The first piece of evidence that Bluestem’s Ryder Whiteside wasn’t going to take a challenging situation lying down was a hand shifter.
 
That was Whiteside’s solution for changing gears on his dirt bike just days after he was injured in a late-afternoon automobile collision on U.S. 400 approximately a mile west of Bluestem High School in Leon.
 
The crash, which occurred last May 29, left Whiteside with a broken left foot in three places, and corneal lacerations and a displaced iris in his left eye that required immediate surgery.
 
“It didn’t slow him down much,” said Bobby Whiteside, the Bluestem sophomore’s father.
 
Multiple surgeries through the summer prevented Whiteside from playing football last fall. But with a doctor’s clearance in mid-October to compete in wrestling, Whiteside navigated over mental hurdles regarding his injuries to post a 27-15 record in a season that ended with his second consecutive Class 3-1A state wrestling tournament appearance.
 
Whiteside is the CapFed® True Blue® Student of the Week.
 

Whiteside and his 2006 crew cab pickup were in a line of traffic a week after Bluestem dismissed school for the 2024-25 year. On the way to pick up his younger brother and sister from his mother’s home with his dog Lilly, Whiteside swerved to avoid a vehicle that suddenly slowed in front of him as another vehicle ahead of it turned quickly.

Whiteside’s maneuver took him into the path of an oncoming vehicle. His truck’s left side collided with the other vehicle’s right side, heavily damaging Whiteside’s truck and pinning his left foot amid the wreckage.
 
“It didn’t feel real whatsoever,” Whiteside said. “I was like, ‘This can’t be real. This is a dream, 100 percent.’ I was kind of in that moment where the adrenaline was going through me and it was surreal.
 
“Then some people came up and were banging on my door. That’s when the realization started happening.”
 
Whiteside’s dog ran from the scene and was later found uninjured about a mile away. But Whiteside was pinned for about 40 minutes. After he was extricated, he was transported to a hospital, where eye surgery was performed.
 
“He got extremely lucky,” Bobby Whiteside said. “Over time, they put pins, plates and screws in his left foot. He had the last surgery in October, less than a month before wrestling practice.”
 
Without football to help fuel his conditioning, Whiteside prepared for the opening of wrestling practice not sure what to expect.
 
“Just the fact heading into it knowing I couldn’t do a lot of training, it was, ‘How am I going to do this season?’” Whiteside said. “How can I make myself better without fully being able to train myself.”
 
But Whiteside, who went 20-12 as a freshman and qualified for state at 126 pounds, reported to practice and quickly delivered results. Wrestling at 132, he went 4-1 in the season-opening KanOkla Tournament in Caney and finished third. He then went unbeaten at the Marion County Duals to enter the holiday break at 9-1.
 
“I was very impressed by Ryder’s comeback,” Bluestem coach Nash Burtin said. “He didn’t just come back and ‘get through the season.’ He was crushing dudes all year long. He tied for fourth on our team in pins and was consistently on the podium at tournaments, scoring tons of team points.
 
“Ryder also had to pull a little bit of weight each week to strengthen our lineup. There were times that I think his foot was bothering him, but he didn’t really complain much.”
 
Whiteside posted second-place finishes at the Bluestem Jamboree and the Tri-Valley League meet. At tournaments with deeper fields, he finished fifth at Hoisington’s Cardinal Round Robin and sixth at the Circle Invitational.
 

“He stayed positive,” Bobby Whiteside said. “He didn’t get down or get discouraged in the middle of the season when he went to tougher tournaments and lost a few matches. He just battled.
 
“If you didn’t know the story with him, you wouldn’t have known what he went through. He never let it affect him. He just kept going forward.”
 
On Feb. 21, less than nine months after the auto accident, Whiteside earned his second state berth. He finished third at the Eureka regional, bouncing back from a semifinal loss to eventual champion Tate Scott of Eureka to pin his last two opponents on the consolation side.
 
The finish left with him a difficult draw at state. Whiteside lost by technical fall to Norton senior Derek Clydesdale, the eventual runner-up, in his opening match. Then, on the consolation side, he fell to Atchison County’s Luke Smith, a regional champion who was upset in the first round.
 
“It’s still a fun experience,” Whiteside said. “You’re a little nervous the first time you get there. Last year, it was definitely nerve-wracking. This year, I wasn’t really too worried about it. I knew I’d be in a tough situation no matter what.”
 
Despite going 0-2 at state for the second straight year, Whiteside reveled in some of the Lions’ team success. Bluestem junior Axton Vice became the school’s first boys wrestling champion since 1997, winning the 144-pound title. Sophomore Reagan Neal became the Lions’ first individual girls champion, winning at 110 pounds.
 
“Part of it is going to watch your team do really good,” Whiteside said. “That was definitely exciting to watch even though I didn’t get to share in that spotlight.”
 
Instead, Whiteside adopted a big-picture view of the season, realizing the limited opportunities four years of high school presents. He was simply glad the wreck didn’t take away one of those wrestling campaigns.
 
“I was definitely blessed to have the opportunity to compete because I didn’t think I was going to get to,” Whiteside said. “I think in my junior and senior years this will make me better.”