Tyus Wilson is grabbing his degree and raising the bar to new heights in his future.
The decorated University of Nebraska–Lincoln track and field athlete is among the December class of 2025 and has his sights set on the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.
In August, after he ended his collegiate career with a Big Ten championship and gold medal in the 2025 NCAA Indoor high jump, Wilson won the USA high jump championship, securing a spot on Team USA.
And then, this fall, he had to complete his final assignment before graduation — student teaching fifth graders.
“The first few days are just lots of comments and questions, ‘how are you so tall?’” the 6-foot, 8-inch elementary education major said.
Wilson’s parents are both educators and athletes themselves, and two of his five siblings work in education in some way, even though they started college thinking they’d do something else.
“I started in elementary education, because I did some coaching and things in high school and enjoyed it, but I wondered if I’d find something else,” he said. “When I started doing practicums in the classrooms, it was apparent that I wanted to keep doing it. I really liked being around the kids and helping them learn.
“Every single classroom that I've been in has been so different in its own little way. I love being around these kids and seeing those light bulb moments. Even on the bad days, you’ll look back and see their success, and that is why you do it.”
Wilson was 10 — around fifth grade himself — the first time he tried high jump. His dad, still teaching and coaching the high school track and field team in his hometown of Sterling, Kansas, recognized his son’s natural athleticism and helped him hone it. Wilson was a standout athlete in football and basketball, too, but his heart was in high jump.
By freshman year, Wilson was clearing a seven-foot bar.
“My dad said, ‘yeah, you’re going somewhere.’”
Wilson began his junior year of high school in 2019 and was being recruited by many Division I schools. In the spring, he’d planned to make campus visits, but the COVID pandemic and ensuing shutdowns scuttled those opportunities.
Wilson worked the phones instead. Recruitment usually includes a lot of phone time with coaches, but Wilson also connected with athletes at the various programs to feel out the culture and communities within the programs.
“That was a turning point for me,” he said. “My parents were checking in and asking me what I was thinking, and getting to talk to some of the athletes, I felt like I meshed with the people in Nebraska better.”
It was a decision that served him well when, during his freshman year, he developed a stress injury in his shin, derailing his inaugural college season. A month later, his dad was diagnosed with stage III lung cancer. The double whammy shook Wilson. He internalized the stress, often isolating himself. He leaned on his Christian faith and started unpacking his “why.”
“What's my purpose in life? Where do I find my hope and my joy?” he said. “If all my joy and all my hope for the future is coming from how high I'm going to jump over a stick — that's just not going to be fulfilling. In isolation, by myself, was a good time for me to kind of reflect on my purpose.”
Despite his tendency to withdraw, his teammates, coaches and friends he met in Fellowship of Christian Athletes lifted him up and helped pull him out of the rut. Wilson realized he’d found a community in Lincoln, and that he would come out of the experience a better person.
“It was a very humbling experience, something I definitely needed to get to where I am today, and to handle it the way that I'm handling it now,” he said.
Now a Team USA athlete, Wilson is still training on campus. Following graduation, he will continue training 20 to 25 hours a week while substitute teaching when he can.
“It’s nice that I can continue having training partners, working with the team,” he said. “There’s only so much you can do to your body before it starts to talk back to you, and you can get burned out. I'm going to keep other things going so that my brain doesn't run with the same thing over and over every day.”
He and his wife, McKenna, a Husker cross country athlete who graduated in May, will stay in Omaha while McKenna finishes her Doctor of Physical Therapy at Creighton University. They hope to keep their home base in Nebraska, while traveling to Wilson’s meets — and to L.A. — for as long as they can.
“As long as it still makes sense to keep going, I will,” he said. “But it's never promised. James 4:13-15 says to not boast about the future. You don't even know what will happen tomorrow.”
