BY CLIFF SMELLEY
To those who don’t know him or know of his story, watching Ryder Trull stepping into the batter’s box or taking to the pitcher’s mound is simply watching a young person play a game he loves.
It’s more than that, though. Much more.
In late August 2024, Trull was lying in a hospital under heavy sedation and on a ventilator. The question at that time wasn’t, “When will he suit up again and play ball?” It was, “Will he survive?”
“It’s a complete miracle that he’s doing what he’s doing right now and doing it as well as he’s doing it,” said Ryder’s mother, Casey.
He sustained a brain injury and received facial fractures from being in a vehicular crash, but has recovered from everything except an injury to his left eye, which he now has no vision in.
Through it all, Trull’s mantra has been to keep looking forward. Yes, he was in a bad crash, and yes, he could’ve died, but that’s all in the past.
Casey said Ryder has always been determined. What he determined when he was in the hospital was that he was going to get back out onto the baseball diamond.
“I was ready to get out of the bed,” said Ryder, a rising sophomore at Keystone Heights High School. “Honestly, the whole time I was just thinking about baseball. Baseball was the only thought on my mind. I was ready to play baseball.”
It’s also more than that. Ryder fully acknowledges that his survival and recovery goes beyond what doctors did.
“It shows that God brought me back for a reason,” Ryder said.
Ryder had many people praying to God on his behalf — family, friends and people the family didn’t even know, Casey said.
“It really helped us to keep going,” Casey said. “People who came up and prayed — that really comforts you and kind of gives you a peace about things and what’s going on.”
Ryder said, “I thought it was cool. It just showed how much people cared.”
A difficult time
Casey and her husband, Bryan, found themselves in a position no parent wants to be in — hearing a child was injured and in the hospital.
It wasn’t just Ryder. His sister, Bryanna, was involved as well. However, Casey and Bryan were told that it seemed she would be OK, with doctors monitoring her for a concussion and its effects.
“Then they told us what was going on with (Ryder) — the brain, the bleeding and swelling,” Casey said. “Honestly, it just seemed like a whirlwind. Almost a blank”
Doctors were covering a lot of ground with the parents, who found all the information difficult to process. Fortunately, Casey and Bryan had friends who worked at the hospital, who acted as sort of a go-between.
“They were able to kind of translate what was going on and help us and kind of talk to the doctors a little better than we could because they knew the process and knew how to tell us, ‘OK. This is what is happening. This is what you need to expect and what you need to do.’
“That was a blessing.”
While that helped, seeing Ryder lying in a bed and not moving was, of course, difficult.
“He’s always been energetic, going from nothing to 90,” Casey said. “He couldn’t do that. He couldn’t do anything.”
For someone used to going 90 miles per hour, his recovery and rehabilitation took too long for his liking.
“I hated going slow, but I had to,” Ryder said.
Coming off the ventilator, being weaned off medications and moving were all things that took time. Casey said God was thanked for each small step forward.
“Every little thing was a big deal,” Casey said, alluding to such things as the first time Ryder sat up in bed, the first time he got out of bed and stood and the first time he walked.
Casey said Ryder was in the hospital approximately two weeks before he began walking.
“Before you knew it, he was trying to shove doctors out of the way, saying he could do it on his own,” Casey said.
Ryder, who was in the hospital from Aug. 27 until Sept. 17, needed only one surgery, which reconstructed his left eye socket. When he was told he was going to lose the sight in the eye, Ryder said he accepted that it was just something he’d have to get used to.
“It’s not that bad when you think about it,” he said. “I’m used to it now, so it kind of feels like I have two eyes. I don’t know how to explain it.”
If you talk to Ryder, you get the sense he’s taken everything in stride and that it doesn’t bother him much. He does admit it was difficult to adjust to having sight in just one eye, but in the same breath, he says a positive came out of it in that he’s become a better hitter in baseball.
“It kind of taught me to keep my head down, or I wasn’t going to hit the ball,” Ryder said.
Casey said, “He hasn’t been aggravated or mad or down in the dumps or anything like that. He’s always so positive.”
Returning to normal life and baseball
A hospitalization followed by rehab had Ryder behind in his studies. He said he didn’t do anything for a month after his return home — other than throw a baseball around with his father — but then it was time to devote time to school. His first two semesters of the 2024-25 year were done at home.
Despite having to catch up that first semester, he wound up with a 3.0 GPA.
“He did really well,” Casey said. “The teachers were great working with him.”
Ryder returned to the KHHS campus to start the third semester. He noted he had a 3.5 GPA that semester, which he maintained throughout the rest of the year.
“It was good,” Casey, a teacher at KHHS, said of seeing her son back on campus. “I work up there, so I could see him.”
