The Archway

Issue date: 12/4/09 Section: Sports

Sophomore Papa Lo, who was forced to sit out last season as a red shirt after transfering to Bryant, is excited to be back on the court this year. (Courtesy of Bryant Athletics)

In the classroom, Papa Lo is just like any ordinary student at Bryant University, other than the fact his 6 foot 9 inch frame makes it rather difficult for him to fit into the chairs. His journey as an athlete hoping to get on to the basketball court for a game in a Bryant University Bulldog uniform, however, has been far from ordinary.

Lo was born in Senegal, a country in western Africa that borders the Atlantic Ocean that has a population of about 12.5 million people. After spending his childhood in his hometown of Theis, Senegal, Lo left for the United States in December of 2005.

When he arrived in the United States, Lo enrolled in high school at the Winchedon School in Massachusetts. At Winchedon, he began his basketball career and played a season and a half under Coach Mike Byrnes, a University of Massachusetts alum.

After graduating from Winchedon in 2007, he went on to play at his high school coach's Alma matter at the University of Massachusetts. He spent one season in a Minuteman uniform, playing sparingly in 22 games. The summer after his freshmen year, Lo decided to leave UMass and transfer to Bryant University.

Upon his arrival at Bryant, Lo was forced to red-shirt a season because of NCAA requirements for transfer students. Not being able to participate in the 2008-2009 season, he was able to become acquainted with Bryant, a school that has a much different environment and culture than UMass. While his transition to a new university was not nearly as monumental as moving from Senegal to the United States, the change didn't quite go as planned in his move to Massachusetts's neighboring state of Rhode Island.

First off, the move distanced him even farther from his wife, Moumy Lo, who was still attending the Winchedon School in Massachusetts. The couple was married in December of 2008. Secondly, Lo injured his knee in the first semester, an injury that needed to be fixed with a surgery. While rehabilitating that knee, he injured his other knee. A second surgery followed soon after to repair the other injured knee. Instead of being able to acclimate himself to Coach Tim O'Shea and Bryant's system on the basketball court, he was instead forced to deal with ten months of vigorous rehabilitation on both knees, with the goal of being able to go on day one of the 2009-2010 season.

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