Talk about drive and determination. 

For the past few years, we’ve had the privilege of working with WSU’s starting guard Tyson Etienne, who is not your typical college athlete. 

At the age of 22, he’s already doing things to up his game that go well beyond practicing basketball. The way this student athlete prioritizes recovery, sleep, and having a strong mindset are true outliers for most college athletes. 

It was not surprising that he was named. 2021-2022 American Athletic Conference Co-Player of the Year, First Team All-AAC, and NABC First Team All-District 24. 

He’s also a three-time AAC Player of the Week and been named to the AAC Honor Roll five times. 

See more of his accomplishments here. 

The most impressive things we learned about Tyson while working with him is that he’s a good human being who is helpful and genuinely thoughtful and caring toward others. It is so obvious that he is motivated by a set of core values and feverishly adheres to them. 

Tyson tells us one of his proudest accomplishments was winning the conference with WSU in 2021. 

“It was such a fulfilling experience to share in that with my teammates and coaches, knowing the battle we fought each day and how we continued to prove a lot of people wrong to ultimately win a conference in which we were projected to finish 7th in,” he says.

Personal development and growth keep him moving forward with his training. 

“I train like I do because I intend to be the best,” he says. “And in order to be the best you have to be the best version of yourself each day. So instead of comparing myself to another individual, I compare myself to me and my progress.”

“Don’t judge the finished product based on the start,” he continues. “I find that you gain more confidence knowing that you’ve prepared for the time to perform.”

His best advice for others is to never give up.

“You can’t give up when it’s hard because that’s the indication that something beautiful is on its way. It seems cliche, but it’s the truth,” he says. “There have been plenty of times in my life where things may have started out looking unpromising, but the genius thing I did in those situations was to not stop pounding the stone and trust that everything happens exactly as it’s supposed to.” 

Even working with Tyson consistently for a few years, we still learned some surprising things about him. For starters,Tyson says he enjoys listening to Christmas music in the middle of July. 

“It’s a crazy thing, but something about it helps me relax.” 

Also, he may be a bit of a daredevil and would like to try skydiving one day. “ I don’t know if it will ever happen but it does look exhilarating.”

Whatever the future holds for Tyson Ettienne, we know that he will be successful and we wish him nothing but the best.