Thomas verbally commits to Guilford
Published 10:07 am Thursday, November 16, 2017
Tyler Thomas has established where chapters of his story on the basketball court will be written after high school.
The Fuqua School standout point guard verbally committed to play for Guilford College on Nov. 6.
“It feels really good just knowing that it’s all over, and I can play my senior year and not have any worries about the recruiting process and worrying about who’s at my games and all that stuff,” Thomas said.
Now on the cusp of his senior season at Fuqua, Thomas began playing basketball around the age of 6. He was exposed to the game at an early age thanks to his father, Fuqua Athletic Director and Head Varsity Boys Basketball Coach Charles Thomas, who is entering his 29th year coaching basketball.
“I remember going to my dad’s practices and games and just thinking that I wanted to be on that stage and be able to do something like that, and it’s always been a goal of mine to play college basketball,” Tyler said.
Pleased to see his son commit to Guilford, Charles Thomas said, “It’s something he’s worked really hard towards. It’s something that we didn’t talk about a lot because it was like one of those things where you don’t want to talk about it a lot. You just want to keep working towards it and see what happens. But I’m just proud of him and what he’s been able to accomplish.”
The elder Thomas noted that he and his son dedicated this past summer “to getting out and getting on campus and seeing schools and talking to coaches and trying to figure out what was the best fit for him.”
Tyler said that among the schools he was considering were Sewanee: The University of the South, in Tennessee, North Carolina Wesleyan College, Roanoke College, Guilford, Randolph College and Hampden-Sydney College.
He got his first in-person exposure to Guilford over the summer when he visited for a team camp.
“So I got to play pickup games at night with their players after team camp, and then I came back up in October for an overnight trip.”
He said he really liked the school a lot, “and the players on the team, I really enjoyed being around them, and it just felt like it was a good fit as far as my playing style and how they like to play and just what was needed at the time for my recruiting class as a point guard…”
On the academic side, Thomas said he plans to major in sports management.