When we last left Ryan Sullivan, the gangly first baseman had been perhaps the key cog in leading Aurora’s Cherokee Trail to the 2016 Class 5A Colorado championship.

The Cougars’ big man ended the season with more hits, runs scored and runs batted in than games played as they downed perennial power Rocky Mountain in the final.

Fast forward to today. He’s at Gonzaga, in professional shape and ready to roll.

“He’s full of life,” former Cherokee Trail head coach Allan Dyer said.

Sullivan, a happy sort, won’t argue: “I love it here. This place is really good for me. The team is super-talented and the coaches are really invested.”

Year after year, waves of promising Colorado schoolboys who headed off to Division I programs never lasted. Others have started on lower levels and been unable to advance. Sullivan had lumped somewhere between the latter and the former. He was passed over at first by the upper level of collegiate play and landed at Iowa Western Community College in Council Bluffs, where he had an opening year that would have discouraged a lot of ball players.

“I’m not going to lie,” Sullivan said. “It was definitely hard and I had to show some perseverance. I got hurt for a month.”

He injured his right lateral muscle. It happened in late March, he missed all of April and the Reivers, national champions in 2010, 2012 and 2014, missed the Junior College World Series. He played in only 11 games and had just 23 at-bats.

However, a year later, when it appeared he again would be challenged to get playing time at first base, he ended the fall “as the 2^nd or third first baseman.” But when fate struck and the first-stringer got injured, Sullivan was given his chance and made the most of it. As the team went 54-7, it had a 35-game winning streak and finished fifth in the World Series, Sullivan played in 52 games, batted .361 with four home runs and 41 RBIS, and 43 runs scored. Defensively, he made only two errors in 283 career chances.

“I just kept hitting well and fielding well,” Sullivan said.

He committed to Gonzaga in late June and has begun the chase to DI baseball and all that comes with it. Academically, Sullivan has a 3.5 grade-point average.

“It’s a transition from junior college to Gonzaga,” he said, noting it’s the 16^th toughest school for academics in the nation. “It has been a little bit of an adjustment period.”

On the field, where he hopes to be regularly, Sullivan is pegged behind a fifth-year Bulldogs senior.

“It will come down to who hits better in the spring,” he said.

And it appears Sullivan won’t botch his chance for lack of effort. He’s now 6-foot-5 and 230 pounds with 13 percent body fat.

“I’m completely healthy, getting stronger and I’ve did some tests,” he said, crediting the Gonzaga staff for putting him through a series of drills and exercises that have allowed him to gain “12 pounds of muscle.”

Dyer isn’t surprised.

“A great player, a great kid,” said Dyer, whose Cougars teams were a combined 204-71. “He has a ton of potential and I still don’t think he has reached it.”

Two years ago, Cherokee Trail was 22-5 as Sullivan batted .506 with four homers, 32 RBIs, 17 extra-base hits (13 doubles) and 28 runs scored.

“He was just that guy for us,” Dyer said. “And what he brought to the field for us was just the way he went about his business.”

Sullivan called that team “so special and it had chemistry off the charts.”

Majoring in sports management, he would rather not be one of the thousands of locals who have been stymied on the collegiate level and continues with high hopes of chasing the greatest game that ever was as a player to its highest level.

“Absolutely, I want to pursue baseball,” he said. “I’ve had a few meetings with a couple of teams, some scouts are interested.”