Excited students and the members of the New London community gathered in the West Rusk High School gymnasium to watch alum Tyree Wilson get drafted as the 7th overall pick for the Las Vegas Raiders on Thursday night.
Anticipation grew between each pick, with the crowd’s rumbles growing louder every time a name was announced and it wasn’t Wilson’s. A few wanted the Houston Texans to pick him so he’d be closer to home but as the draft reached Las Vegas’ turn and everyone in the room realized that Wilson, a former West Rusk Raider and most recently a Texas Tech Red Raider, could become a Raider again, the moment felt serendipitous. The room erupted into cheers and hollers when Wilson’s NFL dream officially came true.
“Once a Raider, always a Raider!” some in the audience exclaimed.
Wilson’s family was with him in Kansas City but plenty more people who knew him well numbered among the draft party audience at home, including West Rusk ISD’s longtime school board president Sandra Smith.
“I’m so excited, so excited,” said Smith, beaming with pride. She recalled that Wilson was a very driven student and athlete who made an impression on and off the field. “He was always determined. What he wanted to do he would do.”
Jamie Bradshaw taught Wilson when he was in the eighth grade and her sons Talon and Tate Winings, a former and current West Rusk student respectively and both close friends of Wilson, got to join him in Kansas City.
“They’ve been FaceTiming me all day,” Bradshaw laughed as she swiped through all the photos they’d sent her. She says she considers Wilson to be like one of her own sons. “He’s worked extremely hard to get here.”
Wilson racked up 249 tackles, 60 tackles for loss and 11.5 quarterback sacks over three years playing at West Rusk. He was named District 9-3A Division-II Defensive MVP during his senior year. Over his college career, which began in Texas A&M before he transferred to Texas Tech as a sophomore, Wilson recorded 122 tackles, 33 tackles for loss and 17 sacks.
