By Duane Cochran
For the Times West Virginian
FAIRMONT —
Ty Garrison literally grew up watching Fairmont State University basketball.
Now the standout Fairmont Senior High School player and former FSU ball boy has a chance to realize his dream of playing for the Falcons.
FSU head coach Tim Murphy announced Monday that Garrison, a 6-3, 170-pound guard, will join the Falcons as a freshman this fall.
“The great thing about Ty is he has grown up around our program,” said Murphy. “I mean the kid literally has been watching our basketball teams play since he was a baby. He’s a good kid who comes from a great family and that’s the type of player we want in our program. Anytime we can get a local kid with potential we’re excited about it and we’re certainly happy to have him join us.”
Garrison, who was one of Fairmont State’s ball boys all through grade school and into middle school, enjoyed a solid junior season in high school for the Polar Bears when he led the squad in 3-point field goals and garnered honorable mention Class AAA All-State honors. He then enjoyed a breakout senior season this past winter when he helped lead Fairmont Senior to a 16-5 record, averaged 20.0 points per game, was named third-team Class AAA All-State and was both the North Central Athletic Conference and All-Mon Valley Player of the Year.
“It’s a little crazy for me to think that I’m actually going to have the chance to play for Fairmont State,” said Garrison, who plans on majoring in pre-pharmacy at FSU. “I grew up dreaming about one day playing for the Falcons, but I really didn’t think that dream would come true. I’ll tell you, though, it feels great for me to be given this opportunity and I just hope I can make the most of it.”
Like most true freshman Garrison has a plethora of things to work on to prepare himself for the game at the college level.
“Obviously we feel like his best basketball is ahead of him,” said Murphy. “What we want to do with him is see what’s going to happen with him and how he’s going to develop in the future.
“Like any freshman he’s going to have to go through an adjustment period to get himself ready and prepared for the game at the college level. He needs to get stronger, bigger and quicker and develop his game in all areas. We’ve talked with him about that and he seems very willing to put the work in to do that.”
Garrison, who scored 12 points for the North on a 4-of-7 shooting performance from 3-point range in a 108-94 loss to the South in the annual North-South All-Star Game in Charleston this past June, says he knows he has a lot of hard work ahead of him, but is prepared to be patient as a player.
“I know it’s a big adjustment,” he said. “Going up there and playing with those guys this past spring a few times really opened my eyes and showed me that the game in college is on a whole other level.
“To be real honest I had a hard time getting shots off. In high school I could wait, get set and then shoot. You can’t do that in college. You’ve got to be ready to shoot almost before you get the ball. I’ve got to work on getting my shot off a lot quicker, I’ve got to get a lot stronger and I’ve got to get quicker as a player so I can become a better defender. If you can’t defend you’re not going to get on the floor in college.
“I know I have a lot of work ahead of me, but I’ve been going to the Hit Center lifting and working on my speed. I’m prepared to be patient. I know I have to be. If I have to watch the whole first year and learn and work on my game I’m ready to do that. I’m just very excited about this opportunity. Fairmont has a great program. They made the national tournament last year and I think this year we can be just as successful. We have a lot of talent returning.”
