Ryan Allen started out his junior year on a blistering pace as one of the Westlake Rams’ top offensive threats until an injury pulled the plug on his success.

After much pain, physical therapy, workouts and training, he says he’s ready to resume his role in his final high school football season.

“I am feeling good,” Allen said. “I am feeling confident. As a team, we are coming together.”

He was red hot in Weeks 2 and 3. Against Welsh, a 55-27 win, he scored four touchdowns on 87 rushing yards and 129 receiving yards after touching the ball 10 times. The next week, he ran for a career-high 216 yards and two touchdowns on 15 carries 40-6 win over Vinton. The Rams were undefeated entering Week 4 at DeRidder. Allen had 56 yards before suffering a sports hernia. The Rams went on to lose their final eight games.

Doctors say recovery time can be as little as eight weeks, but for Allen, it took a little longer. It meant missing the rest of his junior season in hopes of having a better chance at a great senior year.

“It was painful,” Allen said. “Some days were better than others. I stuck it out and had some good results. It took probably two or three months before (I started to feel better).

“Really, it was during basketball. I wasn’t going to take it anymore, I was just going to play. It has been good ever since.”

Before his injury, Allen was leading the team with 618 all-purpose yards.

He spent more time at running back last year, but now that junior Braylon Garrick has matured (869 yards, 5 TDs as a sophomore), he will see more time at wide receiver where he averaged 16.5 yards a catch last year.

“I feel like I can get us some points on the board,” Allen said. “I feel that I can work on becoming a leader for our team. Hopefully we can dominate if we just listen and focus.”

His talents will not be solely used on the offensive side. He will play cornerback to help solidify a young defensive secondary.

“I am going to be working on both sides of the ball,” he said. “It has to be done, and I am glad I am the one that can do it.”

Head coach John Richardson said Allen tried to return to the field in Week 9 but couldn’t give it 100 percent yet and didn’t want to risk re-injury.

“He just couldn’t run,” Richardson said. “The pain was in his groin area. It is a tough place to deal with pain. A guy like him, if he can’t be full speed, it is not like a lineman.

“As a skill guy like that, he could maybe be 75 percent when he came back, but you are not going to do us any good at 75 percent. The risk/reward definitely wasn’t worth it. We didn’t want to have another setback.”

Richardson said he plans to get Allen the ball any way he can in an offensive filled with big playmakers including wide receiver Kevin Redo, a Nicholls State commitment, and Peyton Kyle, Garrick, and sophomore quarterback Brody Anderson.

“He was our one guy last year that was really explosive,” Richardson said. “We are kind of moving him around some.

“We know he can make big plays for us. We are trying to develop more, and I really think we have three or four guys that can make big plays for us now. He is probably going to be more of a receiver. We are going to make sure we do things to get him the football, whether that be on some speed sweeps or put him in the backfield and throw him the ball. He is really explosive out in space, and he can really make some plays. He is a big enough guy; he can be your running back too.”