Of course, his friends and fellow students wanted to talk to him about all that he had gone through. Ryder said his thought was always, “Dude, it’s over. Just let me play some baseball now.”
Baseball. It’s the one thing he’s always looked forward to. In the hospital, in rehab — playing the sport he began when he was probably 3 years old has kept him going.
It was approximately two months after he returned home that he began playing again, though he and his father would go to the fields every night before that.
“I kept telling him, ‘I’m so ready to play.’ He said, ‘Not yet.’ After a little while, he started seeing the growth, that I was starting to get back into it,” Ryder said.
A thrill for Dad, for sure, but he was just happy his son was still alive. Ryder said his father told him it didn’t matter if he was never able to play baseball or any sport again. Ryder’s response? “I’m playing baseball. I don’t care.”
When he first resumed playing, he didn’t play in the field. He batted only.
“It was kind of stressful because I wasn’t hitting the ball like I usually do,” Ryder said. “I wasn’t striking out a crazy amount of times, but I was still striking out. It kind of like showed me I still needed to put in the work, that I still had more stuff to do to get back to where I was.”
Casey said Bryan was “extremely proud and grateful” to see Ryder playing baseball again. She, as you might expect from a mother, was a little nervous.
“I was more worried and concerned that he was already back out there,” Casey said.
Of course, as time has gone on, it does Casey’s heart good to see her son doing what he loves.
“Every time he goes out there, it’s surreal and such a blessing,” she said. “It’s almost hard to believe that he’s right back out there, doing great and not missing a beat.”
Ryder was able to make appearances in nine games for the KHHS varsity team this past season. He got chances as a courtesy runner and scored two runs on the season. Ryder got one at-bat in a 10-0 win over Eagle’s View on April 8, hitting a two-run single that enforced the mercy rule in the sixth inning. He also got to play some in right field in that game, recording a put out in the fifth inning.
This summer, Ryder has been a part of the Melrose 16U All-Stars team that won the state championship. He batted 4 for 9 with four RBI in three games. In a 10-0 win over DeBary — the team’s first tournament game — Ryder batted 2 for 3 with three RBI.
Ryder pitched in relief in two of those games. He gave up one hit and one walk, while striking out one in 1.2 innings in the 10-0 win over DeBary and earned the save in the 5-3 championship win over Orange Park, allowing no hits and no walks, while striking out two in the final 1.2 innings.
“That was good,” Ryder said of the team’s state championship, “but that’s been accomplished before. My next goal is to win the regional tournament and be the first team to make it to the World Series. That’s going to be even bigger.”
The regional tournament began this past Tuesday (July 15).
Ryder participated in spring football at KHHS and was the starting quarterback in the varsity team’s spring jamboree. He won’t continue to play, however, after being advised against doing so by his neurologist.
That was tough to hear because he likes Head Coach Steve Reynolds (who was his PE coach when he was in elementary school) and Assistant Coach Jakob Alvarez and was looking forward to being a part of their team.
“I really wanted to play for them and my teammates, but my goal is to play some college baseball,” Ryder said. “I feel like (playing football) was a huge risk of me getting hurt. I don’t want that to happen.”
Ryder not only wants to play college baseball. He’d love to get an opportunity in Major League Baseball. Ryder said he’s got a good fastball, noting he’s increased his velocity from 76 to 83, and he feels good about his curveball, changeup and cutter.
“I want to be on the mound,” Ryder said. “I feel like I control the game and I’m what matters the most on how the game goes.”
Life changes
Yes, it’s back to life as usual for Ryder, but that’s not to say that aspects of his life haven’t changed. For one, he’s learned to not always assume you have a tomorrow.
“Don’t take a day for granted because tomorrow, something could change,” he said.
The accident, of course, reinforced for Ryder and his family how important it is to appreciate those moments spent with family.
“I think it really just solidifies and tightens our views on family and how important it is to spend as much quality time as we can with each other,” Casey said.
Another result of the accident is that Ryder has strengthened his relationship with God, accepting Jesus Christ as his savior and getting baptized.
“That’s always a huge thing when any of your kids make that decision because, really, that’s the most important one,” Casey said.
Ryder said, “(The accident) kind of like opened my eyes a lot. If I was to have died in the hospital, I would’ve gone to Hell.”
Finally, Ryder has come to embrace the positives in life and not dwell on the negatives. Once something negative happens, it becomes the past — something Ryder doesn’t dwell on. He encourages others to do the same.
“Don’t look back,” Ryder said. “Look forward. Look for what is next to come.
“Have a goal in mind and try to achieve that goal. After you achieve that one, do another one. You just keep going forward.”
For someone who’s overcome an obstacle that’s greater than most of us may ever face, that’s certainly good advice.
