By Randy Whitehouse,Staff Writer

BETHEL – Ryan Savage was born a rebel, but he has a little bit of bulldog in him, too. The combination makes him an instigator for Telstar and a nuisance to the rest of the Mountain Valley Conference.

Savage, a senior guard at Telstar, is one of the top two-way threats in the MVC, capable of lighting a fire under his team at either end of the floor.

“Ryan is the kid that really spearheads our defensive attack. It’s his energy that a lot of the other kids feed off of,” said Telstar coach Alec Newell. “Offensively, he’s helped us in a lot of different ways, creating a lot of opportunities for our shooters.”

Savage’s took a roundabout route to becoming one of the Rebels’ top players. His family moved from Bethel to Madison when he was in fifth grade. While there, he learned the blue-collar ways of the Bulldogs under legendary coach Tom Maines.

“It was interesting. It was a lot tougher than here. (Maines) was on you all the time,” Savage said. “Up there, every practice we worked on defense for about three-quarters of the practice.”

Savage moved back to Bethel prior to his junior year and while he’d kept close tabs with his friends there, his new coach was in for a surprise.

“I’d never had a chance to see him play personally, but once he showed up here during the summer, it was pretty evident that he was going to be a big help to us,” Newell said. “He was so energetic at both ends of the floor, always in the middle of everything. He’s a ball of energy.”

Savage enjoys Newell’s much more laid-back coaching style and the Rebels’ more up-tempo offense, but his Madison background has made him into the team’s defensive stopper.

He left Madison, but Madison hasn’t totally left him.

“I wouldn’t care if I didn’t score a point a game as long as we won and I played well defensively,” he said.

Savage often gets matched up with some of the league’s top scorers, such as Wiscasset’s Conrad Griffin or Boothbay’s Owen Johnson. He takes as much a mental approach as a physical one to guarding some of the state’s best athletes.

“I like to get right on them in the beginning of the game and usually I just frustrate them enough,” he said. “A lot of kids get angry and start to pick up stupid fouls and they have to go sit.”

Sit and watch the ball of energy in the Telstar uniform.