Growing up as the son of two college basketball players, Ty Harrelson seemed destined to pursue a future on the hardwood.
“It was kinda in the family, but I did play other sports,” he said. “I enjoyed playing football and baseball and golf every now and then, but I think I started to see a lot of success with basketball and I had a real passion to play.”
Under the guidance of his father, Harrelson had a historic high school career. He scored 2,786 career points, which at the time put him 18th on the all-time Texas scoring list.
“We moved back to Texas and I was able to play for him, so I learned a lot,” Harrelson said. “I watched a lot of video, again I was very passionate about it, had a great senior year and was able to go into college basketball.”
After two colleges in as many seasons, Harrelson finally found a home at Wayland Baptist, where he became one of the best players in program history.
“To be quite honest, it was a turning point in my career. I got really focused,” said Harrelson. “A little bit that I had lost in those first two years bouncing around, I really got back while I was here at Wayland.”
And that’s what he did, becoming Wayland’s first ever NAIA First Team All-American. This led to a 12 year career overseas, before he got a call to come back to Plainview.
“To me, to get to come back and coach at Wayland was an honor,” he said.
It’s been his home ever since where he’s built successful basketball teams, but more importantly successful young men who will remember their lessons they learned at Wayland forever.
“What we’re trying to do is build character, character for post basketball life. Hopefully we challenged them and they can handle anything moving on from here,” said Harrelson. “Some of the comments and the feedback that you get, ‘this was the best experience,’ I think that’s really exciting to see a former player, knowing that I’ve had a positive impact on their life.”
