There was wisdom in his words, sure. But it wasn't necessarily what Dev Ostrowski was saying the other night. It was the way he said them. It was how he sounded, those inimitable wisps of joy that come with the rewards of faith.

And yes, Dev Ostrowski, among the most popular young men to ever hit our corner of the world, the East Lyme whiz kid whose basketball career ended long before it should have, is over the moon in Miami now, healthy and happy and hopeful.

"This is a lot different than East Lyme," Ostrowski said, alluding to the rhythms of his new digs, Miami Dade Junior College, where he scored 16 points in the season opener last week. "We went to Daytona the other day. It was 69 degrees and I actually felt cold."

Ostrowski, already drawing interest from Division I schools (Hawaii is the latest), plays for NFA grad Chris Vincent, a member of the Miami Dade coaching staff. Vincent reports that Ostrowski is up at 5 a.m. every day running on the beach. It's helpful, considering that Dev says the plan at Miami Dade is to run, press, run and press a little more, only the best way ever to play basketball.

But basketball is a mere backdrop for Ostrowski's inspiring voyage of self-discovery. He scored 2,000 points at East Lyme and did it sans any hint of self-indulgence. Put it this way: If you ever need to know how to act in the sporting arena, just look at whatever Dev is doing at the time.

And yet the universe appeared cruel to him during his high school years, imposing appendicitis, which robbed him of the ever-important time between junior and senior year for aspiring basketball players. Then came senior year, the kid almost singlehandedly responsible for sustaining the swell of fan interest in the region, this time with a season-ending foot injury in February.

Ostrowski isn't merely physically heathier now. He has come to understand the meaning of this quote from a philosopher named Debasish Mridha: "Remember that everything that is happening around you, good or bad, is in some way conspiring to help you."

"The thing I learned throughout all this is that everything happens for a reason," Ostrowski said. "We have to find that reason. But when we understand that things happen for a reason, it helps you get through life not just on the basketball court. I look at things differently now. If I know it's happening for a reason, it helps me stay positive."

And so, it turns out that Romans 8:28 – "all things work together for good" is as true as it is Biblical. Maybe we just don't see the good at the time.

It was here in the conversation that Ostrowski learned of the recent injury to Payton Sutman, the Waterford High senior whose football season ended last week with serious injuries to his leg and ankle. Sutman, who helped the Lancers win state basketball and baseball titles last season, has a friend in a former rival.

"When I get home again, I'll make sure I talk to him," Ostrowski said. "The thing I'll tell Payton is that when you have something like this happen, you can't think too big. What I mean is that you take it one day at a time. If you start thinking about how long the healing process takes, you get overwhelmed.

"Take it one day and one moment at a time. Notice the progress in little things. It happened for a reason, so find that reason and be better because of it. The other thing I'd say is that when you notice how much time you have on your hands, you realize how much time you used to waste doing things that don't matter."

Dev Ostrowski never spent more conscious moments in his life than during his recovery time. And while the world around him lamented his bad luck, he found the good, riding the wave of faith all the way to sunny Florida.

Sutman, too, will make his way back. Hopefully, he's as conscious during the process as the kid who used to dunk on the Lancers routinely.

This is no happy ending for Dev The Whiz Kid. That's because there's no ending in sight. But it's sure been a happy process.

This is the opinion of Day sports columnist Mike DiMauro