Why A Romeoville Basketball Player Was Shouted Out A Star Student

ROMEOVILLE, IL — Star Students are found in classrooms, on concert and theater stages and at debate lecterns, and out in the community doing good things to make life better for all of us.

Here at Patch, we've launched an initiative to help recognize Star Students, and we're working to tell the stories of these outstanding kids to their neighbors.

This submission comes from Debra Harrison, who nominated her daughter, Tykara, of Romeoville.

Star student name

Tykara

Star student home state

Illinois

Star student Patch town

Romeoville

How do you know the star student?

Daughter

Why do you believe the star local student should be recognized?

Tykara is a student-athlete whose journey started at a very young age just playing around in the community summer event against many boys. The contest was shooting basketball and the one with the most points won, Tykara joined the contest and there were many others, and behold, this young lady beat everyone. To our surprise, we saw a hidden gem, so her dad enrolled her at the local Romeoville Recreation Center, and she blossomed from there. Middle school was her next big challenge. She tried out for the team and made it, gaining many fans and even the high school coaches had her on their radar. They attended many games, and let it be known that she will be a great fit on their high school team.

Tykara led her team to a championship in middle school, Tykara played on travel basketball teams, made team captain, MVP, All-Star team, and many tournaments at different schools for holidays. She always came out on top, being the MVP of the tournament. Tykara was one of the first girl basketball players at Romeoville High Schoolto go on and play D1 basketball. As a freshman, it's hard to get playing time, so her spirit was a little down because she couldn’t play the sport she loved so much at the pace she wanted to, so she gave up that dream to play D1 and came back close to home and played NAIA at the University of St. Francis in Joliet. Tykara had an awesome 2nd year playing on the women's basketball team, once again many fans from the young to the old who came out to support every home game. Tykara ended her second year with a bang. she made second team All-Conference with 15 points per game average.

Tykara was an AB student, but she still returned home during the summer and went back to the high school and help train and work out with the girls' basketball team. She gave back by giving up her free time to support the girls and help coach them up and to also learn what it’s like to be a great coach assistant, and she attended a few games to help out when she could. Tykara still found time to go support the high school game while still playing basketball with her basketball schedule. Tykara will help anyone who needs it, she attends church every Sunday, provided she is free. Tykara even started her own brand called Lady Ballers Playground.

What's one thing you want everyone to know about the star local student?

Tykara has a heart of gold, she’s very talented and respectful, and she puts God ahead of her life before anything else.