Pace Men’s Basketball Forward Ryan Peterson graduated Wethersfield High School in Connecticut two-years ago with a total of zero scholarship offers from any Division I or II programs.

Peterson knew he had could play college basketball and wasn’t going to accept playing at a Division-III school with no scholarship money.

He made the decision to attend St. Thomas More prep school in Connecticut in 2014. During his tenure, of only a year, at St. Thomas More he discovered he had the ability to be an elite college basketball player. The competition at the prep school made Peterson work harder than he ever had before.

“We ended up finishing number two in the country last year and had a lot D-1 caliber players: commits to U-Conn, Tulsa, Sacred Heart, Marist,” Peterson said. “To start the year, I still didn’t have any offers and I was the twelfth man, the last guy coming off the bench. I didn’t play the first three-to-five games in the season. After that I was like ‘alright, I need to start working harder. I need to start building my way up in the lineup.’”

As the season went on Peterson became a starter. By midseason, Peterson began picking up interest from NE-10 schools like Stonehill, Southern New Hampshire and Pace.

Peterson wanted to become a part of something special and believed that Pace was a good fit for him.

“I came for a visit, stayed with a couple of the [basketball] guys, and I loved it here. The gym, the school, the location, and the coaches I knew they were going to start building something special,” Peterson said. “It was a tough choice. So. New Hampshire was one of the top teams in the country last year and Pace was at the bottom, but I had trust in the coaches and everything. I knew they were going to build something.”

Peterson has become one of the most important players on the Pace Basketball team this year. As of February 1, he is second on the team both in minutes (36) and points per game (14.4).

He feels like what gives him the energy and the stamina to play a huge amount of minutes and stay consistent is his effort during practice.

“It’s definitely hard, but in practice we do a lot of running,” Peterson said. “Coach [Matt Healing] gets us in good shape. Preseason we ran on the track; we did all different types of stuff so he definitely got us prepared this fall because we had to be well conditioned this year.

“That’s been going really well for us. I think were better conditioned than most of the other teams we play. All of the practices that we have been doing are definitely helping us for sure.”

The six-foot-six inch forward has been the go-to-shooter and has shown ability to shoot the ball and score from different areas of he field. He’s currently second on the team in three-point percentage shooting 38 percent (65-173) from beyond the arc.

“[At St. Thomas More] I was a spot up shooter because I wasn’t playing much in the beginning of the year,” said Peterson, who scored a career-high 27-points against Saint Michael’s College, 15 that were scored via the 3-pointer. “I went in [the gym] every single morning, Monday-Friday at 6 am before school and just put up shots for an hour. That’s when it started clicking. In the games I started making a lot.”

Peterson’s coaches and teammates encourage him to shoot throughout the game.

“It’s just all confidence,” Peterson said. “My coaches tell me if I’m open, shoot the ball. [Healing] wants me to shoot the ball, my teammates want me to shoot the ball. It’s all confidence related and all the hard work, obviously.”

What motivate Peterson are his coaches and the players around him. He sees a change in the culture of Pace basketball and is happy to be a part of the team’s success.