By Ethan Moore, Sports Reporter.
Tyler Ellis, a 22-year-old marketing major, is no stranger to success and brings a winning attitude and insatiable scoring ability to a young Delta team. Ellis was born in Detroit where he grew up in a family who played basketball and inspired him to do the same.
“I first got my start in basketball around age four. I have four older brothers… every day I would watch them and their friends play all sports so I fell in love with it,” says Ellis.
Ellis went to high school at Bay City Western. There he was the starting point guard for the most successful team in the school’s history, and made it all the way to the state semifinals. This may be his first year here at Delta, but after watching game footage of last year’s team, he’s excited about their prospects.
“I think the biggest difference in the team is the athleticism added to this year’s team and raw talent that can be wdeveloped into something special,” says Ellis.
Ellis himself still has loads of potential as was evident in the 96-99 overtime loss to Lansing Community College. He scored 34 points on 11 for 17 from the field and 8 for 11 from the charity stripe. Personally, he’s starting to see results from his work in the offseason from one year to the next.
“The biggest difference in my game this year is adding more muscle to help take contact and knocking down more shots,” explains Ellis.
While he and the rest of the team have national title aspirations, Ellis tries to keep perspective for the rest of his life going forward.
“Basketball will end for me one day and I want to have the personal skills and teamwork that I learned from basketball and apply that to my everyday life,” says Ellis.
