Living his boyhood dream, Lyon County’s Travis Perry is a Sweet Sixteen throwback
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2022 Boys’ Sweet 16 basketball preview
Click below to view more content from the Lexington Herald-Leader and Kentucky.com previewing the boys’ state high school basketball tournament to be held March 16-19 in Rupp Arena in Lexington.
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I cannot tell you who will win the 104th Kentucky boys’ basketball state tournament.
However, I am confident in predicting which team will become the sentimental choice for neutral fans this week when the UK HealthCare Boys Sweet 16 takes over Rupp Arena at Central Bank Center.
In a state that relishes its hoops history of small-school Davids slaying big-school Goliaths, Lyon County — with a high school enrollment of 259 — will be in Rupp this week as the 2nd Region champion.
When Coach Ryan Perry’s Lyons (28-6) tip off against 5th Region champ John Hardin (25-9) Thursday around 1:30 p.m., it will be the first Sweet 16 appearance for Lyon County since 1951.
“I’ll be surprised if most of (the population of) Lyon County doesn’t end up in Rupp Arena to watch us play,” Ryan Perry says.
For those state tournament fans with vivid memories of Richie Farmer and Chris Lofton and an affinity for high-scoring, sweet-shooting backcourt players, Lyon County has that covered, too.
As Travis Perry moves toward the end of his sophomore season, the 6-foot-2 guard has one of the revered records in Kentucky boys’ basketball within his sights.
No high school boys’ basketball player in our state has ever scored more career points than the 4,337 that 1950s Eastern Kentucky icon “King” Kelly Coleman registered at Wayland High School.
Having been a high school varsity starter since seventh grade, Travis Perry already has 3,142 career points — and two more years of high school hoops eligibility left after this season to amass the 1,196 points he needs to shatter Coleman’s mark.
“I don’t really think about (breaking Coleman’s scoring record) that much,” Travis Perry says. “I’m just trying to win games, focus on the next game ahead.”
Ryan Perry, Travis’ father, says he and wife Jami, a primary care physician and University of Kentucky College of Medicine graduate, first suspected basketball was going to play a large role in their son’s future when Travis was around 4.
The family had built a new house “and we had long hallways of hardwood (floors),” Ryan Perry says.
When Travis Perry would get home from kindergarten, he did not watch cartoons or play video games.
“He would dribble (a basketball) up and down the hallway, with his right hand, then his left hand, all night long,” Ryan Perry says. “Most kids that age would be watching cartoons and stuff, but Travis would just dribble a basketball back and forth until we made him go to bed at night. It was crazy.”
Travis would soon prevail on his parents to mount a regulation-size backboard and rim in a spare room in their house.
“I asked Dad to put it up there,” Travis Perry says. “Mom agreed to it, just knowing how I loved basketball. I eventually moved my bed into that room. I had hardwood on the floor, a goal, a pretty nice gig.”
By the time Travis was in the seventh grade, then-Lyon County head coach Jeff Embrey installed him as a varsity starter.
Travis averaged 20.6 points for Lyon County that year as a seventh-grader.
“Coach Embrey pretty much gave him the basketball and told him to go play,” Ryan Perry says.
Now, schools such as Creighton, Mississippi and New Orleans have already offered Travis Perry scholarships. Murray State, Western Kentucky, Belmont, Iowa, Loyola, Purdue, Wisconsin and Virginia, among others, have also made recruiting contact.
‘Ty’ to the past
In between its state tournament teams of 1951 and 2022, Lyon County basketball had one other great claim to fame.
In the 2008 NCAA Tournament, Lyon County product Ty Rogers drained a three-point shot just ahead of the final buzzer to give Western Kentucky a 101-99 overtime win over favored Drake in the round of 64.
Assuming good health, Travis Perry will soon pass Rogers (3,330 career points) as Lyon County’s all-time leading scorer.
“I didn’t ever get to see him play,” Travis Perry says of Rogers. “I’ve seen a lot of highlights of him, heard a lot about him.”
Now living in Louisville and working in pharmaceutical sales, Rogers keeps a close eye on his high school alma mater. He plans to be in Rupp Arena when Lyon County plays John Hardin.
Asked whether he thinks the bigger thrill for Lyon County residents was his NCAA tourney buzzer beater or the current Lyons winning the 2nd Region, Rogers laughs.
“I’d say there is no doubt. Them winning the region and going to Rupp Arena would win that poll for sure,” Rogers says.
Although comparing Lyon County’s two 3,000-point scorers is irresistible, Rogers says he and Travis Perry were/are very different players.
“Honestly, (Perry) probably does more on the floor than I did,” Rogers says. “I was a little bit more of a three-point shooter. I think he has the ability to play the point and make plays for his teammates.”
Living the dream
Though 6-5 senior Jackson Shoulders (19.6 ppg, 10.4 rpg) is a star-caliber player, three sophomores — Travis Perry (27.7 ppg), Jack Reddick (10.6 ppg) and Brady Shoulders (8.9 ppg, 7.9 rpg — form Lyon County’s nucleus.
Ryan Perry has been bringing those three sophomores to the Sweet 16 with him to watch since they were little.
“Every year, we’ve been saying, ‘Eventually, we are going to be playing in it,’” Travis Perry says. “It’s always been a huge goal of ours, when we get to high school and be able to play in Rupp and be the players out on the court that all the little kids in the stands are looking up to and wishing to be in the future.”
So if you like to cheer for a state tourney team whose key players boast an appreciation for what the state tournament means to Kentucky, Lyon County has that, too.
This story was originally published March 15, 2022 at 1:21 PM.
