Thomas: 'Relationships are most important wins'

Tim Thomas credited his mother for being the biggest influence on his highly-successful basketball coaching career.
 
"My determination and a big part of who I am as a man, and a coach, comes from her.
She inspired me to coach the kids hard but to love them even harder," Thomas said. "Relationships are the best part and the most important wins that a coach can have."
 
Thomas, a former Wayland Baptist Pioneer basketball player and assistant coach, will receive the Harley Redin Coach's Award on Saturday during a ceremony beginning at 9 a.m. at the Laney Center. Also at that time, six people – Brad Bass, Todd Jeffress, Kim Kayler Clemmons, Dr. Sylvia Nadler, and Joe & Freda Provence – will be inducted into the WBU Athletics Hall of Honor. Admission is free. Live streaming will be available at www.wbuathletics.com/watch.
 
Named in honor of Wayland's most successful basketball coach, the Harley Redin Coach's Award recognizes a WBU alumnus who has demonstrated outstanding success as a head coach at the university or public/private school level. The recipient also is recognized for outstanding contributions to community, school and church.
 
This is the first time the award will be presented since Redin's death at age 100 on Aug, 10, 2020.
 
"I'm thankful that I had a chance to meet and get to know Harley Redin. He was such an all-around great person and, of course, a coaching icon," Thomas said. "What an unsuspected, incredible honor."
 
Thomas is the 10^th person to receive the Redin Award, which was started in 2000.
 
A member of the WBU Athletics Hall of Honor since 2003, Thomas – a native of Montgomery, Ala. – played basketball at Wayland for two seasons from 1983-85 after transferring from Clarendon College. He played all four seasons under current Texas Tech coach Mark Adams. As a senior Thomas earned honorable mention all-American honors while helping the Pioneers to the NAIA national championship game. With 1,111 points in just two seasons, he ranks 31^st on the program's all-time scoring list.
 
Thomas, who received his Bachelor of Science degree in physical education and mathematics before earning his Master's at Texas Tech, then served as assistant coach for the Pioneers for two seasons under then head coach and former athletics director Rick Cooper, who won this award in 2002. Thomas also worked as an assistant coach at Central Florida and Texas-Pan American before going on to become a highly-successful high school boys coach with more than 500 wins over 20 years.
 
Among those Thomas thanked were Adams and Cooper, along with "former teammates and college friends who have supported me throughout the years, (and) the many talented players and assistant coaches who have been with me through this incredible journey."
 
Thomas has been a high school head coach at Amarillo Palo Duro, Lubbock Estacado, Temple, Cedar Hill, Fort Bend Hightower, Odessa Permian and now Fort Worth Southwest. His teams have claimed 10 district championships and appeared in the regional tournament nine times, with five Final 8 showings.
 
Thomas was named Texas Association of Basketball Coaches Class 6A Coach of the Year in 2010 and a finalist for the award two years ago.

"By the will of God I will…continue to try to live up to what this award means: what it means as a coach, what it (meant) to Coach Redin and the distinguished group of men and women who have received the award in the past."
   
Harley Redin Coach's Award Recipients
2000: Joe Lombard
2001: Marsha Sharp
2002: Rick Cooper
2003: Danny Wrenn
2008: Marsha Porter
2012: Chris Kennedy
2017: Ray Murphree
2018: Valerie Goodwin-Colbert
2019: Brandon Schneider
2020: Tim Thomas.