How Sterling’s Tyus Wilson became the best US high school track and field high jumper
Only a handful of athletes have the ability to command the attention of the entire Cessna Stadium crowd at the Kansas high school state track and field meet. Even fewer have the moxie to deliver when the pressure is cranked to the fullest and every set of eyeballs is glued to their every move.
But Tyus Wilson is built different and that’s been evident for a long time now.
It seems improbable that the best high school high jumper in the United States hails from a Class 2A school in Kansas in a town with a population fewer than 3,000. Then you watch Wilson, a senior at Sterling, lead the entire crowd at Cessna Stadium in a slow clap just before it looks like he jumps off a trampoline to break the state meet record.
After watching how effortlessly explosive Wilson is, it suddenly becomes totally plausible that this 18-year-old from central Kansas is the one who cleared 7 feet 3 in a meet and earned a track and field scholarship at the University of Nebraska.
“Honestly, I think we’ve all kind of taken it for granted around here because we’ve seen it all the time,” Sterling basketball coach Derek Schneider said. “But it really is crazy, man. I think we all know we’re never going to see anything like him again around here.”
There were all sorts of different emotions in the stadium when Wilson soared over the bar at 7-2 to break the meet record and put an exclamation point on his Class 2A championship on May 29.
As soon as Wilson landed, he pointed up to the sky and celebrated the culmination of his four-year high school career with a fist pump swooshing through the air. The fans screamed in appreciation, as a rare meet record was broken with everyone watching. Everyone from the workers to fellow competitors to random athletes lucky enough to be on the infield to watch Wilson’s breath-taking performance made sure to congratulate him.
But perhaps the most interesting reaction came from Wilson’s father, Dwayne, who is his high school coach. Standing just feet away from where his son made history, Dwayne looked as if a tidal wave of relief had crashed over him.
“It’s just been very stressful,” Dwayne Wilson said. “I’ll be honest with you, he is beyond what I can take as a coach. I told the coach at Nebraska, I’m looking forward to him being your problem now because he’s exhausted everything that I know. It’s a little bit relieving knowing now someone else is going to be responsible for him.”
This realization has been a long time coming for Tyus’ parents, who knew their son was a special jumper when he was 11 years old and broke his age division’s national record at the 2014 AAU Junior Olympic Games.
Tyus wasn’t just dedicated to practicing the event — he was obsessed with the high jump. When he wasn’t jumping over baby trees planted in his family’s front yard, he was busy sketching drawings of high jump form or writing down his goals — as if he was trying to write them into existence.
“One day I saw him open up his notebook and he had drawn this person clearing the bar and it said, ‘Six foot’ and the meet he was going to clear it at,” Rene Wilson said. “That’s when I was like, ‘Oh wow, he’s got plans.’”
Once he began jumping in high school, Tyus kept meticulous notes of his performances. He maintained a spreadsheet where he recorded every attempt he’s ever made in a meet the past four years.
He has studied countless hours of film, always searching for one minor tweak he could make to his approach, to his J-curve, to his takeoff — any minuscule detail he could possibly add to allow him to go higher. He likes to studies the best in the USA like Erik Kynard and Jeron Robinson.
“Most kids are talking about LeBron James and NBA stars,” Dwayne Wilson said. “He can rattle off high jumpers like they’re common names. He really studies it.”
With a work ethic like his, Tyus could have always worked his way to become a good high jumper. But to enter the truly elite territory — his PR of 7-3, which ranks third all-time in Kansas history, would have won the Big Ten title this spring — he had to have some good luck with genetics to grow to be 6 foot 7 and to be able to jump like that.
His father, Dwayne, was a 6-foot-10 high jumper at Sterling College, where he met his wife, Rene (maiden name Zimmerman), who was the first female athlete in the history of the Kansas high school state track and field meet to win four gold medals twice in her career at Sterling in 1990 and 1991. In fact, Rene, who held five state meet records at one point, was inducted into the KSHSAA Hall of Fame during the same meet where her son broke the state meet record. Both of Tyus’ older sisters, Sydney and Taya, are also former state champions in the hurdles.
“It’s always nice to be remembered, but honestly today is all about him,” Rene said. “I’m very proud of all that he’s accomplished. To be honest, his form is way better than mine ever was and he’s able to use his speed way more than I ever did too. But really the most impressive thing to me is watching him work behind the scenes.”
If Tyus wasn’t pursuing a track and field career, he could also be a college basketball player. He led Sterling to its first back-to-back berths to the state tournament and finished with the school record for single-season scoring (510) and single-game scoring (48), thanks in part to some jaw-dropping dunks.
Before he went viral for his dunks, Tyus was already sending ripples across the state’s track and field community as a freshman when he cleared 7 feet in the high jump.
He immediately became a sensation at every track and field meet he went to. While receiving the adoration from achieving such an impressive feat at such an early age was nice, his father thinks going that high that soon was actually not the best thing for Tyus.
“In a lot of ways it was a curse,” Dwayne Wilson said. “Everybody wants to see him go over 7 feet at every meet we go to. People saw him go 7 feet as a freshman and they think he’s going to end up going 7-8. But that’s just not how it works. I think there was a lot of outside elements and pressure that came in on him after that.”
In hindsight, Tyus agreed with that assessment and, referencing his spreadsheet, pointed out that it took him more than two years to return to the 7-foot club after adjusting to his growth spurt and body maturation.
“There was definitely a lot of pressure to get back over 7 foot,” Tyus said. “That’s why I just try to get in my own zone and have some fun. Before the competition, I’ll try to stay loose and talk to the other guys. But when it’s go time, I like to zone in and focus on what I have to do.”
That’s what made Tyus’ record-breaking jump at his final state track and field meet all the more exhilarating.
After years of being weighed down by all of the pressure and hype, Tyus was ready to deliver when all eyes were on him. And with one last leap, he gave Kansas something to remember him for.
“This was so special, especially after not having the state meet last year,” said Wilson, who ended as a three-time state champion. “I’m so thankful for my parents. They’re the ones who put me on the right path for success and I can’t thank them enough for what they’ve done for me. I’m definitely going to miss this meet, but I’m excited to go to Nebraska and start training with them. It was really fun to have that feeling one last time though.”
This story was originally published June 8, 2021 at 6:00 AM.
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