Tyson getting another shot

Richard Anderson photo
Laramie High School girls' basketball head coach Rod Tyson watches a scrimmage Thursday night with some of his players.

By Richard Anderson
Wyoming Sports.org

Rod Tyson had it all planned. One more year of coaching the Laramie Junior High School ninth grade girls’ basketball team and then switch over to coach the boys -- with his son, Jareel, going into the eighth grade.

But Laramie girls’ head coach Bruce Schmidt resigned after last season and suddenly those plans went by the wayside.

Tyson’s daughter, Yalandra, was going into her sophomore season, and the tug to go for the Lady Plainsmen head job was too tough to ignore.

So now, the former Plainsmen all-state player, the former Wyoming Cowboy, was taking his second shot at being a head coach for Laramie High -- he coached the Plainsmen in the mid 1990s.

“We had it worked out. I was going to start working with the boys and work my way through that program,“ Tyson said after a late practice on Thursday. “But Coach Schmidt resigned and the girls wanted me to coach. I’ll coach for at least four years ... I’m going to try.”

Tyson is certainly no stranger to youth girls’ basketball, as he as been involved for several years, starting up again when his oldest daughter, Brittany, now a freshman in college, was in seventh grade. When he started the Laramie Youth Girls’ Basketball Program, they had seven girls. Now, they number in the fifties.

“Hopefully, it pays off,“ Tyson said. “We have a lot of girls who have worked hard. Some of them stopped to do other sports. It was a great experience for them and they learned a lot. It helps them in every sport.”

Because of his familiarity with the youth girls' program, stepping in as varsity head coach wasn’t too much of a transition.

“It really doesn’t seem so different, mainly because I have coached these girls for so long,” Tyson said. “Maybe if I would have come in and didn’t know the girls, it would be a little different. Most of the teams, we have played before. I’m just coaching now instead of watching them the last couple of years.”

Tyson was part of the last Plainsmen team to win a state basketball title in 1985. After beginning his coaching career in 1989 for then Lady Plainsmen head coach Paul Street, Tyson took over the Plainsmen program in the mid 1990s and struggled to get it going.

In his second stint as head coach, it might be a classic case of, “if I knew then what I know now.” Tyson said he is not near as cocky now as he was then as a young coach.

“It’s not about me as I used to think back then,” he said. “When you come out of college, you think you are an unbreakable type. You know, it’s ‘my way, boom, boom, boom.’ But there are other ways.”

Tyson credits many of the coaches he played for or coached under for guiding him. That goes back to high school under Dennis Diehl and Dale Parker, to his college coaches -- Jim Brandenburg and Benny Dees -- to Street and Schmidt.

“I’ve learned a little bit from everybody,” Tyson said. “That sort of makes who I am now as a coach, as opposed to being, 'it is going to be my way, too bad.' I try to adapt every day, I try to learn every day. I learn more form the girls. It’s not all about winning. It’s about enjoying the game and loving the game. Hopefully, they can enjoy it and we can do both.”

The biggest thing Tyson said he wants his players to do is believe in themselves. He said that if a player works hard, good things will happen. And of course, they need to play defense.

“If there is any individual out there who thinks they are better than the team, then we are never going to be any good.,” he said. “If you can’t get along with your team, I can’t work with you. That is the only way I can have it. The big goal for our team is to get better every day. I think we did that last week (at the McDonald‘s Invitational in Cheyenne). Against Kelly Walsh, it was probably the worst I had seen these girls play. We came back and played well against Rock Springs. We played really well against Natrona and played really well against Star Valley.”

The Lady Plainsmen finished 2-2 in the opening tournament and will host a three-game round-robin tournament Friday and Saturday at the LHS gym. Laramie hosts Skyline (Longmont, Colo.) Friday at 7:15 p.m., with Niwot, Colo., Saturday at 10:30 a.m. and Lander at 2 p.m.

To watch the Lady Plainsmen these days, you might need a program. Tyson likes to play as many kids as he can.

“I think we are pretty deep, talent-wise, but not with experience,” he said. “If there is any chance I can get those younger ones some experience, then I need them in there. It just helps our team get better.”

Tyson relies on his seniors for veteran leadership and his youngsters for a spark.

“I know what a lot of them can do. I try to rely on our seniors for leadership and sturdiness, but the younger girls are in there for speed and quickness. I like their aggressiveness,” he said. “If we put a younger group in, they may be smaller, but they are going to turn up the heat.”

Tyson has been involved in basketball for 37 years, nearly 20 as a coach. Even now as he has also been also coaching the LJHS eighth-grade team at the same time, it doesn’t get old.

“I enjoy it," Tyson said. “The kids are so different, so I get to work on different things in practice, trying to teach them.”

Thursday night in practice, Tyson scrimmaged his sophomores, juniors and seniors against a few male counterparts (non-basketball players at similar sizes). His girls more than held their own, and regardless of who was on the court, it was a team effort.

“All of our kids get along and the root for each other. If a couple of girls make a couple of good move, it gets them going,” Tyson said. “They like to have fun, and the only way to play basketball is to have fun. I’m pretty serious and tough on the girls, but I try to be as fair as possible. If they are working hard, they should get the opportunity at crunch time to see what they can do.”