Past meets present as Lyon County’s Travis Perry plays in historic Wayland Gymnasium

Lyon County’s Travis Perry makes Kentucky high school basketball history with every point he scores.

On Saturday, the senior Kentucky signee and his teammates embraced a piece of that history by playing a game in venerable Wayland Gymnasium, home of the legendary “King” Kelly Coleman, whose state all-time scoring record of 4,337 points Perry broke last season.

“It’s really special. He’s a legend. He’s probably the biggest name in Kentucky high school basketball history,” Perry said after scoring a game-high 30 points in the Lyons’ 110-72 victory over Floyd Central in the Mountain Sports Hall of Fame Throwback Game. His running total now is 4,563 points. “Being able to play in this gym, it’s not just about it being where he played, but how neat this gym is.”

The unusual road trip measured 354 miles from Lyon County High School in Eddyville to 2501 King Kelly Coleman Highway in Wayland and 67 years to the date emblazoned on the gym’s vintage scoreboards in each end zone — 1956, Coleman’s senior year.

Earlier in the day, Perry smiled for photographs as he stood alongside Coleman’s life-size statue outside the gym. Coleman was Kentucky’s first Mr. Basketball honoree. Perry is all but a lock for this year’s honor bestowed on the game’s most outstanding senior player.

“It’s incredible to see the impact that basketball can have on people, how much it can move people, how much they can really love it,” Perry said. “From our point of view, there are people who live for Lyon County basketball. Seeing that (in Wayland) is really special and kind of puts it in perspective.”

A unique opportunity

Floyd Central represents a direct descendant of Coleman’s Wayland Wasps teams. The school closed in 1972 as it consolidated into the old Allen Central High School, which then folded into Floyd Central in 2017.

The Jaguars donned throwback Wasps uniforms last February when they took on neighboring Knott County Central at Wayland Gymnasium as part of the Kentucky High School Basketball Hall of Fame’s Glory Road Project. It was the first high school basketball game in the renovated barn since the mid-1970s. And it gave Lyon County coach Ryan Perry the idea to bring his son’s team to the mountains to soak in a once-in-a-lifetime moment.

“It exceeded expectations, actually,” Coach Perry said. “From afar, you don’t really know what to expect, but when we walked into the gym at 1:45 for shootaround, just the way it feels when you come in here is just different from anywhere I’ve ever been in.

“The crowd was great tonight. And I thought it was a great basketball game. That Floyd Central team is really good. They’re going to have a good shot to get out of the region.”

The old gym crowded to its full capacity of 600 for the girls-boys doubleheader with standing room only on the upper level where some of the Mountains Sports Hall of Fame’s memorabilia, including Coleman’s Wayland and Kentucky Wesleyan jerseys, are on display. At floor level, fans scrunched in shoulder-to-shoulder on bleachers that begin less than a foot from the court boundary. The court itself measures 4 feet narrower from sideline to sideline than today’s courts, but it runs the full length of 84 feet despite feeling a bit smaller.

The close quarters took some getting used to, but didn’t seem to impede play in either game. Lyons’ girls team beat Floyd Central 80-56 in the opener. Lyon freshman Piper Cotham scored 40 points.

Fast-paced game

Floyd Central’s boys team tried to keep up with Herald-Leader preseason No. 1 Lyon County in the first half and did so remarkably well considering the Lyons’ astonishing efficiency. The Jaguars (5-2) trailed 62-46 at the break. They came in averaging 50 points per game.

“I’m tickled with how we played tonight, especially in the first half. I thought we played hard and we met their physicality, because they are a very physical team,” Floyd Central coach Alan Joe Moore said. “I know the second half, the game got out of hand a little bit, but that’s to be expected against the No. 1 team in the state.”

Ronnie Sammons and Braden Moore led the Jaguars with 22 and 18 points, respectively.

Lyon (6-1) shot 61% from the field (44-of-72), made 14 of their 27 3-point attempts and racked up 31 assists with point guard Jackson Reddick and forward Brady Shoulders each scoring 27 points.

That’s pretty good for a team that arrived in Wayland via charter bus at 5:30 a.m. Saturday from a road game in Crittenden County the night before.

“I think it was for sure worth it,” Shoulders said. “We’ll be able to tell our kids about this … It was pretty cool to get in here.”

Perry made five 3-pointers. Lyon’s 110 points weren’t unusual. It has topped 100 points three times this season playing a break-neck style befitting their Saturday venue. Coleman’s Wayland Wasps could put up similar numbers in an era that didn’t have the 3-point shot.

More than a venue

Getting Wayland Gym in shape to be able to host high school games has been a labor of love for Wayland Mayor Jerry Fultz and others dedicated to its preservation, but the vision for the property goes well beyond its service as a game venue and home to the Mountain Sports Hall of Fame.

“It feels like I’ve been doing this all my life. It was difficult to see what happened to the school,” said Fultz, who spearheaded the purchase of the gym in 2011 after years of prodding its previous owner. “The heart (of the community) was taken out when they took the high school and the pulse just went away (when the elementary school closed in 1990). It just hit me … It occurred to me that if I don’t do something, I don’t think anybody’s going to.”

Fultz and others worked to get the public and private funding that shored the gym up and brought it into modern times with air conditioning, new scoreboards and trophy cases celebrating not only basketball but also every sport played by the historic teams of the 13th through 16th regions.

The next priority is to build a two-story addition along the north end zone to house public restrooms, locker rooms, concessions and complete the circle of the upper-level walking track. Beyond that, there are grand plans to restore the dilapidated high school building.

Progress has been slow but steady. Mountain Sports Hall of Fame organizers hope Saturday’s games help raise awareness of its mission to preserve and share the region’s sports history and create more events that bring people to the community.

“If we can expand, like we have here in the gym, and maybe one day the old high school building, repair that and create something there, I think you’ll have something that will be a jewel in eastern Kentucky,” said J.R. VanHoose, Paintsville’s 1998 Mr. Basketball, who went on to play for Marshall and is now an educator and member of the hall of fame’s board of directors.

VanHoose befriended “King” Kelly Coleman in his later years and would often visit him in the home next door to the old high school, which can be seen from the spot where his statue now stands.

“I think he’d be very proud to see that we’re actually having games here,” VanHoose said.

During Paintsville’s run in the 1996 Boys Sweet 16 state championship, VanHoose came up one rebound short of Coleman’s record of 28 in a tournament game. At the time, it wasn’t clear the record was 28 and VanHoose maintains he would have stayed in the game to at least tie it had he known. VanHoose liked to kid Coleman about that and vice versa.

What would Coleman think of Lyon County’s Perry?

“He didn’t like when his records were broken,” VanHoose acknowledged with a smile. “But I think at the same time, seeing the kid that did it playing in the gym he kind of made famous would bring him a lot of happiness.”