As a freshman at Waubonsie Valley, Tyreek Coleman took his first engineering class.
The 6-foot-2 junior point guard now knows what he wants to do when he gets to college — he wants to play basketball for sure, but he also wants to pursue engineering as his major.
“In a class this year we’ve worked on different projects,” he said. “We just built a bridge.”
The bridge to success for the Warriors this season was built on the superlative foundational efforts of Coleman, the 2023-24 Beacon-News/Courier-News Boys Basketball Player of the Year.
Waubonsie (27-3) opened the season with a 23-game winning streak, including tournament titles at Batavia and Jacobs. The Warriors also won their first conference championship in 21 years.
Coleman, who has a 3.7 GPA, also led Waubonsie to a regional title before the playoff run ended with a 41-28 loss to Downers Grove North in the Class 4A East Aurora Sectional semifinals.
Throughout the process, Coleman stepped up.
“He’s our floor general,” Waubonsie coach Andrew Schweitzer said.
Coleman, who was chosen third team all-state by the IBCA and honorable mention by the media, averaged 14.7 points, 4.5 rebounds and 3.5 assists. He shot 52.8%, including 40.7% from three.
Time and time again, Coleman displayed many of the top skills generally accepted for being a successful engineer, no matter what your specialty in that wide-ranging industry.
Problem solving, creativity, passion and enthusiasm in addition to communication, teamwork and leadership? Coleman checked off all of those boxes.
His parents, Todd Coleman and Farrah Watkins, are divorced and remarried. Tyreek has stepsiblings in both homes. His mom lives in Kentucky. Tyreek lived with her through eighth grade before coming to the Aurora to live with his dad for high school.
For his strong approach toward academics, Coleman credited his parents.
“They say in student-athlete that student comes first,” Tyreek said. “Without student there would be no athlete. My dad always says my basketball is something I do — it’s not my identity.
“It’s something right now. You always want to put yourself in the right spot to do good things in the future, and education is a good thing.”
And about building that bridge in his engineering class at Waubonsie? Attention to detail was important to successfully completing the project that both challenged and fascinated him.
It sounds much like his work on the boards for the Warriors that caused his coach to marvel.
“He has a unique ability when a shot goes up, he just springs and gets it,” Schweitzer said of Coleman. “He doesn’t look to check out. He does a great job.”
Coleman, no doubt, takes advantage of his 6-7 wingspan.
“I’ve never been measured,” Coleman said. “But (teammate) Moses Wilson has, and we just stood together and compared.”
Wilson, a 6-4 junior forward, and Coleman played on the wings at the top of Waubonsie’s 1-2-2 zone that gave opponents fits. They were flanked by 6-5 senior guard/forward Treshawn Blissett.
“I’ve never had my vertical jump measured either,” Coleman said. “I just kinda go and get it. I try to see how the ball is going to come off the rim and it’s just a matter of beating people the spot.”
Watching the high school games of cousins who were nine and seven years older, respectively, sparked Coleman’s interest in basketball.
By the time he reached junior high, he played up with the high school team’s JV and occasionally even with the varsity.
“That was very spare minutes at the end of a game, however,” Coleman said.
He wasn’t too keen about moving to Illinois
“I had visited my dad in summers and knew my neighborhood but didn’t really know the area,” Coleman said. “All my relationships now have come from people I met freshman year.”
He made the Waubonsie’s varsity as a sophomore but didn’t play AAU ball last summer due to a family decision. He started this season under the radar but made up for lost time.
“I was thinking missing the exposure would hurt me,” said Coleman, who was named MVP of the DuPage Valley Conference. “But it’s worked out.
“Seeing how this year played out, I received some recognition. All it takes is just winning and getting front of people.”
Playing with the Illinois Wolves this spring and summer, he’s sure to get even more.
And build even more of that bridge.
