When he was in sixth grade, a young Tyquane Goard had no idea he would have a future in basketball. In fact, the 6-foot-8 George Washington forward was cut from his sixth grade basketball team.
“I tried it when I was real little, but it wasn’t my thing; I was a playground kid,” said Goard. “I just loved to play outside, ride bikes and that’s what I did.”
Goard admits athletics wasn’t the first thing on his mind when he was a kid. He couldn’t even make a layup to save his life. Flash forward six years later, he is coming off a state championship victory over Wheeling Park and is one of the most dominant post players in the state.
Goard credits his brother, Tyrone, as the guy who helped him develop his skills. Tyrone is currently playing football for Eastern Kentucky University and was a standout basketball player for the Capital Cougars.
“I really didn’t play sports well,” said Goard. “I actually quit and began playing again in the seventh grade. My brother just talked to me and he just said ‘go for it.’”
After some hard work with his brother Goard made the team in seventh grade, but still didn’t take the game too seriously and didn’t get much playing time. In the eighth grade he started, and his team went 19-0. It was then that the future Division I prospect realized he could do well in basketball.
Now Goard is on his way to Athens, Ohio to play basketball for the Ohio University Bobcats. Goard is still in disbelief that he ended his high school career with a state championship, which is something his brother was never able to do.
Goard averaged 17 points per game during the season and he got the majority of those points from inside the paint. The future Bobcat knows he has to work on his shot and gain about 30 pounds to be able to compete in the MAC conference, but GW head coach Rick Greene feels that by the time Goard’s college career is over with he will have been one of the greatest players to play for the Patriots.
“He will by far be head and shoulders above anybody else that’s come out of here in the last 7-8 years,” said Greene. “I don’t think he’s close to how good he’ll be. He really shoots the ball well, but he hasn’t groomed his stroke yet. If he catches it and shoots and everything is alright from 15-16 feet it’s pretty.”
So Goard has gone from a player who barely made his middle school basketball team to one of the best players in the state and quite possibly one of the best players that Greene has ever coached. He admits that Goard has a skill set that he’s seen in very few athletes.
“The combination of his athletic IQ and his athleticism and he just wanted to win,” explained Greene. “I personally think he got over looked for some of the awards because he just didn’t look good stat wise on paper.”
Goard did get one award that only one team gets each year and that’s a state championship.
Goard now jokes with his brother about doing some things he never did on the court and his brother and friends still remind him of how far he’s come since middle school.
“They just talked to me like ‘man I remember when you couldn’t even make a layup and now look at you, you’re going to OU,’”