Ty Yoder’s basketball roots can be traced back to Indiana, the home of Larry Bird, “Hoosiers” and hoops madness.
His father, Ryan Yoder, was a star at Westview High School in Topeka, Ind., and then played college ball at Colorado State. Ryan, a member of the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame’s 2015 Silver Anniversary Team, is now Ty’s head coach.
Ty’s uncle, Russell “Rusty” Yonder, also starred at Westview before playing at South Alabama.
No wonder Ty feels he has a destiny to fulfill as the junior point guard for Resurrection Christian High School in Loveland.
The Cougars entered last season as the top-ranked team in Class 4A but lost to 17th-seeded Holy Family, 53-43, in the championship game. The loss lingers.
“We have the feeling that we let ourselves down,” Ty said.
Senior center Jacob Barker, who’s committed to Metro State, was more blunt.
“We have a little bit of a chip on our shoulders, so to speak, knowing we should have won that game but we didn’t,” Barker said.
The Cougars enter this season again ranked No. 1 in 4A but are taking nothing for granted.
During a recent CHSAA media day, Ryan fielded questions about his team’s philosophy. The coach was speaking to reporters, but he seemed to be sending a message to the Cougars’ four team captains in attendance — Marcus Phillips, Cade Crutcher, Barker, and his son.
“We’ve got a theme this year — humble and hungry,” the coach said. “Humble, knowing that we are blessed to be able to play and coach a game we love. And hungry, knowing that there is no guarantee we’ll get back just because we were there last year. We aren’t taking it for granted.”
Ryan played at Colorado State from 1990-94, the first year for Boyd “Tiny” Grant, and the last three for Stew Morrill. Ryan was a sharp-shooting, 5-foot-10 point guard who averaged 13.1 points and 6.7 assists per game as a senior. Beyond the stats, he emerged as the team leader and a conductor on the floor.
It came as no surprise to Morrill that Ryan would end up being a high school coach.
“You love to see guys like Ryan become coaches because he’s great with the kids and he’s going to teach them to play the game the right way,” said Morrill, who spent five years as the head coach at Montana, seven at CSU and is last 17 at Utah State before he retired after the 2014-15 season.
“In 29 years as a head coach at three universities, I probably had four or five guys that I could look at and say, ‘OK, this guy would be an excellent coach,’ ” Morrill continued. “Ryan was certainly at the top of that list.”
Morrill, who now lives in Windsor, has watched the Cougars become a state power under his former player. He’s also intrigued by Ty’s potential. As he should be.
Ty burst on the scene as a freshman when the Cougars went 19-6 and advanced to the Class 3A Great 8. He led the Cougars in points (14.5), assists (4.9) and steals (1.3). Faith Christian lost to Aspen, the eventual state champions, in the quarterfinals.
Last season, despite an injury and a late-season illness, he averaged 17.3 points and 3.7 assists per game. He also made 82 of 89 free throws, good for 92%, ranking second among all 4A players with at least 36 makes from the line.
Ty is expected to be the floor leader for the Cougars, who have made unselfishness their mantra.
“We want to take our game to a higher level by sharing the ball,” Ryan said. “It’s about creating plays for each other, creating shots for each other. Being even more unselfish than these guys already are.”
“I watched the (CSU) Rams score 105 points against a great Wright State team the other night,” the coach said. “I was admiring how everybody got touches. That is the mindset we have to have. How do we get everybody involved?
“There has got to be a level of sacrifice because any one of these boys could score 25-30 points a night if we need them to. But we are looking to build a team.”
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