

CSUN players of the game against Eastern New Mexico as voted by the coaching staff: Offense: Victor DeVaughn, tailback, ran for 79 yards in 22 carries after being demoted to third string; Defense: O.J. Ojomoh, inside linebacker, led the Matadors with 11 tackles and three pass deflections; Special teams: Homan Farahmand, long snapper, recovered a fumble on a punt return.