Unselfish leader Tyson Gordon helps Skutt make Nebraska high school history
OMAHA, Neb. (BVM) — Tyson Gordon will forever be directly linked to one of the greatest runs of success a Nebraska high schooler has ever experienced in athletics.
Skutt Catholic High School claimed its second straight state title in football last fall by finishing 13-0 for the second consecutive year — a remarkable achievement in and of itself. But its basketball team made history for the school and the state this past winter when it finished off a 26-0 season, making Skutt the first Class B school to go undefeated in both football and boys basketball in the same school year since the current football playoff system was established over 40 years ago.
“It was just something else,” said Gordon, a senior starting quarterback/safety for the Skyhawks football team and the starting point guard for the basketball team. “It’s something I don’t really know how to explain. It just kind of happened.”
It happened thanks in large part to the unselfish leadership of Gordon, a three-sport star who will continue playing football as a safety for FCS powerhouse North Dakota State and leave behind a high school basketball career that he ended as Skutt’s all-time leader in scoring (1,432), assists (388) and steals (155). He was also a standout baseball player for the Skyhawks.
“You just don’t get athletes like him that come along every day that you say, ‘he can play baseball, football and basketball in college and at a high level,” Skutt head boys basketball coach Kyle Jurgens said.
Jurgens knew even before Gordon entered high school that he was going to have a special player joining his basketball program. While Gordon’s early-developed skills were clearly evident, his unselfishness also caught the attention of Jurgens when Gordon attended the team’s summer camp as an eighth grader.
“He was so much better than all of the other eighth graders,” Jurgens said. “He could’ve scored or taken over whenever he wanted to and that summer in camp he just passed the ball to everybody. He hardly ever shot. You just saw in him at a young age where not only does he have it physically, from a maturity standpoint he also gets it.”
Gordon was already starting for the Skyhawks’ basketball team as a freshman, and by his second year of high school was already developing into a leader on the court and the gridiron.
“Even when he was a sophomore starting for us on the varsity football field everybody kind of looked to him as a leader,” said Skutt head football coach Matt Turman, “which is kind of weird when an upperclassmen is looking toward an underclassmen to do that, but that was just kind of his personality.”
Gordon also began to understand early in his high school career that he was gaining the respect of his teammates despite being younger than many of them.
“Sophomore year in basketball I was having a pretty good year and people were listening to me, Gordon said. “That’s when I kind of realized I had leadership qualities and that people respected me just because I have a sense and feel for the game that not a lot of people have. That just kind of carried on throughout my high school career.”
Gordon always had a team-first mentality. He was the biggest Skyhawks scoring threat on the basketball court, but by the end of his junior year he had already broken the school record for assists. He also led the Skyhawks in receiving yards during his junior football season after approaching Coach Turman and offering to play wide receiver and running back instead of quarterback so that senior Ryan McCormick could start at QB.
“He said, ‘Coach, I think we’ll be a better team if Ryan and I are on the field at the same time,” Turman said. “It was really kind of his unselfishness that led to that. He wanted to get his teammates involved and do whatever it takes to win and that attitude spilled over to the rest of the team in football and basketball.”
Gordon’s unselfishness combined with his willingness to put in extra work made him an ideal player for teammates to look to as a leader.
“He’s super driven, too,” Jurgens said. “He’s talented and naturally gifted but he’s Tyson because he doesn’t just sit on those things. He works and he listens. He’s a good role model.”
Gordon will be joining a model football program in the fall at North Dakota State, which has captured the national championship in eight of the past nine seasons. And, like the Skyhawks, they haven’t lost a football game since 2017.
For Gordon, whose name will forever be synonymous with winning in high school, it was an ideal fit for him at the next level.
“The tradition speaks for itself,” Gordon said. “What better school for me to go to than there? I wanted to go somewhere that won a lot but also one where I had to compete for a job because I like to earn everything that I get.”
